Blanton Collier

Blanton Collier

Collier on the sidelines in 1963
Date of birth	(1906-07-02)July 2, 1906
Place of birth	Millersburg, Kentucky, United States
Date of death	March 22, 1983(1983-03-22) (aged 76)
Place of death	Houston, Texas, United States
Career information
Position(s)	HC
College	Georgetown College
High school	Paris High School
Career history
As coach
1928–1943	Paris High School
1944–1945	Great Lakes Bluejackets (asst.)
1946–1953	Cleveland Browns (asst.)
1954–1961	Kentucky
1962	Cleveland Browns (asst.)
1963–1970	Cleveland Browns
Awards	NFL champion (1950, 1964) AAFC Champion (1947, 1948) SEC Coach of the Year (1954)
Records	High school: 73–50–10 (.593) College: 41–36–3 (.532) Professional: 76–34–2 (.691)
Military career
Allegiance	United States
Service/branch	U.S. Navy
Years of service	1943–1945
Unit	Great Lakes Naval Training Station
Battles/wars	World War II

Blanton Long Collier (July 2, 1906 – March 22, 1983) was an American football head coach who coached at the University of Kentucky between 1954 and 1961 and for the Cleveland Browns in the National Football League (NFL) between 1963 and 1970. His 1964 Browns team won the NFL championship and remains the second most recent Cleveland professional sports team to win a title.

Collier grew up in Paris, Kentucky and attended Paris High School. After graduating from Georgetown College, he returned to his old high school to teach and coach sports for 16 years. Collier left the position to join the U.S. Navy in 1943 during World War II. At a naval base outside of Chicago he met Paul Brown, who was coaching a service football team there. After the war, Brown hired Collier as an assistant coach for the Browns, a team under formation in the All-America Football Conference (AAFC). After seven years as Brown's top aide, a span over which the Cleveland team won five league championships, Collier took a job as head football coach at the University of Kentucky in 1954. His Kentucky Wildcats teams amassed a 41–36–3 win-loss-tie record over eight seasons.

Collier was fired after the 1961 season and Brown re-hired him as an assistant. Art Modell, the owner of the Browns, then fired Brown in 1963 and gave the head coaching job to Collier. Under Collier, the Browns reached the NFL championship game four times and won once, in 1964. Struggling with hearing loss, Collier retired after the 1970 season, although he remained a scout and quarterbacks coach for several more years. He was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1976 and retired to Texas, where he died in 1983. Collier was well-liked by players and renowned as a good sportsman and student of the game. The Kentucky chapter of the NFL Players Association in 2007 established the Blanton Collier Award in his honor. The Paris High School football field is named after him.