HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Gary James Collins (born August 20, 1940) is a former
American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...
wide receiver and punter who played for the
Cleveland Browns The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. Named after original coach and co-founder Paul Brown, they compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conferenc ...
from 1962 to 1971.


Early life

Born in Williamstown, Pennsylvania, Collins attended Williamstown High School and was recruited by the
University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of ...
. During his three seasons (1959–61) with the Terrapins, he established a number of school records, and left his mark on the
Atlantic Coast Conference The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is a collegiate athletic conference located in the eastern United States. Headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina, the ACC's fifteen member universities compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Assoc ...
record book as well. In 1961, he finished eighth in the Heisman Trophy balloting.


NFL career

The Browns chose Collins with the fourth draft pick in the 1962 NFL Draft and immediately made him the starting punter, while also using him as a reserve for veteran receiver Ray Renfro. In 1963, he moved into the starting lineup and led the team with 43 receptions and teamed with quarterback Frank Ryan to pace the league with 13
touchdown A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchdown by advancing the ball into the opponent's end zone. In Amer ...
s catches. The latter mark broke a team record of nine, established by Dante Lavelli in 1947. The following year, rookie
Paul Warfield Paul Dryden Warfield (born November 28, 1942) is an American former professional football player who was a wide receiver in the National Football League (NFL) from 1964 to 1977 for the Cleveland Browns and Miami Dolphins, except for a year i ...
became Ryan's top receiver, but Collins developed a knack for coming through in the clutch. The first instance came in the season's second game, when he caught a fourth-down pass from Ryan to set up a go-ahead touchdown against the St. Louis Cardinals. Saving the best for last, Collins sparkled in the 1964 NFL championship game, when he was on the receiving end of three touchdown passes from Ryan and won the game's
Most Valuable Player In team sports, a most valuable player award, abbreviated 'MVP award', is an honor typically bestowed upon an individual (or individuals, in the instance of a tie) whose individual performance is the greatest in an entire league, for a partic ...
award in the 27–0 upset over the
Baltimore Colts The Baltimore Colts were a professional American football team that played in Baltimore from its founding in 1953 to 1984. The team now plays in Indianapolis, as the Indianapolis Colts. The team was named for Baltimore's history of horse breed ...
. Building on the spectacular ending to that season, Collins followed with two more excellent campaigns in which he caught more than 50 passes and again finished in double digits in touchdown receptions. In 1965, he led the Browns with 50 receptions for 884 yards, and his average of 46.7 yards per punt topped the NFL. His 56 catches for 946 yards again led the team in 1966. In 1967, Collins saw his numbers for both receiving and punting drop, but he made his second straight
Pro Bowl The National Football League All-Star Game (1939–1942), Pro Bowl (1951–2022), or Pro Bowl Games (starting in 2023) is an annual event held by the National Football League (NFL) featuring the league's star players. The format has changed thro ...
appearance. The following year, Collins gave up his punting duties, but suffered a severe shoulder injury in the October 5 game against the
Pittsburgh Steelers The Pittsburgh Steelers are a professional American football team based in Pittsburgh. The Steelers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) North division. Founded in , the Steel ...
. The injury kept him out of action until the final week of the regular season and limited him to just nine receptions. While he made the most of those catches by averaging over 25 yards per grab, Collins caught no touchdown passes for the only time in his career. Collins bounced back in 1969 with 54 catches and 11 touchdown receptions and helped the Browns reach the NFL Championship game for the fourth time in six seasons. In 1970, the punishing life of an NFL receiver began to catch up with him as he suffered from a number of rib injuries that limited him to 26 catches. In the team's December 12 game against the
Dallas Cowboys The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Cowboys compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East divis ...
, played in a driving rainstorm which turned the Cleveland Stadium surface into mud, a costly fumble by Collins after being hit in the ribs stopped a key drive and played a role in the team's 6–2 loss, a defeat that helped keep the team out of the postseason. The ascension of new head coach
Nick Skorich Nicholas Leonard Skorich (June 26, 1921 – October 2, 2004) was an American football player and coach. Skorich played guard at Bellaire High School and the University of Cincinnati before joining the United States Navy in 1943. After the end ...
in 1971 would eventually develop into a personality conflict between Collins and the new mentor. After just 15 receptions that year, Collins announced during the offseason that he would retire unless he was traded to either the
Washington Redskins The Washington Commanders are a professional American football team based in the Washington metropolitan area. The Commanders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) ...
or
New York Jets The New York Jets are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Jets compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. The ...
.


Post-NFL career

When neither team was able to work out a deal, Collins retired and took an assistant coaching position with Lebanon Valley College in Annville, Pennsylvania. He signed as a player-coach with the WFL's Florida Blazers in 1974, but sustained a broken collarbone in preseason and saw only limited action later in the season, recording 3 catches. After then leaving football altogether, he worked as an
insurance Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to hedge ...
agent in Hershey, Pennsylvania, and did some broadcasting. Married in 1980, Collins has two children and six grandchildren.


Legacy

Collins retired with 339 receptions for 5,299 yards and 70 touchdowns. He remains the Browns' leader in career receiving touchdowns, and his reception total ranks second behind that of Ozzie Newsome. As a punter, he averaged 41.0 yards per attempt. Those numbers have led some of Collins' supporters to launch a quiet campaign for election to the
Pro Football Hall of Fame The Pro Football Hall of Fame is the hall of fame for professional American football, located in Canton, Ohio. Opened on September 7, , the Hall of Fame enshrines exceptional figures in the sport of professional football, including players, coa ...
, citing the similarities between Collins' career numbers and those of
Pittsburgh Steelers The Pittsburgh Steelers are a professional American football team based in Pittsburgh. The Steelers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) North division. Founded in , the Steel ...
wideout
Lynn Swann Lynn Curtis Swann (born March 7, 1952) is an American former American football, football player, broadcaster, politician, and athletic director, best known for his association with the University of Southern California and the Pittsburgh Steelers ...
. Gary Collins is a member of The Pigskin Club Of Washington, D.C. National Collegiate All-American Football Players Honor Roll. In 2016, the
Professional Football Researchers Association The Professional Football Researchers Association (PFRA) is an organization of researchers whose mission is to preserve and, in some cases, reconstruct professional football history. It was founded on June 22, 1979 in Canton, Ohio by writer/hist ...
named Collins to the PRFA Hall of Very Good Class of 2016


References


Other sources

* Grossi, Tony (2004). ''Tales from the Browns Sideline''. (Champaign, Ill.): Sports Publishing LLC. * Stewart, Todd, ed. (2004) ''Cleveland Browns 2004 Media Guide''. New York: National Communications Group. * Carroll, Bob, et al. (1999) ''Total Football II''. New York: HarperCollins. . {{DEFAULTSORT:Collins, Gary 1940 births Living people All-American college football players American football wide receivers American football punters Florida Blazers players Maryland Terrapins football players Cleveland Browns players Eastern Conference Pro Bowl players People from Dauphin County, Pennsylvania Players of American football from Pennsylvania