paul brown, who was serving in the u.s. navy during world war ii and coaching a service football team at a base outside chicago, hired brickels in 1945 to help him organize the cleveland browns, a new team in the all-america football conference. arthur b. mcbride, the team's owner, had hired brown as head coach and general manager, but brown was hamstrung by his military service and needed brickels to help recruit players. brown chose him because of his easygoing and glib manner and familiarity with the ohio sports scene. brickels set up an office in downtown cleveland and visited with players brown was interested in signing.