The Connecting Power of Cleveland Sports: Fathers, Children and Grandchildren
Earl Leiken reflects on seven decades of sports fandom in Cleveland, and the connections to family that come with it.
When I was six years old in 1948, my hometown baseball team, the Cleveland Indians, won the World Series. This began a lifetime of sports fandom that connected me to my dad and brothers and later my sons and grandchildren.
Even though I was very young, as I grew up in Cleveland Heights, Ohio my dad would remind me of the happiness in Cleveland as our beloved hometown team defeated the Boston Braves in 1948 to become world champions. My dad took me to the World Series victory parade down Euclid Avenue in the fall of 1948, carrying me on his shoulders as the team rode by.
Growing up, my dad would take me downtown to Cleveland stadium to see the Browns, and in my youth our hometown football team dominated the NFL, winning world titles in 1950, 1954 and 1955. The Cleveland Indians were in the World Series again in 1954, losing in heartbreaking fashion to the Giants in a four-game sweep. Right there on the shores of Lake Erie, my Dad and my brothers and I watched quarterback Otto Graham's hall of fame career as year after year the Browns competed with the best of the NFL, and baseball hall of famers like Bob Feller. My dad would also take us down to Columbus to watch the Ohio State Buckeye football team compete with the best of college football. Paul Brown was our famed Cleveland Browns founder and coach, but he got his start as the coach of the Buckeyes, including a national championship in 1942, the year I was born. I watched the home state Buckeyes win national football championships throughout my youth, in 1954, 1957 and 1961.
From 1956 to 1960, my own name, Earl Leiken, became the name of a high school athlete, as I joined the Cleveland Heights High School football program, playing both offense and defense. I was elected team captain my senior year, and dreamed of someday playing in the NFL like my childhood heroes. My dad had played football at Glenville High School, including an undefeated state title team, and I was so proud to take the field and follow in his footsteps. I also served as president of the Heights High senior class in 1960, and it was surreal years later to watch two Heights High graduates -- brothers Travis and Jason Kelce -- compete against each other in the 2023 Super Bowl. I am proud to say that I am a fellow member of the Heights High Hall of Fame with the Kelce brothers!
When I attended Harvard College starting in 1960, I was recruited to join the football team, but decided to focus on my studies, majoring in History and preparing to attend law school. I loved attending the Harvard-Yale game every year, and my parents would visit from Cleveland to attend the game with me when it was played at home. Even while I attended Harvard Law School from 1964-1967, I attended the Harvard-Yale football game to cheer for the Crimson, and my mom and dad joined me in Cambridge when the game was played at home.
When my own two boys were growing up in Shaker Heights, we rooted for the Browns and Indians and later the Cavaliers together, sharing in the regular heartbreak that came with being a Cleveland sports fan during those years. Even though those years were tough for Cleveland sports, the bonds that we shared were thick and deep, laughing and cheering and sometimes even crying for our hometown teams. I also loved watching my boys grow up in Shaker Heights, where they both attended Shaker Heights High School and were part of the world-renowned Shaker Theater Department. Neither of my boys were high school athletes, but years later I got to watch my grandson compete in the Shaker Youth Hockey program for many years, and then as a high school varsity hockey player.
On Father's Day in 2016, I had the wonderful chance to celebrate in person at Pizzazz Pizza in University Heights with my son and my grandson as we watched the Cleveland Cavaliers defeat the Golden State Warriors to win the NBA Championship, the first team ever to come back from a 3-1 deficit to win the NBA title. The photo that was taken of us in the minutes after we won the title is one of the cherished photographs from my lifetime, and reminded me of watching the 1948 World Series parade with my own dad when I was just six years old. To celebrate this world championship victory on Father's Day made the moment especially sweet.
Now, on Saturdays in the fall, I go over to my son's house in Shaker Heights and watch the Ohio State Buckeyes compete in college football games, just like I did with my dad when I was a kid. My oldest granddaughter and oldest grandson both attend Ohio State as undergraduate students, and they send us photos from the Horseshoe, where my dad took me to watch the Buckeyes when I was young. In the college football playoffs on New Year's Eve of 2022/23, I watched the Buckeyes fall in heartbreaking fashion to the Georgia Bulldogs. My son and his two Buckeye children attended the game in Atlanta and sent us photos and updates from one of the great college football games in recent memory. My other son lives in New York state, and his two boys are enormous Cleveland sports fans from afar. We all text each other about Cleveland sports, and my two granddaughters love the Browns, Cavaliers and Indians-- now the Guardians, as much as the boys do. My granddaughters both competed as athletes too, winning many figure skating awards through the wonderful Shaker Heights Figure Skating program.
Being a sports fan comes with ups and downs, excitement and heartbreak. For me, a life of rooting for Cleveland sports has been about my connections to my family, particularly my dad and my brothers growing up, and now my sons and my grandchildren.