Former Cleveland Browns Hall of Fame center is dead

He never missed a game in 20 seasons -- high school, college and the pros.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
BEREA -- Hall of Fame center Frank Gatski, a powerful blocker who played in 10 straight championship games for the Cleveland Browns, died Tuesday in Morgantown, W.Va., according to his son-in-law, James Giuliani.
The Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton lists Gatski's age as 83, but Giuliani said family members are not certain what year he was born.
Gatski died of congestive heart failure, Browns alumni relations director Dino Lucarelli said. He had been in failing health and wasn't well enough to attend a reunion of Browns players last weekend in Cleveland.
"Gunner" Gatski anchored a line that by the end of his career included Hall of Fame tackles Lou Groza and Mike McCormack. He also played alongside former Pittsburgh Steelers coach Chuck Noll, a Browns guard, and snapped the ball to Hall of Fame quarterback Otto Graham.
The Cleveland teams of the late 1940s and '50s, coached by offensive mastermind Paul Brown, dominated the All-America Football Conference and later the NFL. Gatski and the Browns won four AAFC championships and NFL titles in 1950, 1954 and 1955.
Switched teams
Gatski joined Detroit after the Browns failed to make the 1956 title game -- the only time in his 12 pro seasons that he didn't play for a championship. In 1957, with Gatski at center, Detroit beat Cleveland 59-14 to win the league title. Gatski retired after playing in the Pro Bowl that season.
"He was like a polished stone, very strong in the middle," said wide receiver Dante Lavelli, another Browns Hall of Famer. "A very strong man, and a very good player. He was always able to adjust real well to anything. Just a quiet man and a great teammate. I never remember him missing a game."
Gatski began his career as a linebacker before moving to offense, where for a decade Gatski provided protection for Graham.
Gatski was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1985 with a class that included Joe Namath, Pete Rozelle, O.J. Simpson and Roger Staubach.
In October, Gatski's No. 72 jersey became the first number retired by Marshall, where he played for three seasons. Gatski attended the ceremony and he waved to Thundering Herd fans from a cart.
The son of a coal miner killed in a mining accident, Gatski never missed a game in 20 seasons -- high school, college (Marshall, Auburn) and the pros (Browns, 1946-56).
Davis honored
BEREA -- Browns linebacker Andra Davis, who was all over the field as Cleveland shut out Miami last Sunday, was named the AFC's defensive player of the week.
Davis recorded 14 tackles in the Browns' 22-0 win, the club's first shutout since blanking Cincinnati in 2001. He had two tackles for losses, tipped two passes and pressured Dolphins quarterback Sage Rosenfels into throwing an interception on his first attempt.
The Browns held Miami to 55 net passing yards and only 194 total yards.
Davis, who is in his fourth year, leads the Browns with 135 tackles. He has had at least 10 tackles in nine of Cleveland's 10 games.
"Andra is learning the defense," said first-year Browns coach Romeo Crennel, who switched the club to a 3-4 formation this season. "He wants to be a leader. He wants to know how to play the scheme. I know he personally took some film from New England to see how those linebackers played. He's asked questions about what they do because he wants to be good.
"It's beginning to show because he is able to make those plays. He wants to be good in whatever defense he is in. The fact that he's the leading tackler says a lot about how he approaches the game and his ability."
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