Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Card King here right come.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Hello, sports fans, sports collectors and all hobbyists. Welcome to
the car King Sports and Variety Show. I am your host,
the Catman, Brian katequit aka the car King. We're alive
on ABC's k M e T fourteen ninety a m
dot com. You're number one spot right here for news
and talk on the West Coast. I thank everyone for
tuning in this morning on a telephone line. I welcome
(00:37):
to the program. One of the legendary Cleveland Brown's NFL player,
he played for about nine ten years in the NFL.
I welcome in the legendary John Wooton.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
John, great to have you, Brian, thank you, appreciate it
to great morning.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Oh it's an honor.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
And just to remind our audience, John, on your phenomenal
career you played. You played ten seasons for the Browns
and Redskins, appeared in one hundred and thirty six games,
selected to play in two Pro Bowls and one Championship.
I would say you had a pretty successful career. John, Well,
we had a good time.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
We had some pretty good players with us, Paul Warfield,
the great Jim Brown, and Ernie Gleen and Lee Roy
Kelly we Mike McCormick. We had some very very good
players and we had they were phenomenal people. We had
(01:38):
some real outstanding people, Lou Groza and Mike McCormick, Bernie Parrish,
his some people that came from out of the different
parts of the country and made us a good football team.
Should have won at least three championships. Got a little
(02:00):
crossways at times and didn't get it done. But overall,
I feel, and I still feel today, we just had
some great people there with us there in Cleveland back
in those days.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Absolutely, and John.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
During your collegiate years, I know it's a long time ago,
but let's go back a little bit now. You had
the opportunity to play for about a half a dozen schools.
However you chose Colorado. What made you choose Colorado in
nineteen fifty five, My mom.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
My mother. I'm the youngest of six, coming from a
single family, single parent house, and of course my mom,
if you saw the movie Help, that's what my mom was.
Then she fell in love with coach Hugh Davidson, who
(03:06):
was recruiting me from Colorado. She loved him. She had
just felt great about him, and that's why she said,
I think he should go, and I have not regretted
that one bit. I used to tease with her that
I had a chance to go to Dartmouth and she
(03:29):
wanted to know where was Dartmouth and I showed her
on the map and she said, time, that's a long
way from home. And that told me right there that
she wanted me to go near. So that's what I did.
I'm a mama's boy, Brian. I don't try to pretend
i'm not.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
And you know, now you made history in the actually
in the foot the program's history, the collegiate program's history.
You made now you were tell me if if I'm correct,
you were the second African American player in program's history, right,
Frank Clark was the first one.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
Right, exactly right? Yes, uh huh.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
So now let's go back.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
I know it's a while ago, but let's go back
when you first got to the school.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Were you treating? How were you treated? How did your
teammates accept you?
Speaker 3 (04:22):
Excellent freshmen weren't eligible back then. And boy Dollar was
our quarterback who ended up being a wide receiver at
Green Bay. Eddie Doves and Bob Strinsky and my roommate
Bob Solanto, he's deceased now, But we just really had
(04:47):
a coming together that was unbelievable for guys coming from
different parts of the country. Bob Strensky came out of Dakotas,
and Son came out of Pueblo, Colorado, and I, you know,
Boy Dollar came out of Cheyenne, Wyoming. And but we
(05:11):
just came together as a group of guys and we
were able to win the fifty seven Orange Bowld against
Clemson in Miami. And that in itself was a story
because Clemson had sent a letter to the University of
(05:32):
Colorado saying that they the state law of South Carolina
did not allow them to play against teams that had
colored on that team. And I remember Dean Carlson, athletic
director and coach Dale Ward taking an open position that
(06:00):
if we couldn't come to play in the Aunti Bowl,
Frank Clark and I, then they would stay at home.
Colorado would stay at home. And of course we went
ahead and played them down there, and just you can
imagine what Florida was like Miami in nineteen fifty seven. Unbelievable.
