(cid:42)(cid:79)(cid:82)(cid:85)(cid:92)(cid:3)(cid:39)(cid:68)(cid:92)(cid:86) F ootball has a long and glorious history in Ohio Years before the National Football League NFL began the top pro teams in the country played there The best football was not played in the big cities but in the small towns In fact the city of Cleveland did not have its first champion until 1945 That year in their eighth and final season there the Rams won the NFL title However Cleveland fans did not have much time to celebrate In 1946 the Rams moved to Los Angeles California That same year a new football league started The All America Football Conference AAFC placed teams in cities where the NFL did not play Cleveland was an easy choice Picking a coach was easy too Paul Brown understood how football was changing He knew that the game (cid:25)
would get faster and more complicated There would be more passing and many different types of defenses Brown was so well respected that the team was actually named after him Brown went out and found a group of players whose skills would be perfect for his new brand of football Several of these players were African Americans including Marion Motley They had been barred from the NFL since the 1930s Motley helped the Browns become the best team in the AAFC Other Cleveland stars included quarterback Otto Graham and kicker Lou Groza The team won the championship each year from 1946 to 1949 and lost a total of four games during those seasons After the 1949 season the Browns San Francisco 49ers and Baltimore Colts were invited to join the NFL Cleveland won its conference each year from 1950 through 1955 and again in 1957 The Browns took the NFL championship three times during this period The Browns had great talent during the 1950s Graham Motley and Groza were still team leaders The roster featured LEFT Paul Brown talks with some of his players during the 1950s ABOVE Otto Graham prepares to fire a pass (cid:26)
many other All-Pro players including Bill Willis Frank Gatski Mike McCormack Don Colo Len Ford Don Paul Dante Lavelli Horace Gillom Ray Renfro Mac Speedie and Dub Jones after Season season Cleveland found ways to stay a step ahead of the competition Brown was the first to make his players study game film every week He also hired a full staff of assistant coaches to help him No one had done that before Brown had a great eye for talent He could look at a player and see exactly how he would fit into the team’s system A new era began when the Browns drafted running back Jim Brown He played from 1957 to 1965 and led the NFL in rushing every year but one In 1964 Brown helped Cleveland win another NFL championship His talented teammates included receivers Paul Warfield and Gary Collins and quarterback Frank Ryan LEFT Jim Brown runs the ball against the New York Giants ABOVE Paul Warfield was a star on the 1964 team (cid:28)
