Williamstown native and longtime Cleveland Browns wide receiver Gary Collins led a change in the way football is played yet he has not been elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.

Campaigns from fans and friends are hoping to change that and see Collins receive football’s highest honor that they believe he deserves.

Collins broke into the NFL quickly and in 1963 led the league with 13 touchdown receptions.

His 63 touchdown receptions in the 1960’s were the second-most in the NFL in the decade, behind only Sonny Randle, who played for the St. Louis Cardinals, Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers.

Statistics were kept separately from the American Football League prior to the 1970 NFL-AFL merger.

He was a key part of leading the Cleveland Browns to four NFL Championship games in nine years.

He caught  three touchdown receptions and was named the NFL Championship Game MVP in a 27-0 shutout of the Baltimore Colts in 1964.

“He thought that was the highlight of his career and his favorite game,” said Vince Genovese, of Minersville, of the 1964 NFL Championship win over the Baltimore Colts. “He had the only touchdowns in the game and shut out one of the best teams, the Baltimore Colts.”

Genovese was a senior in high school in 1963 and remembers idolizing Collins, as well as Cleveland Browns running back Jim Brown.

“He and Jim Brown were the two go-to guys. If you stopped one, you couldn’t stop the other one, and that’s why they were so good in the 60’s,” Genovese said. “Gary knows the fact that the Browns went to four NFL Championships in eight or nine years shows they had a quality good team.”

Still, Collins finds himself on the outside of Canton looking in.

To meet the baseline criteria for induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, players and coaches must demonstrate versatility, earn significant achievements such as awards, maintain consistent performance, make a notable impact on their team and the sport, and contribute to the game’s overall popularity.

Collins is most often compared to former Browns and Miami Dolphins wide receiver, and Pro Football Hall of Famer, Paul Warfield. Warfield — who played with Collins in Cleveland from 1964 to 1969 — scored 85 career touchdowns on 427 receptions, averaging 20.1 yards per catch.

Over his 10-year career, Collins caught 70 touchdowns on 331 receptions, averaging 16 yards per reception. Certainly a valid point to Collins validity for the Hall of Fame.

“I saw Gary last week and he explained to me how he’s been through this the last four years,” Genovese said. “He knows nothing has come of it, so he’s nearly given up. Gary and his teammates know what he did, including Jim Brown, and he and his teammates all know he belongs in Canton.”

Collins was born in Williamstown on Aug. 20, 1940. He was born into a hard-working family and that showed in his high school athletic accomplishments. Collins scored over 1,000 career points on the basketball court, consistently threw no-hitters on the baseball field and was a force to be reckoned with on the football field.

By his senior year, he had over 80 football scholarship offers from colleges around the country when he decided on the University of Maryland.

He was a consensus All-American, Heisman finalist and was named to Maryland’s Football Hall of Fame when his college career was over.

Collins was drafted by the Cleveland Browns with the fourth overall pick in the first round of the 1962 NFL Draft, and the sixth overall pick by the Boston Patriots in the AFL Draft.

The first Canton Pro Football Hall of Fame enshrinement class was in 1963, Collins’ second year in the league. Seventeen members were inducted in the inaugural class, including former great Don Hutson.

Many still wonder how Collins is left on the outside considering his career accomplishments.

Those achievements also include being named to three All-Pro teams, three Pro Bowls, the 1960s All-Decade Team and having four seasons with double-digit touchdowns.

“He was playing against guys like Lenny Moore and Paul Warfield, who’s in the Hall of Fame. Gary’s catch-to-touchdown ratio was better than Warfield’s and Jerry Rice’s numbers,” Genovese said. “The numbers don’t lie and he’s been overlooked for a while now.”

Following his football career, Collins sold insurance, coached some college football at Lebanon Valley College, and one of his sons owns a landscaping business.

Genovese has continuously pushed for Collins’ induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame by sending letters to the New York Post, Washington Tribune, Dallas Chronicle, Baltimore Sun and ESPN, as well as the Cleveland and Chicago newspapers.

Originally Published: June 21, 2025 at 2:20 PM EDT