Cleveland's Finest has in depth, extremely personal interviews with some of the top names in Cleveland sports. Each interview is a no-holds-barred tell-all of the most intimate and sometimes controversial details of the largest impact moments in Cleveland's sports history. This is the first book written from the player's point of view, mixed in with the media that covered it and the fans that watched. This book will change the way the entire sports nation looks at Cleveland. Finally, the true stories are told!

What is this madness all about? Being a Browns fan is just different. Why are we the only fans in the nation who ever demanded their team back -- and got it? Why have we endured years of heartache (The Fumble, The Drive, "Red Right 88"...) yet grown ever more attached to the experience? To answer that question, these 33 essays seek out the essential elements of being a Browns fan. It's about pride. It's about desire, tempered by crushing disappointment. It's about tradition, rivalry, and electrifying victory. It's about longing -- for a return to past championships, for future glory. It's about heart. If you're Brown, you'll enjoy the ride.

In cooperation with Western Reserve Historical Society Euclid Avenue, which runs through the heart of downtown Cleveland, was for 60 years one of the finest residential streets of any city in 19th century America. Showplace of America is the fascinating account of the rise and fall of this elegant promenade, including portrayals of the eminent architects who created its opulent residences and colorful details about the lives of the wealthy people who occupied them. The families who resided within this linear, four-mile neighborhood epitomized Midwestern grandeur in the second half of the 19th century. The 1893 Baedeker's travel guide to the United States labeled it "one of the most beautiful residence-streets in America," as others hailed it "Millionaires' Row," the finest avenue in the west, and the most beautiful street in the world." Modeled after the grand boulevards of Europe, this magnificent neighborhood was distinguished for the prominence of its architects as well as the families who lived there. Local architects Jonathan Goldsmith, Charles W. Heard, Levi T. Scofield, Charles F. Schweinfurth, and Coburn & Barnum and national firms Peabody & Stearns and McKim, Mead & White created houses that were stunning monuments to Cleveland and America's growing prosperity. Ironically, the tremendous success of Cleveland's industry and commerce, which had nurtured the rise of this grand avenue, fostered its fall. Downtown commerce expanded along the avenue at the sacrifice of its leading entrepreneurs' residential have. The houses were demolished as the avenue became what is today--a neglected urban thoroughfare. Photographs and illustrations from the archives of the Western Reserve Historical Society and other repositories are published here for the first time, documenting both the glory and decline of the "showplace of America."

"Cleveland's Colorful Characters" is an easy to read, insightful book on some of Cleveland's most influential individuals. These individuals helped create the grand and unique city which at one time was one of the most respected cities in the word. The first chapter is on the Mather family and how they helped create many of Cleveland's world class institutions. On a lighter side they were the first documented individuals to throw a 'toga party'. The 2nd chapter provides insights into the Van Sweringens who built many of Cleveland's finest homes and buildings as well as being the largest railroad owners in the country. Through the author's research he was able to determine they were the bases for the book, The Great Gatsby. The 3rd chapter concerns Jim Backus who was the creator of Mr. Magoo as well as the millionaire on Gilligan's Island. He attended University school and great up in Bratenahl. Local lore states Mr. Magoo was based on a University School teacher. The other chapters inform readers on Charles Schweinfurth, aka "Cleveland's Castle Creator", a brief insight into Camp Cleveland a 20,000 person Civil War camp in University Heights, unusual ghost stories and the last three chapters are dedicated to Cleveland's automotive history. This is when Cleveland was the car capital of the country, if not the world. Much of the intriguing information in this fact-packed book is new information which the author derived from his in-depth research and conversations with family descendants of those depicted in the book.

It was the dawn of the 20th century, and Cleveland, Ohio, the nation's sixth largest city, was on a roll. Featuring a magnificent downtown with skyscrapers and classic public buildings, a waterfront bristling with shipping, cruises, and industry, thriving neighborhoods of millionaire mansions and suburban bungalows, fine parks linked by scenic boulevards, and unrivaled cultural institutions, this powerhouse city was in the midst of its genesis. Balancing this forward growth were the towns of the Western Reserve, which retained their distinctive New England character and provided a peaceful contrast to the vigorous city that was expanding daily.

The Arts in Cleveland surveys the ""fine arts"" - visual art, music, dance, theater, and belles lettres - from the time of the settlement of Cleveland in 1796 to the present. It also looks at Cleveland's cultural development within the national context. The first four chapters deal with the nineteenth century, including changing tastes in the first half of the century, the increasing sophistication of the post-Civil War era, and the role of philanthropy in the fine arts in the period from 1880 to 1900.

In 1865, the Cleveland Leader boasted that ''an indication of the civilized spirit of the city of Cleveland is found in the fact that colored children attend our schools, colored people are permitted to attend all public lectures and public affairs where the fashion and culture of the city congregate, and nobody is offended.'' Yet, by 1915, the Central Avenue district of town, with its cheap lodging houses, deteriorating homes, and vice, housed a majority of the black population under conditions that were decidedly inferior to those of most of the rest of the city. Tracing the development of Cleveland's black community from its antebellum beginnings to the end of the 1920s, Kenneth Kusmer systematically surveys and analyzes the emergence of the ghetto in the city where, prior to 1870, blacks were ''almost equal'' to whites. This volume deals in a comprehensive way with more aspects of black life - economic, political, social, and cultural - than any previous study of an urban community and presents the most detailed analysis of black occupations available. It is also the first work to make extensive use of manuscript collections of local black leaders and organizations. Of particular value is the comparative framework of the study. Kusmer compares the position of blacks in the social order with that of immigrants and native whites and places the development of the ghetto within the context of urban history. In addition, by contrasting Cleveland with other major cities, such as New York, Chicago, and Boston, Kusmer shows that there were important differences among black communities, especially before 1915, and proves that the causes and effects of the emergence of black ghettos are more complex historical problems than previously recognized. The consolidation of Cleveland's ghetto took over fifty years, and it left the average black citizen more isolated from the general life of the urban community than ever before. Yet, ironically, Kusmer concludes, it was this very isolation, and the sense of unique goals and needs that it fostered, that helped unify the black citizenry and provided the practical basis for the future struggle against racism in all its manifestations.''Kenneth L. Kusmer has written the best book yet on the formation of a black urban ghetto. It stands as a tribute to the blend of urban and Afro-American history.''--Howard P. Chudacoff, American Historical Review ''What makes Kusmer stand out among books on blacks in the urban North is the breadth and sophistication with which he conceptualizes his study. . . . The grace and intelligence of Kusmer make his book the single best study of the shaping of modern black ghettos. . . . Should be greeted warmly by historians of blacks and of urban America.''--Nancy Weiss, Reviews in American History ''Drawing upon a variety of statistical and literary primary sources . . . Kusmer presents a richly documented case study. His felicitously lucid and comprehensive analysis of the growth of one black ghetto promises to provide a model for future historians of the second major chapter in the Afro-American experience. In my view, Kusmer's multifaceted historical analysis of black Cleveland represents the finest case study of an urban black community to appear in the past decade.''--Marion Kilson, Journal of Interdisciplinary History ''Instead of fixing upon the pathological aspects of the ghetto or the racial discriminations of the white majority he finds his unifying theme in the leadership and decision0making within the black community. This is a richly detailed and thoughtfully constructed book.''--Louis R. Harlan, Journal of American History