(06:29):
They didn't want us to stand in the hotels. They
wanted to put me in Frank in some hotels out away,
and again Dean Carlson and coachdir Ward said, hey, all
of our guys are going to stay together or we're
not coming. And more important than anything anything, they said,
(06:58):
Frank Clark as a wide receiver, he would roomed with
the receivers, and John and Bob Serano or Offers a
defensive linemen, they were roomed together. It was unbelievable what
we had to go through. And they didn't want us
(07:20):
to stay on the beach, you know, Miami Beach. They
wanted us to stay. It was horrible, but our people
stayed strong, and of course Frank Clark ended up making
the big play in the game that caused us to
win the game. And of course Clemson tried the onside
(07:43):
kick they're laid in the game when they had pulled it,
pulled up close to us, and when they onside kicked it,
I ended up getting the on side kicked to close
the game out. So that's why I said, I've been blessed.
And you know, I can remember as a scout for
(08:09):
the Cowboys going into Clemson and Frank Howard was the
coach at Clemson at the time that we played him
in fifty seven and he was still there at Crimson
and I walked in and I signed in as John
Oldrey with the Dallas Cowboys. And he said, now that's
(08:31):
not You're not with the Cowboys. You're with that team
up in Colorado that beat me in fifty seven and
Hornible And I said, coach, you kicked the tip of
the wrong guy, you know. So, But anyway, that's the
way my life has been. I've been very, very thankful
(08:53):
for what I've been around, the people that stood for
what is right, and it helped me to be a
better person because of it.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
We're talking with the legendary Cleveland Brown's former football player
John Wooton, who's on the telephone line this morning.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
And John, you're right. You stayed strong.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
You proved your work ethics on the field. I mean,
for me, I believe you were destined. You made the
right choice choosing Colorado fifty six, fifty seven, fifty eight.
You played at your elite level. I mean, as a junior,
you were named first team All Big Seven. As a senior,
you were selected as a preseason All American, and you
earned first team All America, All America honors, and you know.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
You really proved your mark on the field.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
I'm guessing so the brown saw your your action on
the field and they went ahead.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
And wanted you.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
Yeah. I was in the fifty nine draft. I think
they was drafted in like thirty rounds, twenty thirty rounds
back in those days. And I was chosen in the
fifth round by the Browns and was just very happy
because I being a history major, I was very familiar
(10:13):
with the Cleveland brown that had related to Marion Motley
and Bill Willis and those guys that had been all
Pro and just Hall of famers there at Cleveland, and
you know, I was just excited to be drafted by them.
(10:37):
And of course, if you go back, Brian and look
in nineteen fifty seven, there were four bowl games, Rose Bowl,
Cotton Bowl, Onge Bowl, and the Sugar Bowl. Those are
(10:58):
the games, not like it is day. And in those
four games there were black players in all four of
those games. Now, Jet magazine carried this. I don't know
if you're familiar with Jet magazine, but there was a
(11:19):
magazine that was way back in those days that for
blacks and colors and negroes whatever. Want the colors, you
know from that in all four of those games had
blacks in nineteen fifty seven, which was historical in itself.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
Unbelievable. So John nineteen.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
So when you first get to the Cleveland Browns, you're
joining a team that had the great Jimmy Brown.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
What was your first impression of Jim Brown?
Speaker 3 (12:00):
Well, remember I mentioned the fifty seven Bowl games. Jim
had was in that Jet magazine because he had scored
all twenty seven of Syracuse points in that game here
(12:22):
at the Cotton Bowl. I think they played TCU. I
think it was don't hold me to that, but they
lost the game twenty seven, but Jim scored all twenty
seven points. And the thing that probably made all of
this even more so was Jim. That was about seven
(12:47):
to eight of us black rookies all in the same
moon there in the dormitory, and that him college in Ohio.
