Known for his strength and consistency, he helped protect quarterback Otto Graham and open up running lanes for fullback Marion Motley as the Browns won seven league championships between 1946 and 1955.

He retained that position as Cleveland continued to dominate the AAFC, going 47–4–2 and winning four championships before the league dissolved and the Browns, the San Francisco 49ers and Baltimore Colts were absorbed by the NFL in 1950.

He retired after the 1957 season when he won an eighth title with the Detroit Lions, never having missed a game or practice in his career.

[1] His father and grandfather were immigrants from Poland, and most of the men in his family worked at the nearby Number Nine Coal Mine Camp.

[1] Gatski started at center for three years on his Farmington High School football team, which played on a cow pasture with no scoreboard, bleachers or game clock.

"[2] In 1940, Marshall University coach Cam Henderson offered Gatski a chance to attend the West Virginia school on a football scholarship.

[5] Marshall canceled its football program in 1943 as Gatski entered his senior year, and he was called to active duty and later sent with an infantry division to fight in the European theater of World War II.

"[5] When Gatski graduated, Sam Clagg, a teammate at Marshall, helped get him a tryout with the Cleveland Browns after contacting John Brickels, an assistant coach with West Virginia ties.

[8] Gatski, who was working in the mines after graduating from Auburn, hitchhiked to Bowling Green, Ohio for the team's training camp.

[9][10] He did not consider a football career a certainty, and returning to the coal mines where his father had died in an accident was a distinct possibility.

"[6] Gatski arrived in Bowling Green with the nickname "Gunner" for his strength and speed on the offensive line that he had acquired in Huntington.

[3] Growing up in the rough surroundings of a West Virginia mining town had toughened him up, and he did not mind Cleveland coach Paul Brown's overbearing perfectionism.

[12] Gatski's role on the offensive line was to help protect quarterback Otto Graham from defenders when he went back to pass.

[15] By the time the Browns entered the NFL, Gatski had developed a reputation for consistency, durability and toughness.

He practiced hitting targets with his bow and arrow at League Park in Cleveland, where the Browns trained during the season.

The Browns struggled after Graham retired in 1956 and ended the regular season at 5–7, their first-ever losing record.

[21] After retiring from football, Gatski was a scout for the Boston Patriots for two years before becoming head football coach and athletic director at the West Virginia Industrial School for Boys, a correctional facility for young offenders in Pruntytown, West Virginia.

[5] Gatski was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1985 as part of a class that included Joe Namath, Pete Rozelle, O. J. Simpson, and Roger Staubach.