25 questions with Jim Brown’s roommate who had a great career on his own
The first day of January is a day to reflect. New Year’s resolutions are made in order to change bad habits and improve a person’s life for the better.
New Year’s Day has in the past been the date designated for the game of college football to crown its season’s national champions by the various bowl games played on this one day. This has changed somewhat since the various playoff systems have been installed.
Other minor bowl games are played in the final days of December such as the Peach Bowl, the Bluebonnet Bowl, or the Liberty Bowl. Of course, the majority of bowl games now have corporate names such as the Hyundai Sun Bowl or the TaxSlayer.com Gator Bowl.
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But the major bowl games traditionally have been played on New Year’s Day. Usually, the top-ranked teams are involved in these competitions on this one special day, and as these contests end, a national champion is crowned.
Many sports fans watched games on January 1, 1956, but few understood the day’s significance. It is a historic day. No, flying cars weren’t revealed, or the United States didn’t win yet another war. It was a day that civil rights in this country took a huge step forward.
Back in 1956, there were few black athletes on professional sports teams. There were even fewer in the college ranks.
The Cleveland Browns of the AAFC and the Los Angeles Rams of the NFL had re-integrated professional football by hiring two black players on each team in 1946. Major League Baseball’s Brooklyn Dodgers introduced Jackie Robinson in 1947 which broke that sport’s color barrier. In 1950, Earl Lloyd became the first black player to play in an actual game in the NBA with the Washington Capitals. Canadian-born Willie O’Ree was signed by the Boston Bruins as the NHL’s first black athlete in 1958.
However, on January 1, 1956 (following the 1955 college football season) all four of the major bowl games in college football had a black player on their roster who played. All on the same day. It had never happened before. Black athletes had been competing in major bowls before, but on this day, the Cotton Bowl, Rose Bowl, Orange Bowl, and the Sugar Bowl, all had a black man play in front of a national audience.
In one of those games, the Orange Bowl, Colorado defeated Clemson 27-21. That game’s black athlete was Colorado offensive guard John Wooten. A black man playing along the offensive line was a very rare find in those days. Most black football players at the time were skill-position guys like running back, receiver, or in the defensive backfield.
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Fast forward to 2024, and black athletes are the norm: NFL – 53.5%, NBA – 70.4%, MLB – 6%, NHL – 5%, MLS – 25%, and NLL – 8.9%.
But in the mid-1950s, black athletes were still regulated to attend predominate black colleges and few were drafted or selected very late in their league’s college draft process.
Wooten played 10 years in the NFL, nine with the Cleveland Browns and a final season with the Washington Redskins. After he hung up his cleats he became a scout with the Dallas Cowboys and was eventually promoted to Director of Pro Personnel. That job gave him other opportunities. In 1992, the Philadelphia Eagles hired Wooten in the role of Player Personnel and two years later they promoted him to Vice President of Player Personnel.
After the Browns relocated to Baltimore, Wooten was hired as the Baltimore Ravens Assistant Director of Pro and College Scouting until 2003 when he became semi-retired and morphed into a team consultant.
The Fritz Pollard Alliance is an advocacy group that works with the NFL in regard to hiring minority coaches, scouts, and front-office personnel. In 2003, Wooten became the Chairman of this organization. He has always been involved in civil rights in a time when not just black players, but black folk in all arenas of life, have been suppressed and expected to take a backseat and be muted. Wooten was part of the Cleveland Summit, a famous gathering of some of the nation’s top professional athletes that supported Cassius Clay (later renamed Muhammad Ali) in his attempt to not be entered into the Vietnam War as a conscientious objector.
Wooten grew up in Carlsbad, New Mexico, and went to Carlsbad High School where he participated in football and basketball. He earned All-State honors in both sports. He was recruited to play football by New Mexico State University, Florida A&M University, UCLA, Dartmouth College, the University of New Mexico, and the University of Colorado at Boulder. He chose Colorado and arrived on the campus in the fall of 1955. He was the second black player in the program’s history, joining Frank Clarke who blazed the trail just one season before.
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At the time, freshmen athletes were ineligible to play. Wooten would then become the starter in the 1956, 1957, and 1958 seasons. As a junior, he was named First Team All-Big 7. As a senior, he was selected as a pre-season All-American. After his senior campaign, he earned First Team All-America honors and was named Second Team All-Big 7.
With his All-American nod, he became the first African-American to earn All-America honors playing a position along the interior line.
