It was late December, 1967, and the Cleveland Browns had just been eliminated from the NFL playoffs, in the conference championship game. Their season was officially over, but not exactly . . . in two weeks, as the league mandated at the time, they had to play one more game, an exhibition in Miami. The players had about week off before the team started practicing again.
That’s when Fred Hoaglin and Ernie Kellerman got an idea. Hoaglin and Kellerman, the team’s center and strong safety, had been golfing buddies all season. They played on their Monday off days and on some Tuesdays, too, over at the Mayfield Country Club.