It’s interesting to note that the team won all four AAFC titles during its tenure from 1946 to 1950.

History Of The Browns

In 1946, when the team was founded by Arthur McBride, there was a fan contest to decide on the name. The fans decided on the name “Panthers”. The coach at that time was Paul Brown who was against the name because another team had the same name. After a second contest the name “Browns” was chosen. It was a coincidence that it was the same name as the coach, but there is no proof suggesting that his name influenced the decision. He publicly announced that the name had been influenced by the boxing champion Joe Louis who was also known as the “Brown Bomber”.

Once it was affiliated to the NFL in 1950, the Browns won their first league championship. In 1951, they lost their first ever championship game against the Los Angeles Rams. In 1954 and 1955, they won their second and third NFL titles. The next two years were not that successful for the team. Once fullback Jim Brown was drafted in 1957, the Browns made a comeback. They advanced to the top of their division but were unable to win any major titles.

A major change came about when the team was taken over by Art Modell in 1961. He fired Paul Brown the next year. Thus ended his 16 year tenure as head coach with the Browns. Under the new head coach Blanton Collier, the Browns went on to win the NFL championship one last time in 1964.

In the 1970’s the Browns did not see any major wins. In 1979 a new nickname was gained by the team, “Kardiac Kids”. They got this nickname because they had a reputation of winning games in the final moments. The team had a good year in 1980 when they had many wins. Unfortunately they lost to the Oakland Raiders who ultimately won the Super Bowl that year.

The Current Browns

In 1995, Art Modell wanted to move the Browns to Baltimore, a move which was disputed by fans. He eventually had to form a new club in Baltimore and the Browns remained in Cleveland. The current owner of the team is Randy Lerner and their head coach is Romeo Crennel. Their home field is Cleveland Browns Stadium, which is incidentally the only NFL location which has not hosted the Super Bowl.