In the 1959 NFL draft, he was selected in the fifth round by the Browns. He also had interest from the Canadian Football League. Before he showed up for Browns’ training camp, he was selected to play in the 1959 Chicago Charities All-Star game versus the reigning NFL champs.
In coming to Cleveland, the franchise already had a superior rushing attack with Jim Brown and Bobby Mitchell as their primary runners with Milt Plum at quarterback. The offensive line was superb with Lou Groza, Jim Ray Smith, and Gene Hickerson as anchors.
Wooten was considered a big guy in those days at 6’-2” and 235 pounds which is 100 pounds lighter than a lot of offensive linemen today. He was brute, strong, and known as a fierce hand fighter. Wooten became Jim Brown’s roommate and eventually, the pair became best friends even after football.
In 1989, Wooten was selected as one of 25 members of Colorado’s All-Century Team. The following year, his #69 jersey was officially honored and his name was placed upon the façade of the Fred Casotti Press Box.
Wooten was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2012 and the Cleveland Browns Legends in 2010.
During his time with the Browns, the franchise had a 79-39-4 record and won the 1964 NFL Championship. Wooten was named to two Pro Bowls in 1965 and 1966 and voted First Team All-Pro in 1966. He played in 136 NFL games, starting 107. As a third-year player, he earned the starting right guard position opposite Smith and only missed six games in his final eight seasons.
In addition to his NFL title ring, as a team executive he won a Super Bowl ring with Dallas in 1978 and Baltimore in 2001.
The summer of 1966 looked very good for the Browns. They had won the league title two years earlier and had a great season in 1965 after going 11-3-0, captured another Eastern Division crown before losing in the NFL Championship Game to the Green Bay Packers 23-12. Jim Brown was the league MVP after gaining 1,544 yards in a 14-game season.
Jim Brown had a key role in a major motion picture entitled “The Dirty Dozen” that was being shot in the summer in England at MGM-British Studios which featured an All-Star cast. It was an important role for Brown because his character in the war flick was shown as an equal to the other actors. This was huge for the American black population to have a role model displayed on the big screen who was viewed in the storyline as important and an integral part of the overall production.
The movie was wrapping up but had experienced some inclement weather issues that caused delays. Brown telephoned Cleveland owner Art Modell to inform him that the shooting was running about two weeks late and he would miss the beginning of training camp but was fully ready to play the season.
Instead of playing that year for the Browns, Jim Brown retired. When he made his decision, it was Wooten he told. In this interview, Wooten can tell you what was said between the two teammates and friends.
Today, Wooten is married and lives in Arlington, Texas although he has plans to move to Arizona in order to be near family. The couple have five children, one of which passed away at the young age of 42 from a congested heart condition. They also have five grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.
Dawgs By Nature’s Barry Shuck chatted with Wooten to find out the differences in the coaching styles of Paul Brown and Blanton Collier, what that phone call was like when his friend Jimmy Brown told him he was retiring from football, and why racism even exists today.
DBN: You were a standout basketball and football player while at Carlsbad High School. How did you decide to pursue football over basketball going on to college?
Wooten: As much as I enjoyed basketball playing for the Cavemen named after the Carlsbad Caverns, I had a love for football going back to my childhood where we would play football in the grass and then they would let you into the high school football game for free at halftime. This was a time when schools were still integrated, but in 1951 they had a vote with the student body if they would allow colored students into their school, and it was a unanimous agreement. Two of us went out for the football team in 1952. I had played sandlot but never played organized football and didn’t even know how to put on the pads. We wanted to make this football team and both started as sophomores. That was the start of my love for football. I won back-to-back state championships in basketball in my junior and senior years, but football was my heart. I love it today just like I loved it back then.
DBN: You had a lot of college football offers including a couple that were close to home. Why did you choose the University of Colorado?
Wooten: I am the youngest of six from a single parent. My mom fell in love with the freshman coach who was recruiting me. She said Hugh Davidson would take care of me and he was a former player for Colorado. She said I could – said I would. Dartmouth really wanted me to play for them, but my mom said, “Where is Dartmouth?” She said that was a long way from home. I was a momma’s boy. I told her years later that if I had gone to Dartmouth I would probably be President of one of these big companies.
DBN: How did you get the nickname “the Sun Devil”?
Wooten: The PR guy at Colorado Fred Cassotti would always have three of us over for Thanksgiving dinner. And it was always cold as all get out with snow and ice. I told him, if I ever slip on this ice I am going home. So, he started calling me “the Sun Devil.”
DBN: You played both ways. What would today’s NFL players say if they found out they had to play on both sides of the ball?
