1. John Lewis "Stub" Brickels was a high school, college and professional football coach who served as a backfield coach for the Cleveland Browns between 1946 and 1948.
16 Facts About John Brickels
1. 2.
John Brickels coached high school football and basketball teams in Ohio and West Virginia in the 1930s and early 1940s before becoming the head basketball coach at the West Virginia University in 1944.
3.
John Brickels held that post until 1945, when Cleveland Browns coach Paul Brown hired him to recruit players for the Browns, a team under formation in the All-America Football Conference, while Brown served in the US Navy during.
4.
John Brickels was promoted to head basketball coach and athletic director the following year, and remained in that position until his death of a heart attack in 1964.
5.
John Brickels attended Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio, where he played four sports and was a star halfback on the school's football team.
6.
John Brickels graduated from Wittenberg in 1930 and was a member of Phi Gamma Delta.
7.
John Brickels was promoted to head coach of both teams in 1932.
8.
John Brickels went on to become head basketball coach and assistant football coach at Huntington High School in West Virginia in 1938.
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Arthur B McBride, the team's owner, had hired Brown as head coach and general manager, but Brown was hamstrung by his military service and needed Brickels to help recruit players.
10.
John Brickels set up an office in downtown Cleveland and visited with players Brown was interested in signing.
11.
John Brickels mostly did Brown's bidding and signed numerous players on his behalf, but he brought two men to Brown's attention who later joined the Browns and had long careers with the team.
12.
Center Frank Gatski and guard Ed Ulinski both played at Marshall University in Huntington when John Brickels was coaching high school there.
13.
John Brickels stayed with the Browns for three seasons, after each of which the team won the AAFC championship.
14.
John Brickels left the Browns in 1949 to take a job as an assistant to football coach Woody Hayes at Miami University.
15.
John Brickels died in 1964 of a heart attack while still the athletic director at Miami.
16.
John Brickels was inducted into Miami's athletics hall of fame in 1971 and into Wittenberg's hall of honor in 1986.