Every single morning when you woke up, Jim was sitting
(13:10):
in that room and he would go over what the
day was going to be like, to practice even to
what eating in the dorm. Don't overload your plates and
act as if you haven't had your food before. If
(13:32):
you want more, go back, but don't just really given
us the seven eight rookies that were all in the
same room there at him College. But just the leadership
of what he was about. A couple of guys did
(13:53):
not have coats to go over us when they were
playing six exhibition games as we called them. We called
them preseason now, but we call them exhibition. A couple
of guys didn't have coats. Jim would go get take
them down to his shop there in Cleveland where he
(14:14):
shopped and bought them coats to wear it to the games.
Because if he watched and looked at us back in
those days, we were always in cold and tie when
we were on the road and at home. That's the
way we went to the games. Okay, so, but that's
(14:40):
the kind of guy, the leadership that Jim Brown was about,
and he exhibited a leadership all through practice, locker room
meetings of how we were going to do with the
Browns way, the Brown's way. And we were one of
(15:06):
the few teams at home games that stayed in the hotel.
We stayed downtown in the hotel. Saturday, we gathered for dinner.
After dinner, we'd all go to a movie together. They're
downtown Cleveland and come back to the hotel. That's the
(15:31):
way Cleveland Browns and we were as a team, we
were a little different. We didn't play any exhibition games
in the South because the teams that traveled in the South,
their black players had to stay with black families. And
(15:54):
I'll be very honest with you, Ryan, I'm not sure
I would have had now that very well, I'm coming
into a city, I don't know the family, and I'm
supposed to go sleep in their home. That that would
have been a very big bother to me. And fortunate.
(16:22):
Even when Dallas came into the league, there was only
one hotel that black and white could stay in here
in Dallas, and there was the Marty and I love
feel of the Mardying out there. That's where we all
stayed and that's where the Round stayed every year that
(16:46):
until they integrated the the hotels and everything here in Dallas.
So I mean, yeah, that's all background. H huh.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Yeah, I mean that's incredible to hear.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
I mean, I worked a little bit in the hotel business,
so for me, that's really it's incredible to hear to
hear that. But John, I mean you you've been in
the game of football for many years as a player,
front office person, scout, et cetera. Uh, in your eyes,
do you think Jimmy Brown was the greatest running back
to ever play the game?
Speaker 3 (17:20):
Well, you said think. I know, from a scout point
of view, from a player's point of view, there's no
question that Gym is the greatest player of all time.
And I'm going to say it right here to you.
There's no reason the league is doing a disservice to
(17:41):
this man. What the leadership is, what Jim Brown brought
to the table. Just as baseball honor Jacket Robinson, basketball
and honor Bill Russell, the NFL's and honored Jim Brown
(18:01):
retiring his number from the league. He deserves that honor.
That's where I am on that, not because he's my teammate,
but because of what he was about and what he
did for this league.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
Go ahead, Yeah, And you were known, you know, as
a guard to protect Jimmy Brown on the field. So
you really, I mean, you guys played together, and I
see some great photographs of you, Muhammad Ali, Bill Russell.
I mean, so you guys, I mean you were close.
(18:43):
I gather you guys were close exactly.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
You know, when you look at that picture, and it's
a great picture. And I'm honored, you know Jim, it said,
and I just give you two examples of where he
was in that day in his mind. Go back to
the sixty three march on Washington. Them says to me,
(19:13):
we're not going to march and we're not going to
demonstrate as athletes and so forth. But we got to
put together an organization to show this country that we
care about it, that show our people that we care
about them. And we got to have an organization. And
(19:35):
he put together at the organization called Nego Industrial Economic Union,
and with the whole purpose of showing to the nation
that we cared about what was going on at that
time and we would take and education as our purpose
(20:03):
for existence across this country. That is the organization. And
when Jim called, and I was executive director of that organization,
we had offices in six cities, headquartered in Cleveland, in Harlem, Washington,
(20:28):
d C. Kansas City, Cleveland, Glunn, and Los Angeles. And
when he called that day back in nineteen sixty seven,
it says to me, Boots, I just got off the line.
