Editor's note: Tony Grossi is a Cleveland Browns analyst for TheLandOnDemand.com and 850 ESPN Cleveland. He has covered the Browns since 1984.
When Doug Dieken reported to his first Browns training camp in 1971 in the quiet college town of Hiram, 40 miles east of downtown Cleveland, it didn’t take him long to realize why players gravitated to the tiny dorm room assigned to legendary guard Gene Hickerson.
“He was the only guy who had an air conditioner,” Dieken said.
Coaches loved the remoteness and spartan conditions of Hiram College because it helped bond the players in the pursuit of a common goal – not the least of which was getting back to civilization.
“First off, the town was dry (alcohol-free),” Dieken recalled. “The bonding came after practice when guys would run to the local tap a few miles away to replenish their fluids.”
Yes, it was a bygone era, long before cell phones. The Hiram dorms came furnished with one pay phone per floor, so players would have to line up to make calls. The most popular bonding activities prior to lights-out were card and dice games.
Recreating the tradition of an isolated training camp is part of the reason Kevin Stefanski is taking his team to The Greenbrier Resort beneath the Allegheny Mountains in White Sulphur Springs, WVA. The whole football operation departs on Saturday for nine days and eight nights to slowly ramp up to Stefanski’s fourth season as Browns coach.
What awaits them in the luxurious, 245-year-old resort situated on 11,000 picturesque acres is like nothing Dieken or anyone from his football era could imagine.
The Greenbrier Resort was said to be so beloved that during the Civil War neither side wanted to destroy it.
The word is out
Since 1778, The Greenbrier has hosted the nation’s “high society” -- prominent and influential families, 28 sitting and future U.S. Presidents, hundreds of Fortune 500 CEOs, international dignitaries and a long list of A-list celebrities that the Resort keeps strictly confidential to protect their privacy. But only since 2014 has it become a haven for NFL teams.
That was when the New Orleans Saints inquired to West Virginia billionaire businessman Jim Justice, who purchased The Greenbrier for a scant $20.5 million in 2009, to serve as a full-time training camp host. The idea appealed to Justice’s passion for sports, and he agreed to build a 55,000 sq. ft. Sports Performance Center along with two grass practice fields and one artificial turf field in exchange for the Saints signing a contract to hold training camp there for three years.
Little did they realize at the time that it would spur a lucrative niche industry for the Resort.
The Saints returned to Louisiana to a new training facility after their contract expired. But enough teams had visited them in their time to get a taste of The Greenbrier and seek their own stays there. The Texans held their entire camp there in 2017 and part of it in 2018. The Patriots visited the Saints and Texans for joint practices. And the Cardinals and 49ers have used the Resort as a respite between back-to-back regular-season games in the Eastern time zone.
Greg Furlong, the Resort’s VP of sales and event services, pitches all 32 teams every year around Super Bowl time to come and visit. It’s become an easy sell.
“The word is out about the Greenbrier,” Furlong said. “So many teams have been here now. When people see the teams that have been here multiple times, it gives other teams confidence about coming. Our reputation is out that it’s a great spot. There are only so many unique facilities that can host an event this large for so many days.”
Rick Smith was the GM of the Texans when he convinced then-owner Bob McNair to take the team to the Greenbrier to escape the suffocating humidity of Houston. McNair was happy to foot a bill of approximately $4 million for the full training camp in 2017.
“Aesthetically, it’s a beautiful place, with great golf courses,” Smith said. “The facilities are really good. You have everything you need for an NFL training camp. It’s an isolated environment, very cool, convenient, and they are very accommodating.”
Justice rescued The Greenbrier from bankruptcy when previous owner CSX Corporation – whose forerunner, the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad, once was headquartered in Cleveland’s Terminal Tower -- fell on bad financial times.
“It needed to be saved,” Furlong said. “It was about to be sold to a non-West Virginia company. Our owner is the most prideful West Virginian there is. He said the gem of state can’t be owned outside the state. The Greenbrier really makes the area go economically. The ripple effect [of the Resort's hard times] was pretty bad. Soon as the Justice family bought it, you saw the impact all over. It’s continued to grow. It’s been a tremendous story of saving an historic gem of the area.”
Justice rode the popularity of saving The Greenbrier to the office of governor of West Virginia in 2016. He ran as a Democrat and then switched back to the Republican Party. In April, he announced his candidacy for the 2024 U.S. Senate election in West Virginia. During his time in office, Justice’s daughter, Jill, serves as the president of The Greenbrier.
Although golf has been a staple of The Greenbrier for more than a hundred years – Sam Snead started there as assistant golf professional in 1936 and would hold court as golf professional emeritus until his death in 2002 -- Justice has turned the resort into an overall sports destination. It has hosted the Ryder Cup and Solheim Cup, and several professional tennis championships, and annual high school basketball tournaments. The week after the Browns depart, a LIV Golf event will be held on the resort’s legendary Old White course.
“Gov. Justice is a huge sports fan,” Furlong said. “Everything to do with sports is his passion and love.”
The bunker
The Greenbrier lists 55 indoor and outdoor activities available to guests. Historically, the most popular with football teams have been golfing, trap and skeet shooting and fly fishing for trout and smallmouth bass.
But a must-do is a tour of the vast, declassified bunker built 20 feet beneath the surface during the height of the Cold War. For decades, the Greenbrier denied the existence of the government relocation facility. But now it is one of the most popular activities on the Resort.
The walls are two feet thick of concrete reinforced by steel. The brainchild of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, the bunker was designed to relocate the 435 members of the House of Representatives and 100 members of the U.S. Senate in the event of a nuclear attack waged by the Soviet Union. It was completed in 1962.
“It can hold up to a thousand people for 60 days,” Furlong said. “It’s definitely one of the unique attractions. There’s no other resort we know of that has one. We do tours every day. It’s amazing the interest it maintains. It still draws people ... thousands and thousands every year.”
When the Patriots visited for joint practices with the Saints and the Texans, coach Bill Belichick, a renowned history buff, had the resort’s resident historian, Dr. Robert Conte, address the entire Patriots team before touring the bunker.
Furlong said that only 20 percent of the bunker is viewable to tourists. The remaining 80 percent of the facility is leased to an undisclosed company, which uses it predominantly for data storage.
“The facility is hurricane-, flood-, and tornado-proof,” Furlong said. “It’s as secure as you can get.”
The ultimate team-bonding experience
Stefanski wanted to do something special this summer because of the early opening of camp for the extra preseason game at the Hall of Fame in Canton.
“The Greenbrier will be an opportunity for us to get away from town and get under the same roof together,” the coach said in June. “It just allows you to just be around your team and really focus on the work … really gives us an opportunity to lengthen our runway into the season. So we’re going to make each one of those days count.”
Watson was the Houston QB in good standing when the Texans trained at the Greenbrier in 2017 and 2018. He denied campaigning for the trip, but endorsed Stefanski’s plan when he was informed of it.
“The biggest thing we did in Houston was build that chemistry. Guys got to spend time with each other,” he said at minicamp in June. “But we are already doing that here [in Berea], and we just take it to Greenbrier where it’s kind offsetting and we spend a little bit more time together doing activities together, going golf and bowling. They have different activities there, so it’ll be good to kind of get away from Cleveland a little bit and just kind of build that chemistry before we start the season.”
Is it a throwback to the days of training camp in Hiram? In theory, yes. But like everything else in the NFL, the Greenbrier is a whole new world enjoyed by today’s players.
