Galen Fiss, 75; Captain of Cleveland Browns’ 1964 NFL Title Winner
Galen Fiss, 75, captain of the Cleveland Browns’ last championship team, died Monday of a heart attack at a hospital near his home in Leawood, Kan. The native of Johnson, Kan., near the Colorado border, had been suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.
Fiss played with the Browns from 1956 to 1966 and was a linebacker on the team that upset the Baltimore Colts, 27-0, to win the 1964 NFL title.
Drafted by both the Browns and the Cleveland Indians from the University of Kansas, Fiss chose baseball first and was Roger Maris’ minor-league teammate at Fargo, N.D. Maris went on to break Babe Ruth’s single-season home run record when he hit 61 home runs for the New York Yankees in 1961.
At Kansas, Fiss roomed with Dean Smith, who went on to win two NCAA basketball championships as coach of the University of North Carolina.
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