He was in LA I just got off the phone
(20:50):
with Herbert Muhammad, the champ did not step forward in Houston.
He needs our help. Call the guys on a meeting
in Cleveland Saturday night, tell the guys we need them.
(21:14):
And that's how that group came together. The great thing
about it, Brian, that still resonates in my mind today.
Not one single guy said, hey man, this might be
a little difficult. We stepping out here on Front Street
and you know, somebody might end up losing their guys.
(21:37):
And that statement never came up, nor did a statement
who's gonna pay for it? They simply said where we're
gonna stay, where we're gonna stay. So you're gonna stay
at the Hilton Hotel the ninth and you and that's
(22:01):
we met with the Champ over and over. He said openly,
I do not want to be in with an organization
that kills people. If I have to go to tail
or go totail, because they had taken away his championship
(22:22):
and his passport wow, and they had branded him a
draft dodge, which was the federal offense at that time
if you didn't go to the service and this practice.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
And John and John, I have about three four minutes left.
But since we're on this topic. I don't want to
get into anything political, but what's your opinion on the
climate of our country today? Just just your your thoughts
on the climate of our country today.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
Well, I agree with your own politics. I don't get
involved in politics as well. My whole feeling is this,
This is a great country. I you're talking to a
guy that is just head over heels, thankful for the
life that this country had given me. And because of that,
(23:18):
I think that we as a people And just watching
the shows last night makes his fireworks and PBS had
a White House, you know show for the July the
Independent show. When you look at those, both of those,
(23:42):
it was just outstanding. And that is what we have
to do as a people. We must reach out to
each other. It doesn't matter color or religion or politics,
but the thing that we are as a nation, as
(24:02):
a nation, human dignity, human respect is what we have
to be about. No matter what the politics are, no
matter live in faith or whatever. We must look at
each other and say, we are a nation of people.
(24:25):
Nowhere else in this world is there a country like
the United States of America. We love it.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
I mean all I can say, John is amen to that. Okay,
and you know, I have a couple of minutes left.
I mean, I wanted to get into your first Super
Bowl appearance, your experience, you know quickly, how did you
how did you take that? Did your first Super Bowl appearance?
Speaker 3 (25:03):
Well, we we had been in with Cleveland. We'd won
the championship in sixty four and lost to Green Bay
in sixty five, and then I was an agent, and
then we had a chance with tex Ram inviting me
to come busits with them here in Dallas, which is
(25:26):
what brought me to Dallas. I'm attection by birth, but
we came here and the first quote super Bowl was
super Bowl for twelve I guess it was Denver. And
it is nothing like it. There's nothing like it in
(25:49):
the world. You know, when you are in the Super Bowl,
your team is in the Super Bowl, you at the
top of the list. Everywhere you go, You've got police
has scored and everything, and it is just that is
the Super Bowl is, no question, to the greatest sport
you've been in our country, and that's why it's so special.
(26:14):
I've been blessed to have been in the Super Bowl
with Dallas, with Baltimore, and of course winning the championship
there in Cleveland. So that's I can truthfully say I'm blessed.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
Yeah, and you know I have like thirty seconds left,
you know, I hope. I wish you could come back,
maybe do a part two in the near future. I
love to have you back. We didn't even talk about
your Pro Bowl appearances super Bowl bough it was thirty five.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
Was the next one that you appeared in.
Speaker 3 (26:50):
Yes, yes, The other said, We've been blessed and it
will keep you posted. We're going to be doing some
things here in terms of showcasing why we need to
come together. And I'm not talking about politics at all.
I'm just talking about us as a nation, as as people.
(27:12):
I mean, we got the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence.
Look at what we've done when I say we talking
about our country, and that's why it is so meaningful
that we got to participate and do the things that
we should do as citizens to show the world that
(27:35):
we are United States of America.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
John, great job. I really appreciate your time this morning.
The great football player former Cleveland Brown John Wooton Until
next week, Happy collecting to all.
