Don Greenwood ( American football ) Donald Adams Greenwood ( – ) was a former professional American football fullback and halfback who played three seasons for the Cleveland Rams and Cleveland Browns in the National Football League ( NFL ) and All - America Football Conference ( AAFC ) . Greenwood played college football at the University of Missouri and the University of Illinois , where he starred as a halfback , punter and quarterback . His first year in professional football was with the NFL ' s Rams in 1945 , when the team won the NFL championship . The Rams moved to Los Angeles after that year , however , and Greenwood elected to stay in Cleveland , where a new team called the Cleveland Browns was under formation in the AAFC . He played two seasons for the Browns , during both of which the team won the league championship . Greenwood was plagued by injuries in 1946 , and in 1947 he suffered a debilitating cheekbone fracture that ended his professional career . After retiring , he worked as a high school coach in Ohio and briefly as an assistant at Yale University . He then became the head football coach at Toledo University in Toledo , Ohio , but resigned from that position in 1951 , saying the school had not done enough to counteract unnecessary violence in the game . Early life and high school . Greenwood grew up in Kansas City , Missouri and attended Southwest High School . He played on the school ' s football team but was more accomplished as a track athlete . He won the Missouri state championship in 1938 by running the 100 - yard dash in 10 seconds . In 1939 , he was a member of an 880 - yard relay team that won state and national championships . College career . After graduating from high school , Greenwood enrolled at the University of Missouri in 1940 and played on the school ' s football team as a halfback who doubled as a punter . He also continued to run track , and set a school record of 6 . 2 seconds in the 60 - yard dash . In football , Greenwood became a star on strong Missouri teams in 1941 and 1942 . The Missouri Tigers football team ended the 1941 season with a 8 – 2 record under head coach Don Faurot , winning the MVIAA conference and advancing to the Sugar Bowl against Fordham University . Missouri lost the game , however , after a punt by Greenwood in the first period was blocked , leading to a safety . The final score of the game , played on a muddy field , was 2 – 0 . Greenwood entered the United States Army Air Corps in 1942 to serve in World War II , but he got a medical discharge in 1943 after he was injured in a plane crash . After leaving the air corps , Greenwood enrolled at the University of Illinois and played in 1943 and 1944 for the Illinois Fighting Illini football team . He played quarterback at Illinois , and threw five touchdowns in 1943 . He played in an October 1944 game against a military team at Great Lakes Naval Training Station coached by Paul Brown that ended in a 26 – 26 tie . Greenwood also played baseball in college , mostly as a pitcher starting as a sophomore at Missouri in 1941 . In his final year at Illinois he batted . 415 against Big Ten Conference teams . He ultimately decided that he had better chances as a football player . Professional career . Greenwood went undrafted in 1944 but signed late that year with the National Football League ' s Cleveland Rams . He came to Cleveland before the 1945 season and began an off - season job at Thompson Products Company in its engineering department . His college degree was in psychology , and he hoped to switch to personnel work . He also worked as an assistant to Edward McKeever at Cornell University before the season started . With the Rams , Greenwood was part of a potent offense led by quarterback Bob Waterfield . The team won the 1945 NFL Championship Game by a score of 15 – 14 in frigid conditions at Cleveland Municipal Stadium . Owner Dan Reeves moved the Rams to Los Angeles after the 1945 season , and Greenwood decided to stay in Cleveland and play for the Cleveland Browns , a team under formation in the new All - America Football Conference ( AAFC ) and coached by Paul Brown . He was still under contract with the Rams , but he signed with the Browns after successfully arguing along with several other Rams players that he was not legally bound to play for a team not based in Cleveland . Before the 1946 season started , Greenwood was working in the personnel department of A . W . Hecker Company . He left the company , however , to take a job as the track coach at Western Reserve University in Cleveland . The Browns won the AAFC championship in 1946 , and Greenwood tied as the league ' s touchdown leader with six . Greenwood , who played halfback both on offense and defense , was plagued by injuries late in 1946 and into 1947 . He had a broken cheekbone in 1947 that put him in the hospital for two weeks and kept him on the sidelines as the Browns won another AAFC championship . Later career . After the 1947 season , Greenwood announced his retirement from football due to his cheekbone injury and accepted a job as head football coach at Cuyahoga Falls High School in Cuyahoga Falls , Ohio . Greenwood was hired as an assistant coach at Yale University in 1949 . By 1951 , he was the football coach at Toledo University in Toledo , Ohio . But he left that post the same year in protest of " rough play " during a game between Toledo and Bowling Green State University . He said football should be discontinued at the school until players could be protected and their safety ensured . He said he would give up coaching until the " accent on win at any cost is abolished " . The cheekbone injury he sustained in an " uncalled for collision " in a 1947 game against the San Francisco 49ers helped prompt his decision , he said . He had three operations on the injury , and it had not completely healed .