Cleveland Browns

In some accounts there may be confusion regarding the team's history due to unusual and unprecedented actions taken following the relocation of the original team to Baltimore, Maryland following the 1995 season. In an agreement between the city of Cleveland and the National Football League, the name, colors and history of the Browns were to remain in Cleveland, while the relocated club would technically be a new league franchise, the Baltimore Ravens.

For that reason, official records and Pro Football Hall of Fame players are attributed to the Browns and not to the Ravens. Some, however, consider the 1996 Baltimore Ravens and the relocated 1995 Browns as one continuous entity, often using the term The Modell Franchise to denote it (after its long-time owner, Art Modell). See the Franchise History entry below for full details of the move.

Founded: 1946, in the All-America Football Conference; joined NFL in 1950.
Home field: Cleveland Browns Stadium
Previous home field: Cleveland Municipal Stadium (1946-1995)
Uniform colors: Brown (officially "Seal Brown") and Orange
Helmet design: Orange helmet with brown and white center stripe. No logo (for one game in 1965 the initials "CB" in brown appeared on each side).
League championships won: AAFC: 1946, 1947, 1948, 1949. NFL: 1950, 1954, 1955, 1964.

The Cleveland Browns were founded in 1946 under owner Arthur 'Mickey' McBride. A fan contest was conducted to determine the name of the team, with the most popular choice being "Panthers." However, Coach Paul Brown objected to the name as there was a semi-pro team using it already. A second contest was held, and the name "Browns" was selected. The coach was uncomfortable with the idea of having the team named after him, but stated publicly that the new team was named after boxing champion Joe Louis, who was known as the "Brown Bomber."

The Browns were extremely successful early into their existence, dominating the new All-America Football Conference, winning all four of its championships including the 1948 season in which they went unbeaten and untied - 24 years before the NFL's 'first' perfect team, the 1972 Miami Dolphins. Cleveland's undefeated streak (including ties) reached 29 games including 18 straight wins.

The City of Cleveland showed terrific support for the Browns from the moment they were created. The team saw a record setting average attendance of 57,000 a game in its first season. The success of the Browns was largely a reason for Cleveland's NFL franchise, the Rams to leave town.

In early 1998 the National Football League began its search for an owner for the reborn Browns, finding one later in the year in Al Lerner, a former limited partner of the original Browns and a friend of Art Modell who assisted in Modell's move to Baltimore. Lerner was the winning bidder against a number of others who sought the team, including cable TV magnates Charles Dolan and Larry Dolan, Cleveland real estate developer Bart Wolstein and New York developer Howard Milstein.  During the period from 1996-1998 other franchises, such as Tampa Bay, threatened their home cities with the possibility of moving to Cleveland in order to put pressure on their respective cities to get more governmental funding for their own stadiums, despite the fact that the city of Cleveland asserted that it would not accept such an arrangement. (There was nothing in the 1996 court settlement which prevented the league from allowing such a transfer though so we shall never know what would have happened if a team had tried to move to Cleveland.) Lerner died in October 2002, coincidentally four years to the day he was awarded the new Browns franchise. In death he turned the team over to a trust controlled by his son, Randy.

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