Speaker 4 (27:53):
Thank you, Sis compens
Card King here right come.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Hello, sports fans, sports collectors and all hobbyists. Welcome to
the car King Sports and Variety Show. I am your host,
the Catman, Brian katequit aka the car King. We're alive
on ABC's k M e T fourteen ninety a m
dot com. You're number one spot right here for news
and talk on the West Coast. I thank everyone for
tuning in this morning on a telephone line. I welcome
(00:37):
to the program. One of the legendary Cleveland Brown's NFL player,
he played for about nine ten years in the NFL.
I welcome in the legendary John Wooton.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
John, great to have you, Brian, thank you, appreciate it
to great morning.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Oh it's an honor.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
And just to remind our audience, John, on your phenomenal
career you played. You played ten seasons for the Browns
and Redskins, appeared in one hundred and thirty six games,
selected to play in two Pro Bowls and one Championship.
I would say you had a pretty successful career. John, Well,
we had a good time.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
We had some pretty good players with us, Paul Warfield,
the great Jim Brown, and Ernie Gleen and Lee Roy
Kelly we Mike McCormick. We had some very very good
players and we had they were phenomenal people. We had
(01:38):
some real outstanding people, Lou Groza and Mike McCormick, Bernie Parrish,
his some people that came from out of the different
parts of the country and made us a good football team.
Should have won at least three championships. Got a little
(02:00):
crossways at times and didn't get it done. But overall,
I feel, and I still feel today, we just had
some great people there with us there in Cleveland back
in those days.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Absolutely, and John.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
During your collegiate years, I know it's a long time ago,
but let's go back a little bit now. You had
the opportunity to play for about a half a dozen schools.
However you chose Colorado. What made you choose Colorado in
nineteen fifty five, My mom.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
My mother. I'm the youngest of six, coming from a
single family, single parent house, and of course my mom,
if you saw the movie Help, that's what my mom was.
Then she fell in love with coach Hugh Davidson, who
(03:06):
was recruiting me from Colorado. She loved him. She had
just felt great about him, and that's why she said,
I think he should go, and I have not regretted
that one bit. I used to tease with her that
I had a chance to go to Dartmouth and she
(03:29):
wanted to know where was Dartmouth and I showed her
on the map and she said, time, that's a long
way from home. And that told me right there that
she wanted me to go near. So that's what I did.
I'm a mama's boy, Brian. I don't try to pretend
i'm not.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
And you know, now you made history in the actually
in the foot the program's history, the collegiate program's history.
You made now you were tell me if if I'm correct,
you were the second African American player in program's history, right,
Frank Clark was the first one.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
Right, exactly right? Yes, uh huh.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
So now let's go back.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
I know it's a while ago, but let's go back
when you first got to the school.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Were you treating? How were you treated? How did your
teammates accept you?
Speaker 3 (04:22):
Excellent freshmen weren't eligible back then. And boy Dollar was
our quarterback who ended up being a wide receiver at
Green Bay. Eddie Doves and Bob Strinsky and my roommate
Bob Solanto, he's deceased now, But we just really had
(04:47):
a coming together that was unbelievable for guys coming from
different parts of the country. Bob Strensky came out of Dakotas,
and Son came out of Pueblo, Colorado, and I, you know,
Boy Dollar came out of Cheyenne, Wyoming. And but we
(05:11):
just came together as a group of guys and we
were able to win the fifty seven Orange Bowld against
Clemson in Miami. And that in itself was a story
because Clemson had sent a letter to the University of
(05:32):
Colorado saying that they the state law of South Carolina
did not allow them to play against teams that had
colored on that team. And I remember Dean Carlson, athletic
director and coach Dale Ward taking an open position that
(06:00):
if we couldn't come to play in the Aunti Bowl,
Frank Clark and I, then they would stay at home.
Colorado would stay at home. And of course we went
ahead and played them down there, and just you can
imagine what Florida was like Miami in nineteen fifty seven. Unbelievable.
