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 Kentucky in 1954.

[2] Struggling with hearing loss, Collier retired after the 1970 season, although he remained a scout and quarterbacks coach for several more years.

[5] After graduating, he enrolled at Kentucky's Georgetown College, playing on the football team and earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1927.

[5] He married Mary Varder from Paris in 1930, and spent 16 years at the high school before enlisting in the U.S. Navy in 1943 during World War II.

[7] Collier was 37 years old when he joined the military; although he likely could have avoided enlisting because he was a teacher and had a family, he felt serving in the war was his duty.

[8] Collier was assigned to the Great Lakes Naval Training Station north of Chicago, where he was a survival swimming instructor.

[8] Doctors thought his hearing may have been damaged by teaching swimming in a tidal pool or from practicing on the shooting range.

[9] There, he met Paul Brown, who had left a head-coaching job at Ohio State University to serve in the Navy and lead the Bluejackets team.

[6] Initially, his specialty was pass defense, but Brown soon rewarded Collier's extensive football knowledge with a broader assistant coaching assignment.

[6] Collier served under Brown from 1946 to 1953, a period in which the team won all four titles in the AAFC before moving to the National Football League (NFL) in 1950.

[4][16] Notable wins included a 1954 victory at Georgia Tech, then ranked 15th in the AP Poll, and defeats of eighth-ranked Ole Miss in 1955 and 12th-ranked Tennessee in 1957.

[23] Still, several future star coaches served as assistants under Collier at Kentucky, including Don Shula, Chuck Knox, Howard Schnellenberger, and Bill Arnsparger.

[27] The two men came into conflict over Brown's autocratic coaching style and his failure to notify Modell about personnel decisions.

He started a weekly radio show, which grated against Paul Brown's emphasis on discipline and teamwork over individualism.

Other players, including quarterback Milt Plum, openly questioned Paul Brown's coaching and his control over the team's play-calling.

[26] "The players believed that Paul was upset when Blanton received some good press," former Browns quarterback Jim Ninowski said in 1997.

[35] He was soft-spoken, which was unusual for a head coach, but he earned the respect of the team with his extensive knowledge and his willingness to give players more freedom than Brown ever did.

However, he let Frank Ryan, who replaced Plum as the team's starting quarterback in 1963, change plays at the line of scrimmage, and allowed more flexibility in pass routes and blocking schemes.

[39] Cleveland climbed back to the top of the Eastern Conference in 1964 with a 10–3–1 record behind Jim Brown's league-leading 1,446 yards of rushing and reached the championship game against the Baltimore Colts.

[40] Most sportswriters predicted an easy win for the Colts, who led the league in scoring behind quarterback Johnny Unitas and halfback Lenny Moore.

The Browns had run what was dubbed a "rubber band" pass defense, allowing short throws while trying to prevent big plays.

[43] The Browns scored 10 points in the third quarter and a further 17 in the fourth, clinching the team's first title since Otto Graham's departure after the 1955 season.

While score was close early on, Vince Lombardi's team held the Browns scoreless in the second half, winning 23–12 in an upset on a Paul Hornung touchdown.

[47][48] Plagued by hearing problems, the 64-year-old coach announced his retirement before the end of the 1970 season, which the Browns finished with a 7–7 record.

[49] Collier told Modell that he could no longer hear his players, and it was difficult to read their lips through new face masks that obscured their mouths.

[53] Collier continued to work with the Browns after he stepped down, serving as a scout and quarterbacks coach until leaving the game for good in 1976.

[4] Collier was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1976, and retired to a house on a lake in Texas, where he played golf and visited with friends and family.

[57] Past winners include Tony Dungy, Jim Brown, Gale Sayers, and the Manning family: Archie, Olivia, Cooper, Peyton, and Eli.