Len Ford
Leonard Guy Ford Jr. was an American professional football player who was an offensive and defensive end from 1948 to 1958. He played college football for the University of Michigan and professional football for the Los Angeles Dons, Cleveland Browns and Green Bay Packers. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1976 and the University of Michigan Athletic Hall of Honor in 1996.
Ford was an all-city athlete at his high school in Washington, D.C., and attended Morgan State University after graduating in 1944. After a brief stint in the U.S. Navy the following year, he transferred to Michigan, where he played on the Michigan Wolverines football team as an offensive and defensive end. He played for Michigan from 1945 to 1947 and was a member of the undefeated 1947 team that has been selected as the best team in the history of Michigan football.
Ford was passed over in all 32 rounds of the 1948 NFL draft, but was selected by the Los Angeles Dons of the rival All-America Football Conference, where he played for two seasons as an offensive and defensive end. After the AAFC dissolved in 1949, Ford played eight seasons as a defensive end for the Cleveland Browns. During those eight seasons, the Browns advanced to the NFL championship game seven times, won three championships, and allowed the fewest points in the NFL six times. Ford was one of the dominant defensive players of his era, having a rare combination of size and speed that helped him disrupt opposing offenses and force fumbles. He was selected as a first-team All-NFL player five times and played in four Pro Bowls. He was also one of two defensive ends named to the National Football League 1950s All-Decade Team.
Ford was traded to the Packers in 1958, but played there just one season before retiring. He worked for the Detroit recreation department from 1963 to 1972. He suffered a heart attack and died in 1972 at age 46.
Early life
Ford was born in Washington, D.C., in 1926. His father, Leonard G. Ford Sr., was a Virginia native who was employed as a "skilled laborer" by the federal government in 1920 and as a printing operator at the Government Printing Office in 1940. His mother, Geraldine, was also a Virginia native who worked as a social worker in a settlement house in 1940. Ford had an older sister, Anita, and a younger brother, Claude.As a teenager, Ford attended Armstrong Technical High School, where he played football, basketball and baseball. As a high school athlete, he aspired to play fullback in football, but he later recalled, "I started to grow, and I grew right out of the backfield." He was chosen by local sportswriters as an all-city athlete in all three sports in his senior year, and he served as captain of all three teams for one season each.
After he graduated in 1944, Theodore McIntyre, Ford's high school football coach, suggested he attend Morgan State University, a historically black college in Baltimore, Maryland. Ford played for the Morgan State Bears football team for one year under head coach Edward P. Hurt, while also starring as the center on the school's basketball team. The basketball team won its league's championship in 1944. Ford left Morgan State and joined the U.S. Navy in 1945, but stayed in the service only briefly as World War II came to an end.
College career
After the war, Ford transferred to the University of Michigan to play football in a bigger program than Morgan State's. He wanted to "get a shot at playing in the Rose Bowl one day", he later said. While attending Michigan, he was a member of Omega Psi Phi, an all-black fraternity whose membership also included Bob Mann, another Michigan end who went on to play in the NFL.1945 and 1946 seasons
In 1945, Ford was Michigan's tallest player at and 190 pounds. Ford played as a backup at the left end for the 1945 Michigan football team that compiled a 7–3 win–loss record under head coach Fritz Crisler. When Ford caught a pass from Wally Teninga in Michigan's 26–0 victory over Minnesota in early November 1945, The New York Times took note and referred to Ford as "a six-foot, five-inch giant."As a junior in 1946, Ford had gained 16 pounds and weighed 206 pounds. That year, Ford and Bob Mann shared the left end position, with Ford starting four games and Mann two. The 1946 Michigan team finished with a 6–2–1 record. During the 1946 season, Ford established himself as a tenacious tackler on defense and was also a receiving threat as an end on offense. In the first game of the 1946 season, a 21–0 victory over Indiana, Ford recovered an Indiana fumble and then scored the game's second touchdown on a 17-yard pass from Pete Elliott, "leaping high in the air to grab the pigskin with one hand from the two backs guarding him in the end zone." Later in the season, he scored a touchdown against Wisconsin on an end-around, a play Michigan employed frequently with Ford. Ford also developed a reputation for forcing opponent fumbles with his technique of "punching at the ball".
1947 season
By 1947, Ford had grown to 215 pounds, 25 pounds heavier than he had weighed in 1945. Led by All-American halfbacks Bob Chappuis and Bump Elliott, the undefeated 1947 Michigan team has been selected as the best team in the history of Michigan football. Nicknamed the "Mad Magicians", the Michigan squad finished with a 10–0 record, capped by a 49–0 victory in the Rose Bowl over USC on New Year's Day. Ford started only one game in 1947, as Bob Mann was the starting left end in eight of Michigan's 10 games. Even with reduced playing time, Ford caught a 35-yard touchdown pass in the first game of the season and had two receptions for 82 yards in the 55–0 win over Michigan State. He scored again in a game against Pitt. Ford's defensive performance was credited with shutting down Ohio State in the final game of the 1947 season. After the Wolverines' 21–0 victory over the Buckeyes, The Michigan Daily wrote:For the defense it was big Len Ford, who sparked a forward wall that never let the Bucks threaten. His end was practically impregnable. He smashed Ohio interference time and again, he continually harassed Dick Slager and Pandel Savic, the Ohio passers, and he made life miserable for Pete Perini, blocking one punt and rushing the Buckeye punter on nearly all of his kicks.