(06:29):
They didn't want us to stand in the hotels. They
wanted to put me in Frank in some hotels out away,
and again Dean Carlson and coachdir Ward said, hey, all
of our guys are going to stay together or we're
not coming. And more important than anything anything, they said,
(06:58):
Frank Clark as a wide receiver, he would roomed with
the receivers, and John and Bob Serano or Offers a
defensive linemen, they were roomed together. It was unbelievable what
we had to go through. And they didn't want us
(07:20):
to stay on the beach, you know, Miami Beach. They
wanted us to stay. It was horrible, but our people
stayed strong, and of course Frank Clark ended up making
the big play in the game that caused us to
win the game. And of course Clemson tried the onside
(07:43):
kick they're laid in the game when they had pulled it,
pulled up close to us, and when they onside kicked it,
I ended up getting the on side kicked to close
the game out. So that's why I said, I've been blessed.
And you know, I can remember as a scout for
(08:09):
the Cowboys going into Clemson and Frank Howard was the
coach at Clemson at the time that we played him
in fifty seven and he was still there at Crimson
and I walked in and I signed in as John
Oldrey with the Dallas Cowboys. And he said, now that's
(08:31):
not You're not with the Cowboys. You're with that team
up in Colorado that beat me in fifty seven and
Hornible And I said, coach, you kicked the tip of
the wrong guy, you know. So, But anyway, that's the
way my life has been. I've been very, very thankful
(08:53):
for what I've been around, the people that stood for
what is right, and it helped me to be a
better person because of it.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
We're talking with the legendary Cleveland Brown's former football player
John Wooton, who's on the telephone line this morning.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
And John, you're right. You stayed strong.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
You proved your work ethics on the field. I mean,
for me, I believe you were destined. You made the
right choice choosing Colorado fifty six, fifty seven, fifty eight.
You played at your elite level. I mean, as a junior,
you were named first team All Big Seven. As a senior,
you were selected as a preseason All American, and you
earned first team All America, All America honors, and you know.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
You really proved your mark on the field.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
I'm guessing so the brown saw your your action on
the field and they went ahead.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
And wanted you.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
Yeah. I was in the fifty nine draft. I think
they was drafted in like thirty rounds, twenty thirty rounds
back in those days. And I was chosen in the
fifth round by the Browns and was just very happy
because I being a history major, I was very familiar
(10:13):
with the Cleveland brown that had related to Marion Motley
and Bill Willis and those guys that had been all
Pro and just Hall of famers there at Cleveland, and
you know, I was just excited to be drafted by them.
(10:37):
And of course, if you go back, Brian and look
in nineteen fifty seven, there were four bowl games, Rose Bowl,
Cotton Bowl, Onge Bowl, and the Sugar Bowl. Those are
(10:58):
the games, not like it is day. And in those
four games there were black players in all four of
those games. Now, Jet magazine carried this. I don't know
if you're familiar with Jet magazine, but there was a
(11:19):
magazine that was way back in those days that for
blacks and colors and negroes whatever. Want the colors, you
know from that in all four of those games had
blacks in nineteen fifty seven, which was historical in itself.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
Unbelievable. So John nineteen.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
So when you first get to the Cleveland Browns, you're
joining a team that had the great Jimmy Brown.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
What was your first impression of Jim Brown?
Speaker 3 (12:00):
Well, remember I mentioned the fifty seven Bowl games. Jim
had was in that Jet magazine because he had scored
all twenty seven of Syracuse points in that game here
(12:22):
at the Cotton Bowl. I think they played TCU. I
think it was don't hold me to that, but they
lost the game twenty seven, but Jim scored all twenty
seven points. And the thing that probably made all of
this even more so was Jim. That was about seven
(12:47):
to eight of us black rookies all in the same
moon there in the dormitory, and that him college in Ohio.
