History of the Cleveland Browns

The Cleveland Browns are a National Football League club that competes in the American Football Conference's North Division. Established in 1946 and named after the team's first coach, general manager, and vice president, Paul Brown, the Browns at first were members of the All-American Football Conference. After totally dominating that league the Browns were allowed to join the NFL in 1950. Cleveland went on to win four titles but as of May 2009 have not won a championship since 1964.

  1. All-American Football Conference

    • The Browns were charter members of the AAFC and proceeded to dismantle nearly every opponent. In the four years the league was in operation Cleveland won every title, even going undefeated in 1948 and putting together a 29 game unbeaten streak over parts of three seasons. With standouts such as quarterback Otto Graham, kicker Lou Groza, and fullback Marion Motley the Browns were as good as the best NFL clubs, which refused to accept the many challenges the Browns issued to play them. Finally the Browns became so potent that the league folded, since the outcome of each season was never in doubt. The NFL absorbed the Browns into the league in 1950 along with the Baltimore Colts and San Francisco 49ers.

    1950-1964

    • Cleveland went 10 and 2 in its first NFL season and beat the Rams 30 to 28 in the title contest. In 1951 Cleveland lost just once in the regular season but was beaten 24 to 17 in a title game rematch with Los Angeles. The Lions and Browns met in the 1952 championship game, won by Detroit by a 17 to 7 count. Another championship tilt loss to the Lions followed in 1953 before Cleveland won back-to-back crowns in 1954 and 1955, beating the Lions 56 to 10 for the first and the Rams by 38 to 14 in the second. Graham retired after the 1956 season and Cleveland struggled to replace him. However, they made the playoffs frequently, finally winning their last championship in 1964 over the Baltimore Colts by a 27 to 0 score.

    Jim Brown

    • In 1957 Cleveland drafted running back Jim Brown out of Syracuse, where he had been an All-American football and lacrosse standout. Brown came to Cleveland and became the standard by which all future great runners would be measured. He ran for over 1,000 yards seven out of his nine seasons and scored 106 touchdowns in his career. Brown averaged an astounding 5.2 yards per carry, using his extraordinary combination of speed, power and grit to elude and then run over defenders. Brown retired at the age of 29 to become an actor after running into a contract squabble with the team. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1971.

    The move

    • Cleveland contended a few times after Jim Brown retired. The team had fired Paul Brown as coach in 1962 after he and new owner Art Modell could not see eye to eye. Cleveland went to the NFL title game in 1968 and 1969 but failed to win. In 1987 and 1988 Cleveland lost bids to go to the Super Bowl when the Denver Broncos and quarterback John Elway won conference championship thrillers that involved a fourth quarter drive to send the game into overtime and then a fumble by Browns' running back Earnest Byner as he was trying to score the deciding touchdown. In 1995 Modell shocked and angered the city of Cleveland by moving the team to Baltimore, where it became the Ravens. The NFL allowed Cleveland to keep the Browns name inactive and in 1999 awarded the city an expansion franchise. From 1999 through 2008 the Browns have had just two winning seasons.

    Records

    • Brian Sipe owns the Cleveland record for most passing yards, throwing for 23,713 in his tenure with the club. Jim Brown's 12,312 rushing yards are the franchise mark and Ozzie Newsome's 7,980 receiving yards leads all Cleveland pass catchers. Paul Brown holds the record for most wins as a Browns coach with his 158 victories.