Wooten: Those days you just played both ways. In high school and in college. It was just the way it was done then. You know Travis Hunter plays both ways now at Colorado. A lot of today’s players would do it, but they would want more money. They already have more money than they can spend. I tell kids all the time, “Don’t chase money.” There is nothing wrong with making money, but by chasing it you will end up in a bad situation.
DBN: You were named All-Big 7 Conference and UPI honorable mention All-America honors in your junior season, First Team All-American as a senior, and were chosen to play in the prestigious Chicago Charities College All-Stars versus the NFL Champs game. Yet, you were only drafted in the fifth round of the 1959 NFL Draft. Why do you suppose you were drafted so low?
Wooten: That was actually considered high, especially for an interior offensive lineman. In those days, there were 22 rounds so being drafted in the fifth round was an honor. This was also in the 1950s. There weren’t that many blacks playing in the NFL. That didn’t bother me at all.
Editor’s note: The Big-7 Conference was re-named the Big-8 Conference in 1957
DBN: How did you find out the Browns had drafted you, and who did you speak to?
Wooten: Paul Brown called before he drafted me and wanted to know about my interest in playing in Canada. He said they had a fifth-round pick coming up after a trade with the Detroit Lions and wanted to draft me. I told him I had not signed with anybody, had no interest in Canada, and was waiting on the NFL draft. And that is how it went down. This was a time when there were very few agents. I always did my own contract.
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DBN: What was your first Browns training camp like?
Wooten: Many players had never played with blacks period – in high school, college, and now the pros. But we never had a problem in Cleveland. I will give Paul Brown his credit. Every year, he opened his training camp with this message, “We don’t have any black Browns, we don’t have any white Browns. Everybody here is a Cleveland Brown. And if anyone has trouble with that, let us know and we’ll get you on your way.” That was his opening statement. So it took the problem right out of the room and that was the way the team went about the business of playing football. If you noticed, we never played in the South except for some exhibition games. Back then, every year some preseason games were played in non-NFL cities. The problem with playing in the South, the black players had to stay with local black families because the hotels would only take white players. You are in a town you don’t anything about, and I’m supposed to go over to somebody’s house that I don’t even know and sleep in their beds? There weren’t very many hotels that would take us in as a team. When the Cowboys came into the league in 1960, there was a Ramada Inn out near Love Field that would take all of us in all of Dallas.
DBN: Paul Brown called all plays and used messenger guards for each play. The Browns had Jim Ray Smith and Gene Hickerson as the starters with Chuck Noll as backup who was eventually moved to linebacker. Did these guys take you in and show you stuff, or treat you like the kid that was trying to take their jobs?
Wooten: The time that I spent with Chuck before he was moved to defense, he was really helpful to me. What was special to me was the relationship we had as players. We all worked to help each other and didn’t have any problems in the locker room. The guys who were already here were willing to give instructions and help me with my game and show techniques.
DBN: You became a starter when Hickerson broke his leg. How did your career change?
Wooten: I had always graded in the high 80s and low 90s. Like I said, I always worked on my contract and told Paul I wanted $12,000 a season, which was a raise. He said, “Are you kidding me?” I told him to look at my grades. I wasn’t talking about what I thought I did, I was going on what he had put in the paper which is what Paul did to use as a vice for negotiations. He would release his grades on us to the Cleveland Plain-Dealer and the Cleveland Press. He gets up and leaves the room which worried me. I am thinking, “What am I gonna tell my mom” if this doesn’t work out in my favor? After 10 minutes he came back into the room with the five copies of a new contract and he just threw them at me and didn’t even hand them to me. Those contracts went all over the floor. He told me I was going to price myself out of the league, but I got what I asked for.
DBN: You were the starting guard from that point on. Why is an offensive line not five individuals but work more as one unit?
Wooten: The cohesion goes back to the origins of the game of football. In football, you have to work together so that the runner can make yardage and the quarterback is protected. The routes the receivers run need time to get open. The offensive line has a play, but if that play is changed, the line has to know what to do now. Instead of me pulling on the first play called, I now have to post over there. And the entire time, the others on the line have their own job duties. We do this as a group. That’s why the cohesiveness of knowing where the strength of the play is. Who sees all this? The quarterback sees it, and the center sees it. I was fortunate to be on a team that had an excellent offensive line. Five players working for the common good.
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DBN: What was Coach Brown like?