Every single morning when you woke up, Jim was sitting
(13:10):
in that room and he would go over what the
day was going to be like, to practice even to
what eating in the dorm. Don't overload your plates and
act as if you haven't had your food before. If
(13:32):
you want more, go back, but don't just really given
us the seven eight rookies that were all in the
same room there at him College. But just the leadership
of what he was about. A couple of guys did
(13:53):
not have coats to go over us when they were
playing six exhibition games as we called them. We called
them preseason now, but we call them exhibition. A couple
of guys didn't have coats. Jim would go get take
them down to his shop there in Cleveland where he
(14:14):
shopped and bought them coats to wear it to the games.
Because if he watched and looked at us back in
those days, we were always in cold and tie when
we were on the road and at home. That's the
way we went to the games. Okay, so, but that's
(14:40):
the kind of guy, the leadership that Jim Brown was about,
and he exhibited a leadership all through practice, locker room
meetings of how we were going to do with the
Browns way, the Brown's way. And we were one of
(15:06):
the few teams at home games that stayed in the hotel.
We stayed downtown in the hotel. Saturday, we gathered for dinner.
After dinner, we'd all go to a movie together. They're
downtown Cleveland and come back to the hotel. That's the
(15:31):
way Cleveland Browns and we were as a team, we
were a little different. We didn't play any exhibition games
in the South because the teams that traveled in the South,
their black players had to stay with black families. And
(15:54):
I'll be very honest with you, Ryan, I'm not sure
I would have had now that very well, I'm coming
into a city, I don't know the family, and I'm
supposed to go sleep in their home. That that would
have been a very big bother to me. And fortunate.
(16:22):
Even when Dallas came into the league, there was only
one hotel that black and white could stay in here
in Dallas, and there was the Marty and I love
feel of the Mardying out there. That's where we all
stayed and that's where the Round stayed every year that
(16:46):
until they integrated the the hotels and everything here in Dallas.
So I mean, yeah, that's all background. H huh.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Yeah, I mean that's incredible to hear.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
I mean, I worked a little bit in the hotel business,
so for me, that's really it's incredible to hear to
hear that. But John, I mean you you've been in
the game of football for many years as a player,
front office person, scout, et cetera. Uh, in your eyes,
do you think Jimmy Brown was the greatest running back
to ever play the game?
Speaker 3 (17:20):
Well, you said think. I know, from a scout point
of view, from a player's point of view, there's no
question that Gym is the greatest player of all time.
And I'm going to say it right here to you.
There's no reason the league is doing a disservice to
(17:41):
this man. What the leadership is, what Jim Brown brought
to the table. Just as baseball honor Jacket Robinson, basketball
and honor Bill Russell, the NFL's and honored Jim Brown
(18:01):
retiring his number from the league. He deserves that honor.
That's where I am on that, not because he's my teammate,
but because of what he was about and what he
did for this league.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
Go ahead, Yeah, And you were known, you know, as
a guard to protect Jimmy Brown on the field. So
you really, I mean, you guys played together, and I
see some great photographs of you, Muhammad Ali, Bill Russell.
I mean, so you guys, I mean you were close.
(18:43):
I gather you guys were close exactly.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
You know, when you look at that picture, and it's
a great picture. And I'm honored, you know Jim, it said,
and I just give you two examples of where he
was in that day in his mind. Go back to
the sixty three march on Washington. Them says to me,
(19:13):
we're not going to march and we're not going to
demonstrate as athletes and so forth. But we got to
put together an organization to show this country that we
care about it, that show our people that we care
about them. And we got to have an organization. And
(19:35):
he put together at the organization called Nego Industrial Economic Union,
and with the whole purpose of showing to the nation
that we cared about what was going on at that
time and we would take and education as our purpose
(20:03):
for existence across this country. That is the organization. And
when Jim called, and I was executive director of that organization,
we had offices in six cities, headquartered in Cleveland, in Harlem, Washington,
(20:28):
d C. Kansas City, Cleveland, Glunn, and Los Angeles. And
when he called that day back in nineteen sixty seven,
it says to me, Boots, I just got off the line.
