Team History: Browns dominate in early years, but have endured recent struggles
Team History: Browns dominate in early years, but have endured recent struggles
The Cleveland Browns have had a long and complicated history. Ask any young Browns fan about their thoughts of the franchise, and you will probably hear stories of disgust and disappointment, with a few jokes about how many quarterbacks they have seen.
However, the view changes if you look back through Browns history. The parents of those young Cleveland fans will probably talk about overall success, but definitely some heartache, thanks to John Elway and the Broncos. The previous generation would tell a different story. The early Browns played in a league championship game in the first 10 years of their existence and 11 of the first 12.
Professional football in the city existed long before the Browns and even pre-dated the NFL. The Cleveland Indians were a semi-pro team that played in the Ohio League beginning in 1916. Four years later, team owner and sports promoter Jimmy O’Donnell, put his team, now called the Tigers, into the American Pro Football Association (APFA).
The following season, the team reverted to using the Indians name, partly because of the popularity of the baseball team in the city, and also because the franchise signed several Native American players, including two future Hall of Famers, Joe Guyon, and Jim Thorpe, who served as the head coach.
O’Donnell got league permission to suspend team operations for the 1922 season, but could not post the $1,000 franchise fee, so the team was terminated. A new Indians club, owned by jeweler Samuel Deutsch, began to play the following year. Deutsch later bought the floundering Canton Bulldogs and the combined team, known as the Cleveland Bulldogs, won the 1924 NFL Championship with a 7-1-1 record. The team moved to Detroit three years later.
A third Indians team, sponsored by the league, began to play in 1931 mainly as a travel team. Despite having a new 80,000-seat stadium, the franchise folded after one year when no owner was found that would keep the team in Cleveland.
The city would get another NFL franchise in 1937 when the Rams began to play. The team spent eight years in Cleveland, but despite winning the NFL Championship in 1945, attendance was low and the Rams moved to Los Angeles.
The city was not without a professional team for long. When the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) began to play in 1946, Cleveland was one of the eight original franchises. The Browns were run by Arthur B. “Mickey” McBride, a former newspaper manager who also owned two taxi companies and a wire service that had ties to bookmakers and organized crime in Chicago. Paul Brown, a successful high school and college coach in Ohio, was named the franchise’s first head coach.
Cleveland boasted a powerful offense, led by quarterback Otto Graham, fullback Marion Motley, receivers Mac Spiedie and Dante Lavelli, and Lou Groza, the team’s left tackle and kicker. The Browns dominated during their AAFC tenure, amassing a 47-4-3 record (including a 14-0 mark in 1948) and winning all four championships.
The AAFC combined with the NFL after the 1949 season, and the Browns were among three teams (along with the 49ers and Colts) that survived the merger. Cleveland soon mastered its new league, going 58-13-1 and winning three more championships in its first six seasons.
After the Browns edged the Rams in 1950 NFL Championship Game, the old Cleveland residents got their revenge in the rematch the following year. Graham and the Browns fell to Detroit in back-to-back championship games before trouncing the Lions in 1954 and the Rams again the next year, giving the team seven titles.
McBride sold the Browns for $600,000 (a high price at the time) to a group led by former Indians baseball executives Dave Jones and Ellis Ryan. The group ran the franchise for eight years before selling to Brooklyn television and advertising executive Art Modell.
Paul Brown led Cleveland to two more playoff appearances, but the Browns were now without most of the talented offensive players from their early years, especially Graham, and the franchise began to decline.
Modell’s early backing of Brown soon turned into distrust. Superstar running back Jim Brown, along with quarterback Milt Plum, had problems with Brown’s offensive scheme, but the final straw occurred off the field.
Syracuse star running back and Heisman Trophy winner Ernie Davis was drafted first overall in 1962 by the Redskins, only after Washington owner George Preston Marshall was threatened with the loss of his stadium lease if he did not start adding black players. Understandably, Davis did not want to play for Marshall, so he demanded a trade.
Before the season began, Brown acquired Davis in a trade without informing Modell but decided to hold his new acquisition out for the season when it was learned he had been diagnosed with leukemia.
Davis still wanted to try and play, and Modell endorsed the decision, creating a bigger rift between owner and coach. Paul Brown was relieved of his coach and general manager duties after the season, but few people knew it at the time because of a newspaper strike.
Blanton Collier became the new head coach, and Paul Brown’s best assistant soon had Cleveland at the top of the standings again. Thanks to an offense led by Jim Brown, quarterback Frank Ryan and receivers Gary Collins and Paul Warfield, the Browns went 10-3-1 and scored the second-most points in the NFL in 1964.
