60th Moments - Founding and Dominance in The AAFC (1946–1949)

Founding and Dominance in The AAFC (1946–1949)

In 1944 Arch Ward, the influential sports editor of the Chicago Tribune, proposed a new professional football league called the All-America Football Conference. The AAFC was to challenge the dominant National Football League once it began operations at the end of World War II, which had forced many professional teams to curtail activity, merge or go on hiatus as their players served in the U.S. military. It was a bold proposition, given the failure of three previous NFL competitors and the dominance of college football, which was more popular than the professional game at the time. Ward, who had gained fame and respect for starting all-star games for baseball and college football, lined up deep-pocketed owners for the new league's eight teams in hopes of giving it a better chance against the NFL. One of them was Arthur B. "Mickey" McBride, a Cleveland businessman who grew up in Chicago and knew Ward from his involvement in the newspaper business. McBride spent his early career as a circulation manager for the Cleveland News, and went into business for himself in the 1930s, buying a pair of Cleveland taxi companies and running a wire service that supplied bookies with information about the results of horse races. He had connections to organized crime in Chicago and Cleveland arising from the wire service.

McBride developed a passion for football attending games at Notre Dame, where his son went to college. In the early 1940s he tried to buy the NFL's Cleveland Rams, owned by millionaire supermarket heir Dan Reeves, but was rebuffed. Having been awarded the Cleveland franchise in the AAFC, McBride asked Cleveland Plain Dealer sportswriter John Dietrich for head coaching suggestions. Dietrich recommended Paul Brown, the 36-year-old Ohio State Buckeyes coach. After consulting with Ward, McBride followed Dietrich's advice in early 1945, naming Brown head coach and giving him an ownership stake in the team and full control over player personnel. Brown, who had built an impressive record as coach of a Massillon, Ohio high school team and brought the Buckeyes their first national championship, at the time was serving in the U.S. Navy and coached the football team at Great Lakes Naval Station near Chicago.

The name of the team was at first left up to Brown, who rejected calls for it to be christened the Browns. McBride then held a contest to name the team in May 1945; "Cleveland Panthers" was the most popular choice, but Brown rejected it because it was the name of an earlier failed football team. "That old Panthers team failed," Brown said. "I want no part of that name." In August, McBride gave in to popular demand and named the team the Browns, despite Paul Brown's objections.

As the war began to wind down with Germany's surrender in May 1945, the team parlayed Brown's ties to college football and the military to build its roster. The first signing was Otto Graham, a former star quarterback at Northwestern University who was then serving in the Navy. The Browns later signed kicker and offensive tackle Lou Groza and wide receivers Dante Lavelli and Mac Speedie. Fullback Marion Motley and nose tackle Bill Willis, two of the earliest African-Americans to play professional football, also joined the team in 1946. Cleveland's first training camp took place at Bowling Green University in northwestern Ohio. Brown's reputation for winning notwithstanding, joining the team was a risk; the Browns and the AAFC were nascent entities and faced tough competition from the NFL. "I just went up there to see what would happen," center Frank Gatski said many years later.

Cleveland's first regular-season game took place September 6, 1946 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium against the Miami Seahawks before a then-record crowd of 60,135. That contest, which the Browns won 44–0, kicked off an era of dominance. With Brown at the helm, the team won all four of the AAFC's championships from 1946 until its dissolution in 1949, amassing a record of 52 wins, four losses and three ties. This included the 1948 season, in which the Browns became the first unbeaten and untied team in professional football history. The Browns had few worthy rivals among the AAFC's eight teams, but the New York Yankees and San Francisco 49ers were their closest competition.

While the Browns excelled on defense, Cleveland's winning ways were driven by an offense that employed Brown's version of the T formation, which emphasized speed, timing and execution over set plays. Brown liked his players "lean and hungry," and championed quickness over bulk. Graham became a star under Brown's system, leading all passers in each of the AAFC's seasons and racking up 10,085 passing yards. Motley, who Brown in 1948 called "the greatest fullback that ever lived", was the AAFC's all-time leading rusher. Brown and six players from the Browns' AAFC years were later elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame: Graham, Motley, Groza, Lavelli, Willis and Gatski.

The Cleveland area showered support on the Browns from the outset. Meanwhile, the Browns unexpectedly had Cleveland to themselves; the NFL's Cleveland Rams, who had continually lost money despite winning the 1945 NFL championship, moved to Los Angeles after that season. The Browns' on-field feats only amplified their popularity, and the team saw average attendance of 57,000 per game in its first season. The Browns, however, became victims of their own success. Cleveland's dominance exposed a lack of balance among AAFC teams, which the league tried to correct by sending Browns players including quarterback Y.A. Tittle to the Baltimore Colts in 1948. Attendance at Browns games fell in later years as fans lost interest in lopsided victories, while attendance for less successful teams fell even more precipitously. The Browns led all of football during the undefeated season in 1948 with an average crowd of 45,517, but that was more than 10,000 less than the average per game the previous year. These factors – combined with a war for players between the two leagues that raised salaries and ate into owners' profits – ultimately led to the dissolution of the AAFC and the merger of three of its teams, including the Browns, into the NFL in 1949. The NFL does not acknowledge AAFC statistics and records because these achievements – including the Browns' perfect season – did not take place in the NFL or against NFL teams, and not in a league fully absorbed by the NFL.