He was in LA I just got off the phone
(20:50):
with Herbert Muhammad, the champ did not step forward in Houston.
He needs our help. Call the guys on a meeting
in Cleveland Saturday night, tell the guys we need them.
(21:14):
And that's how that group came together. The great thing
about it, Brian, that still resonates in my mind today.
Not one single guy said, hey man, this might be
a little difficult. We stepping out here on Front Street
and you know, somebody might end up losing their guys.
(21:37):
And that statement never came up, nor did a statement
who's gonna pay for it? They simply said where we're
gonna stay, where we're gonna stay. So you're gonna stay
at the Hilton Hotel the ninth and you and that's
(22:01):
we met with the Champ over and over. He said openly,
I do not want to be in with an organization
that kills people. If I have to go to tail
or go totail, because they had taken away his championship
(22:22):
and his passport wow, and they had branded him a
draft dodge, which was the federal offense at that time
if you didn't go to the service and this practice.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
And John and John, I have about three four minutes left.
But since we're on this topic. I don't want to
get into anything political, but what's your opinion on the
climate of our country today? Just just your your thoughts
on the climate of our country today.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
Well, I agree with your own politics. I don't get
involved in politics as well. My whole feeling is this,
This is a great country. I you're talking to a
guy that is just head over heels, thankful for the
life that this country had given me. And because of that,
(23:18):
I think that we as a people And just watching
the shows last night makes his fireworks and PBS had
a White House, you know show for the July the
Independent show. When you look at those, both of those,
(23:42):
it was just outstanding. And that is what we have
to do as a people. We must reach out to
each other. It doesn't matter color or religion or politics,
but the thing that we are as a nation, as
(24:02):
a nation, human dignity, human respect is what we have
to be about. No matter what the politics are, no
matter live in faith or whatever. We must look at
each other and say, we are a nation of people.
(24:25):
Nowhere else in this world is there a country like
the United States of America. We love it.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
I mean all I can say, John is amen to that. Okay,
and you know, I have a couple of minutes left.
I mean, I wanted to get into your first Super
Bowl appearance, your experience, you know quickly, how did you
how did you take that? Did your first Super Bowl appearance?
Speaker 3 (25:03):
Well, we we had been in with Cleveland. We'd won
the championship in sixty four and lost to Green Bay
in sixty five, and then I was an agent, and
then we had a chance with tex Ram inviting me
to come busits with them here in Dallas, which is
(25:26):
what brought me to Dallas. I'm attection by birth, but
we came here and the first quote super Bowl was
super Bowl for twelve I guess it was Denver. And
it is nothing like it. There's nothing like it in
(25:49):
the world. You know, when you are in the Super Bowl,
your team is in the Super Bowl, you at the
top of the list. Everywhere you go, You've got police
has scored and everything, and it is just that is
the Super Bowl is, no question, to the greatest sport
you've been in our country, and that's why it's so special.
(26:14):
I've been blessed to have been in the Super Bowl
with Dallas, with Baltimore, and of course winning the championship
there in Cleveland. So that's I can truthfully say I'm blessed.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
Yeah, and you know I have like thirty seconds left,
you know, I hope. I wish you could come back,
maybe do a part two in the near future. I
love to have you back. We didn't even talk about
your Pro Bowl appearances super Bowl bough it was thirty five.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
Was the next one that you appeared in.
Speaker 3 (26:50):
Yes, yes, The other said, We've been blessed and it
will keep you posted. We're going to be doing some
things here in terms of showcasing why we need to
come together. And I'm not talking about politics at all.
I'm just talking about us as a nation, as as people.
(27:12):
I mean, we got the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence.
Look at what we've done when I say we talking
about our country, and that's why it is so meaningful
that we got to participate and do the things that
we should do as citizens to show the world that
(27:35):
we are United States of America.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
John, great job. I really appreciate your time this morning.
The great football player former Cleveland Brown John Wooton Until
next week, Happy collecting to all.
Speaker 4 (27:53):
Thank you, Sis compens
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