Michigan finished first in the AP Poll and won the 1947 college football national championship, sharing the honor with Notre Dame, which had been first in the polls before the Rose Bowl. After the 1947 season, the Associated Press selected Ford as a third-team All-American end and named teammate Bob Mann as a second-team All-American end. The AP also named Ford a second-team all-Big Nine Conference end. In the summer of 1948, he accepted an invitation to play for the college team in the College All-Star Game, a now-defunct annual matchup between the champion of the professional National Football League and a selection of the country's best college players.
Professional career
Los Angeles Dons
Despite his accomplishments in college, Ford was passed over in all 32 rounds of the 1948 NFL draft during a time when most professional teams did not employ blacks. He was selected, however, by the Los Angeles Dons of the rival All-America Football Conference in the third round of the 1948 AAFC Draft. He signed with the Dons in April 1948.Playing as a right end opposite Joe Aguirre, Ford had 31 catches for 598 yards and seven touchdowns in 1948. As was the case at Michigan, Ford also worked on defense and was one of the AAFC's most successful pass-rushers. The Dons, meanwhile, finished the regular season with a 7–7 record, good for third place in the AAFC West. Ford played basketball in the off-season for the New York Renaissance, an all-black professional team in the National Basketball League. He did not play basketball at Michigan, the Big Ten Conference having maintained racial segregation of basketball until 1950.
Ford had 36 catches for 577 yards and one touchdown in 1949, while the Dons fell to 4–8. The AAFC struggled financially during Ford's time with the Dons. Its teams competed with NFL franchises for fans' attention and player talent – the Dons shared a city with the NFL's Los Angeles Rams. By late 1949, team owners came to an agreement under which the Cleveland Browns, San Francisco 49ers and Baltimore Colts joined the NFL and the rest of the league's teams, including the Dons, folded.
Cleveland Browns
1950 season
After the AAFC disbanded, the Browns selected Ford in the second round of the 1950 AAFC dispersal draft, created to reallocate former Dons, Buffalo Bills and Chicago Hornets players. Ford signed with the Browns in July 1950.Cleveland head coach Paul Brown converted Ford into solely a defensive end as two-platoon systems gained popularity after 1950. Ford bulked up to 260 pounds and quickly became a fixture of Cleveland's defense alongside linebacker Bill Willis and defensive back Warren Lahr. He was one of five black players for Cleveland – the others were Willis, punter Horace Gillom and fullbacks Emerson Cole and Marion Motley – at a time when many other teams had never signed a black player. The Browns, in fact, had roughly a third of the black players in the NFL on their roster. Cleveland sports writer Chuck Heaton later recalled that Ford was "a leader, particularly with the black players on the squad."
Led by an offense that featured Motley, quarterback Otto Graham and ends Mac Speedie and Dante Lavelli, the 1950 Browns finished the regular season with a 10–2 record and won the 1950 NFL Championship Game over the Los Angeles Rams.
In a mid-October game against the Chicago Cardinals, an elbow by Pat Harder broke Ford's nose, cheekbone, and maxilla, knocked out two teeth, loosened several teeth and chipped another. Ford, who had been fighting with Harder throughout the game, punched him following the play, resulting in a penalty, his ejection from the game and a $50 fine. NFL commissioner Bert Bell withdrew the fine when the damage to Ford's face was revealed. Ford's facial injuries were so severe that a plastic surgery procedure was required, "virtually rebuilding the big end's face." The Browns' long-time team doctor, Vic Ippolito, described Ford's injuries as "a sickening sight."
Ford started only four regular-season games in 1950 because of the injury. However, he asked to be reinstated for the 1950 NFL Championship Game. Head coach Paul Brown agreed to allow Ford to suit up after receiving approval from the team doctor and arranging for a special mask to be built to protect Ford from further injury. Ford had been on a liquid diet until late November and dropped from 240 to 215 pounds, though he was back up to 223 pounds shortly before the championship game. As the championship game got underway, Ford sat on the bench as the Rams moved the ball 82 yards down the field for a touchdown. Browns head coach Paul Brown knew the defense had to tighten, and he called on Ford to enter the game. The Cleveland Plain Dealer later called this "one of Len Ford's great moments." Paul Brown stated that Ford "showed me that day he really was a man." Brown later recalled that Ford was the team's "only real hope of plugging a hole" and recalled one sequence as a defining moment in the game:
The Browns' defense held the Rams scoreless in the fourth quarter, and the Browns won the championship game by a 30–28 score in their first season in the league.