The Gipper Posted August 7, 2013 Report Share Posted August 7, 2013 Here are just some tidbits about the history of the Cleveland/LA/St. Louis Ram: * The Rams came into the NFL in 1937. There was a Cleveland Rams franchise that played in an old AFL league in 1936...but the NFL considers this to be a completely new, separate franchise. * The Rams are named in honor of the Fordham Rams. The owner, Homer Marshman was a Fordham graduate, and a fan of the famous 7 Blocks of Granite that played for Fordham. One of those 7 blocks was a guy named Vince Lombardi * Ironically, the Cleveland Rams were brought into the league to replace the St. Louis Gunners, who had folded at the end of the prior season. * In their short time in Cleveland the Rams played in 3 different stadiums: Cleveland Municipal Stadium, League Park, and Shaw Field...which is still there today, in East Cleveland as the home of the Shaw HS football team. * Dan Reeves, (not related to the coach of the same name) who bought out the majority interest from Marshman was an heir to the A&P grocery market chain and used some of that money to buy the Rams. * Bob Hope was a minority owner of the Rams, first in Cleveland then in LA, from 1941 to 1962. (he also for a long time was a minority owner of the Tribe) * The Cleveland Rams won their 1945 NFL title 15-14 over the Redskins on the strength of a safety where Sammy Baugh hit the goal posts with a pass. Under the rules at the time, this constituted a safety....and was the Rams margin of victory. The next season they changed the rule to make it just an incomplete pass. * Reeves ran away from Cleveland so as not to have to compete with Paul Brown's new AAFC team in town. But, the NFL made it a condition of the move that the Rams must take on some black players. Two were added. Ken Washington and Woody Strode. These were the first African-American players to play in the league for 15-20 years. (after racist George Preston Marshall bullied everyone else into disallowing blacks to play) * The Rams moved from an 80,000 plus stadium to the LA Coliseum which held 105K. * LA had had a previous NFL franchise, the Buccaneers, who played in 1926. * In 1948 the Ram horn logo was put on Rams helmets. These were the first helmet logos in NFL history. * The 1950 NFL/AAFC merger also saw the Rams merge with the AAFC LA Dons. In a technical sense, the Rams are still a partial survivor of the AAFC along with the Browns/49ers...and sorta, the Colts, as that Rams/Dons merger is technically still in effect. * The 1950 Rams were the first pro football team to have all of its game televised. * In 1957 the Rams set an NFL record attendance at a game of 102,368. I am not sure, but this record may still stand. * In 1967 the Rams were the first team to have over 1 million attendance. Even today, including preseason games, most team cannot achieve that attendance marke (it would take 10 games at 100K to do so * The 1960s to early 1970s was the reign of the Fearsome Foursome. Olsen, Jones, Lundy, Grier * Dick Vermeil, who later coached the St. Louis Rams to a Super Bowl title, was first hired as a ST coach by George Allen in the late 60's * Reeves sold the Rams in 1972 to Robert Irsay, who immediately turned around and traded the franchise even up with Carroll Rosenbloom for the Baltimore Colts. * The Rams were a dominant team in the 1970s even though they won no tiltes. They still hold the record for most consecutive division titles. * But oddly, it was their weakest team of that era, the 1979 team, which was the only team to make a Super Bowl appearance, the LA Rams only appearance in the game. * But around that Super Bowl appearance, a lot of things were happening with the Rams: A. Just prior to the 1979 season starting, owner Carroll Rosenbloom died mysteriously from a "drowning accident". I am not sure whether or not his body was ever recovered. B. That 1979 season was also the Rams last in the LA Coliseum. They moved in 1980 to the Big A in Anaheim. C. That 1979 Super Bowl is one of only two in history in which a team played in its own area. The game was played in Pasadena, just up the freeway from the LA Coliseum. (the other was the 49ers when they played at Stanford Stadium. The Rams lost, the 49ers won) * The move to Anaheim sorta left the LA market "open"...though the Rams and the NFL didn't necessarily agree that was true. Al Davis took advantage and moved the Raiders into the Coliseum. * This move into LA bifurcated the already fickle LA market...and ultimately caused hertofor unknown consequences for that area. * With the death of Carroll Rosenbloom, she fires her stepson who had been in line to take over operations. Initially she had some success when she hired John Robinson as HC/GM. He did fine. Won some division titles and a few playoff games, but never made it into the Super Bowl. Ultimately, Georgia Frontiere's mismanagement took hold of that team, and after Robinson had some down years, he was fired...but things got worse. * The Rams then became a poor team and big losers. Examples of her...and the people she hired...mismanagement was that when the Rams drafted what they thought was to become the premiere RB of their future....a guy named Lawrence Phillips....they traded away a guy they thought was just so so....a guy named Jerome Bettis. * The losing got to a point where Georgia began to put the blame not where it belonged (on her shoulders and those of the idiot flunkys she hired)....but on her "stadium situation". The fact was, the move to Anaheim didn't achieve for her the financial windfall she wanted it to have, and with the Raiders now in town, both teams failed to acheive the kind of support that two teams in that town seem to warrent. They both suffered. Georgia took a sweetheart deal from her hometown of St. Louis to move there. And, while it was good for a while, especially when she hired former Rams asst./UCLA coach Dick Vermeil, who brought a SB to that team, the Rams have now been down with no playoff appearances in 8 years. *LA, being LA i.e. not really a big pro football town, it lost both teams to more interested constituents.... though when the Rams were the only game in town, playing in the Coliseum, they were a big deal. The death of Carroll Rosenbloom, to my mind also served as the death knell of that team in LA. Not that anyone should care what happens to football in LA....because to great extent, LA has not cared. * So, there is a bit of entwined history with the Browns...and some similarities to their stories....and now they are to play in a Majestic, Fantastic, Wonderful...meaningless...preseason game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Browns149 Posted August 7, 2013 Report Share Posted August 7, 2013 and now they are to play in a Majestic, Fantastic, Wonderful...meaningless...preseason game. That I had to pay FULL PRICE for the tickets Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slowburn Posted August 8, 2013 Report Share Posted August 8, 2013 tix going for 5 dollar on stubhub. my favorite Ram: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miktoxic Posted August 8, 2013 Report Share Posted August 8, 2013 tix going for 5 dollar on stubhub. my favorite Ram: mine too. something about the name is almost decadent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Gipper Posted August 8, 2013 Author Report Share Posted August 8, 2013 tix going for 5 dollar on stubhub. my favorite Ram: OK, but it is hard not to like this guy: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miktoxic Posted August 8, 2013 Report Share Posted August 8, 2013 speaking of james harrison..... i didn't know the area around the country who think he's an ass. the morning show on MSG channel with boomer esiason and craig carton were talking about the first episode of 'HARD KNOCKS' with the bengals this morning and one of the producers saw the show and said the 2 main story lines were about one guy getting cut by injury and the other james harrison. and they all agreed harrison in their words is a 'douche'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Gipper Posted August 8, 2013 Author Report Share Posted August 8, 2013 speaking of james harrison..... i didn't know the area around the country who think he's an ass. the morning show on MSG channel with boomer esiason and craig carton were talking about the first episode of 'HARD KNOCKS' with the bengals this morning and one of the producers saw the show and said the 2 main story lines were about one guy getting cut by injury and the other james harrison. and they all agreed harrison in their words is a 'douche'. Is that a direct quote? What would be potentially entertaining (to see the reaction) would be if JH pulled one of these tricks on his former mate BR: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.