Wooten: Very, very methodical. And precise at what he wanted. He wanted all of us to form bonds as a team. Paul Brown came up with the idea that the night before a home game, the team would all stay at a local hotel. The night before a game, we also went to the movies together. We would all go to the Carter Hotel right there at Ninth and Prospect, all of us would stay at the hotel, have dinner together just like we were on the road, and then all of us would walk over and see the movie together – coaches and players. That’s the way Paul Brown ran the show. He would tell us Monday or Tuesday what movie not to see downtown because he had already picked out the movie for us to see the night before the game. All of this created what the Browns are about. That’s why I hold the Brown dear in my heart still today. We never had the problem of the hotel or the movie theater telling us they wouldn’t allow black players in because Paul Brown had already worked all of that out. A 33-man roster with coaches. And on the road, that was the way we did it.
DBN: Back then, it was taboo for blacks and whites to room together. How did Paul Brown deal with designating roommates?
Wooten: In my rookie year, I was the seventh black player on the team. They bunk two players per room, but in my rookie season I was in a room by myself. We went to Paul and said, room the rookies alphabetically. Then when they make the team in their second year, they have the right to choose who to room with. Do you understand what I just told you? This put white and black together which wasn’t being done in the league. And probably the world. We would tell other teams how we were doing it, and that’s the way the league does it now.
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DBN: You became good friends with Jimmy Brown. What was he like in the huddle?
Wooten: In the huddle, he was very, very methodical. He had the right to tell quarterback Frank Ryan that the play being called was not the right play for him right now. But if he had it, he said openly “Let’s go.” He didn’t care if the other team knew that the play was coming. He just didn’t want any of us to give up, so he wouldn’t give up. And he always walked back to the huddle. He didn’t want the defense to know if he was hurt, so he took his time getting up off the ground, then walked back the same way every time.
DBN: What made him so great?
Wooten: The good Lord gave him speed, gave him athleticism, he gave him the strength of a 300-pound guy, and the competitiveness to want to win. Jim was such a brilliant person. He came into this league at just 19 years old. He was an exceptional lacrosse player and they changed the rules because of him. He ran up and down that field beating people with that stick. He was a good person. After my second year, he came to me and said we should be roommates. We were already friends before that and we would lie down at night and talk about things. We talked about getting into the fight for civil rights and integration. We knew we weren’t going to march or be involved in “sit-ins” but we knew we needed an organization that could help black people in this country based on economics and education. That led to things like the Cleveland Summit with Cassius Clay and the other athletes.
DBN: He retired after only nine years in his prime. When he made his decision, he called you from the movie set of “The Dirty Dozen.” What was said?
Wooten: Modell told Jim he would fine him $100 a day if he wasn’t in training camp on time. Jim had called him and told him that the movie was running behind two weeks because of rain over in England. The idea of being fined was an insult to Jim. He thought about what Modell had said over a night of sleep and then called me. It was a quick phone call. He said, “I’m calling you because you need to tell the guys and let them know what has happened.” And I asked him to explain what has happened. He said, “I called Art and told him I would be late for training camp because of delays in shooting the movie. But at the same token, I would be ready to fly when I get there.” Then he explained that Art was not going to accept this. He said that he had stood up for him against Paul numerous times, and now he is going to fine me? The $100 a day had nothing to do with it. Jim stood up for Art when he let Paul go when people in Cleveland were ready to run him back to New York when he got rid of the greatest coach in the world. The idea of the fine was disrespectful, and he said he didn’t want to play for Art anymore. He said, “I have decided to retire tomorrow. Make sure the guys know so it won’t be such a surprise when they read it in the paper.” Here was a guy that was the heart of your ballclub. And it wasn’t that Jim needed training camp which was forever back then with six exhibition games. He was one of the most unselfish superstars you ever wanted to be around.
DBN: Did you try to change his mind?
Wooten: I didn’t try to talk him out of it. We were more than teammates, we were great friends. I knew he had been insulted. Then he set up a press conference on the movie set to formerly announce his retirement.
Editor’s note: In nine NFL seasons, Jim Brown eclipsed 900 yards every year including seven seasons over 1,200 yards with a high of 1,863 in 1963
DBN: If Art Modell had been patient with Jimmy, do you think he would have played that 1966 season?
Wooten: He was just getting movie roles and enjoyed it, but he was still a football player. Not only would he have played in 1966, but it was basically the same roster that had gone to two straight NFL Championship Games. We had excellent offensive and defensive lines. We should have won it in 1965 but Ryan had a horrible game throwing two interceptions. Jim was the current league MVP and wanted to win two or three more championships.
DBN: What is your favorite memory from winning the 1964 NFL Championship Game? And what was your winning share?
