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Paul Brown and the Bengals early drafts.
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I was just looking back at the draft history of the Bengals and I was amazed at where paul Brown found talent. This was in the last 60's and early 70's when there was no internet and only 2 or 3 of college games on TV each week.

In out first draft ('68) our two second round picks were from Utah State and Lamar. In the 12th round we took a TE from Utah named Bob Trumpy.

In 1969 our second round pick was a LB from Arkansas St ( not Arkansas) named Bill Bergy who would go on to become the highest paid defensive player in the NFL. Our third round pick was an excellent WR from Utah (Speedy Thomas). Utah must have had a good program back then, I just don't remember ever hearing of them. In the 6th round we took a QB from Florida A&M named Ken Riley.

In 1970 we drafted a CD from Lincoln MO (never heard of the school) who should be in the Hall of Fame (Lemar Parrish). We also drafted players from Ohio Wesleyan (don't know where that is in Ohio) and two more schools I have never heard of (u.S. International and Johnson C. Smith College)

In 1971 we used our first round pick on an excellent OT from Tennessee State (not UT) named Vern Holland. Our third round pick was a QB from Augustana College who should be in the Hall of Fame (Ken Anderson). Later in the draft we got a starting DB from Fisk (Neal Craig) and also took players from Tuskegee, Montana St, Virginia Union, Western Kentucky, Central Washington, and Cameron (never heard of it) .

In 1972 we got on of our best LBs ever (Jim LeClaire) in the third round out of North Dakota. We also drafted players from Missouri Valley (never heard of it), UC-Santa Barbara, Cal Poly-Pamona, and Cal Poly-St. Louis Obispo.

In 1973 our third round pick was a WR from Carson-Newman College (only heard of it because I played there). In the 7th round we took a great RB from Bethune-Cookman named Boobie Clark. We also drafted players from Whittier (never heard of their football team, but Richard Nixon went there), Frostburg State, Truman State (never heard of it), Virginia Union, North Texas, and Morehouse.

In 1974 our first round pick was out of Montana State (DE Bill Kollar).


I realize that there were many more rounds to the draft back then, and there were also a lot of small traditional black colleges who produced a lot more NFL players than they do today (Morehouse, Fisk, Florida A&M, Tuskegee, Bethune-Cookman, Tenn St, Virginia Union) but it was still fascinating to see how the Bengals selected players from small colleges all around the country before the days of scouting combines, the internet, and massive television coverage.
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Paul Brown and the Bengals early drafts. - fredtoast - 10-31-2020, 01:51 PM

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