The defense wasn’t too shabby either, with Paul Wiggin and Pro Bowlers Bill Glass and Dick Modzelewski on the line, Vince Costello and Pro Bowler Jim Houston as linebackers, and Walter Beach, Larry Benz and Bernie Parrish in the secondary. Cleveland shut out the Baltimore Colts, 27-0, giving the team its eighth championship.
The Browns fell short in a title game loss to the Packers the following year, and enjoyed moderate success for the rest of the 1960s, reaching two NFL Championship Games.
After Collier left in 1970, Cleveland went to the postseason just four times over the next 15 years. The team made the playoffs twice in the late ’70s under head coach Sam Rutigliano. Led by quarterback Brian Sipe, the Browns won several important games in the closing moments, earning them the nickname the “Kardiac Kids.”
Rutigliano was fired midway through a dismal 1984 season and was replaced by Marty Schottenheimer. Bernie Kosar took over at quarterback the next year and revived the offense with help from running backs Kevin Mack and Earnest Byner, wide receiver Webster Slaughter and tight end Ozzie Newsome.
The Browns went 12-4 and won a division title in 1986. A win over the Jets set up a home date with the Broncos in the AFC Championship Game. Leading 20-13 with 5:32 left, Cleveland had Denver pinned on its own 2-yard-line. Quarterback John Elway led the Broncos down the field, finding Mark Jackson with a five-yard touchdown pass with 39 seconds remaining to tie the score, capping a possession now known as “The Drive.”
After the Browns were stopped on their first possession of overtime, Elway led another long drive that ended with a Rich Karlis field goal and a Denver trip to Super Bowl XXI.
The following year was much of the same, a Browns division title and a rematch with the Broncos for the AFC Championship. Denver held a 21-3 halftime lead, but Cleveland fought back, tying the score, 31-31, on a pass from Kosar to Slaughter.
Denver went back ahead on a pass from Elway to running back Sammy Winder with six minutes left. Kosar led Cleveland on a long drive that was destined to send the game into overtime. However, Jeremiah Castille knocked the ball out of Byner’s hands before he could get to the end zone. The Broncos recovered “The Fumble” and held on to win.
Schottenheimer left after a heartbreaking loss to the Oilers in the 1988 Wild Card game. Under Bud Carson, the Browns reached the AFC Championship Game the following year (again losing to the Broncos), but have made the playoffs just twice since 1990.
Bill Belichick, defensive coordinator for the Giants, the Super Bowl XXV champions, was named head coach. Although Belichick focused on work ethic and fundamentals, the Browns only had a 36-44 record in five seasons. The Browns went 11-5 in 1994 and defeated New England in the Wild Card game before losing to Pittsburgh in the Division round.
After the 1995 season, Modell moved the team to Baltimore, despite the fact that the city had approved $175 million in taxes to renovate Cleveland Municipal Stadium. The impending move had been announced during the season, and the fans soon revolted, with those in the Dawg Pound (the stadium’s end zone seating section) littering the field with beer, trash and even the seats themselves after the team’s final home game.
The following year, Modell, the NFL, and the city came to a compromise. Modell would get the rights to Cleveland players in the move to Baltimore, but the city would keep the Browns’ name, colors, and records. The Ravens would be treated as an expansion team, while Cleveland would have to wait three years for their team to return.
In 1999, the “new” Browns took the field. Al Lerner, the Baltimore businessman who bought a small stake in the Browns in 1986, bought the rights to the new franchise for $530 million. The team made the playoffs in 2002, but Al Lerner did not get to see the success. He died from brain cancer in October, with his son, Randy, taking over control of the team. Randy Lerner sold the Browns to Pilot Flying J oil and trucking company owner Jimmy Haslam in 2012.
Coached by Butch Davis and led by quarterback Tim Couch, running back William Green, linebacker Earl Holmes, and kicker Phil Dawson, the Browns went 9-7 before losing 36-33 to the Steelers in the Wild Card round.
The one thing the Browns have been known for recently is their exorbitant number of starting quarterbacks (31 since returning in 1999). However, the team’s futility, as well as its instability at the most important position, could be coming to an end soon.
Baker Mayfield set a rookie record with 27 touchdown passes in 2018, and he will be joined this season by running back Nick Chubb, tight end David Njoku and wide receivers Odell Beckham Jr. and Jarvis Landry. The defense will feature linemen Sheldon Richardson, Myles Garrett, and Olivier Vernon, along with linebackers Joe Schobert and Jamie Collins, and cornerback Denzel Ward.
If all goes according to plan, Browns fans will be treated to some wins, something they did not have during the 2016-17 seasons, when Cleveland went 1-31 under Hue Jackson.
-By: Kevin Rakas