Wooten: Winning it all in Cleveland. When we would be on the road, all the wives and significant others would watch the game together. And we would come back after flying into the house where they had been watching it and have our party. But now after the game, the party was at the Sheraton and it was magnificent. Everybody was having a great time. Our winning share was $8,500. It seems back then everything was $8,500.
DBN: How was Paul Brown different from Blanton Collier as head coach?
Wooten: Blanton would never say to a player what Paul would say. Paul would bless you out and insult you. As great a coach as Paul was, he was a tough guy. He had a demeaning view of how you were messing up his football team. Blanton was a teacher. He would deal with you and show you what he wanted to accomplish. He would put his arm around you, but by the same token, he was stern. If you didn’t show improvement you were gone. But he never demeaned you. Paul would bless you out in front of the team. In front of anybody. He would tell you that you were hurting his football team or that they thought you were smarter than that. He coached from a point that by demeaning a guy, it would make him a better player. The thing about it, nobody knew football better than Paul Brown.
DBN: You were one of the athletes involved in the Cleveland Summit where boxer Cassius Clay (later named Muhammad Ali) spoke out against civil rights and social injustice. How did you get invited to that? What was Bill Russell like?
Wooten: I was the guy Jim called and said Clay’s manager called and said he needed our help. He asked me to call the guys and meet in Cleveland at the Hilton at Ninth and Euclid on Saturday evening. None of the guys I called said they didn’t want to be involved in this. Every single guy in that picture said they got it. That’s how that came about. Jim asked me to call them all so I did. Bill Russell? He was a wild guy. He and Jim were good friends anyway. Clay came as the main speaker at Jim’s farewell event years later.
DBN: Even though it is the year 2024, there is still racism. We are all mixed. What do you see as the biggest differences from 1964 to 2024?
Wooten: The biggest thing was in 1964 the Voting Act under Lyndon Johnson. That changed us as a nation. As a democracy, we are different than any country in this world. All of us came from one place or another. Because of where we come from as individual people, we all have tried to get where we want to go. Where we are going today is where we have to go as a nation. Those of us who believe we are a great country have the opportunity to show the world what we can do. This country is done with can be and should be. There is no reason why anybody should feel one race is better than someone else. Human dignity is what we have to respect.
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DBN: You were inducted into the Cleveland Browns Legends class of 2010 which is a huge honor. Where were you when you heard the news, and who was the first person you called?
Wooten: Sitting right here. One of the people from the Browns PR called me. They told me I had been selected. All the guys that had been selected ahead of me, it meant a lot to me to be included. The Browns have always been a great organization and I love the franchise.
DBN: You have come out and told NFL commissioner Roger Goodell that the league should retire Jim Brown’s #32 leaguewide. What is your reason?
Wooten: All of the other major sports leagues in this country have done this for a single player. The NFL needs to do this for Jim Brown. I didn’t know the procedure of how to get this going, so I told the commissioner my idea to find out how to get something like this started. I was counting on him to do this honor for Jim. Point blank: There is no greater football player that has played in this league than Jim Brown. He was such a deep thinker on how to do things. He was known just as much for what he did and accomplished off the field as on. He would dominate the modern-day game just like he did in the era that he played.
DBN: Other than money, how has the NFL changed?
Wooten: Black players at intellectual positions. The black quarterback. There were a lot of great players coming out of college who played quarterback but never had a chance to play their natural position in the NFL. Tony Dungy was one of them and was asked to switch positions. This hinged on the fact that they said black players did not have the mentality to play quarterback. To play a thinking position. Same with the middle linebacker until Willie Lanier was given a chance. Again, that’s a thinking position calling the defensive plays. The offensive center is a thinking position and it was a long time before the league had a black center. All of this has changed. Now, it is a better game than what we had in the 1950s. Players train all year round. Guys can run and throw it a mile. And today, they don’t talk about whether a player is black when they scout or talk about the draft like they used to. It is just a natural thing.
Editor’s note: Winston Hill of the AFL New York Jets subbed in as center in 1965 thus becoming the first black player to play center in a pro football game.
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DBN: What was your fondest moment as a Cleveland Brown?
Wooten: I have to go back to the championship game. Because we had come so close in 1963 in Blanton’s first year as head coach. We came right back and the Colts were the best team in the league. They have seven players on that one roster that are now in the Hall of Fame. And we had to play them for the championship. Johnny Unitas is still the best quarterback ever. They were 17-point favorites going into the game and we held them 0-0 in the first half. While the defense played a great game, in the second half we were able to move the ball downfield against that great defense and beat them without them scoring any points. We melted them down pretty good.