History of the Cincinnati Bengals

The Cincinnati Bengals are a professional football team in the National Football League. They began as an expansion franchise in the American Football League in 1968 and have reached three Super Bowls, losing all of them—twice to the San Francisco 49ers and once to the Los Angeles Rams.

Former Cleveland Browns head coach Paul Brown started planning for a new franchise in 1965. Cincinnati’s city council approved building Riverfront Stadium in 1966, and on May 23, 1967, the city was awarded an AFL franchise. The team was sold to a local ownership group led by Brown, who held a 10% share. The largest shareholder was Austin E. Knowlton with 30%, followed by John Sawyer with 20%, The Cincinnati Enquirer with 11%, and seven others who together owned 29%.

Brown had been the founder and head coach of the Cleveland Browns from 1946 to 1962, leading them to a .759 winning percentage and seven championships—four of them in the All-America Football Conference, which the Browns won every year it existed. When the AAFC folded after 1949, the Browns, along with the San Francisco 49ers and the original Baltimore Colts, joined the NFL. Brown was known as an innovator in training, game planning, and the passing game.

However, he was only a minority owner of the Browns and couldn’t buy out the rest of the group. In 1961, businessman Art Modell took control of the team, and on January 9, 1963, Modell fired Brown. Some believe Modell was tired of complaints about Brown’s autocratic style; others say it was because Brown traded for Heisman Trophy winner Ernie Davis without Modell’s knowledge. Davis was soon diagnosed with leukemia.

Brown didn’t want to play him; Modell insisted he could. Their relationship, never warm, worsened. Davis died on May 18, 1963.

By 1966, Brown wanted back into professional football. Ohio Governor James A. Rhodes convinced him the state needed a second team. Columbus already had Ohio State, so Cincinnati was the only realistic option. Brown first sought an NFL franchise but was turned down, partly because Cincinnati lacked a suitable stadium. The city’s largest venue, Nippert Stadium at the University of Cincinnati, held only 28,000 people—far below the NFL’s minimum of 50,000. The league deemed it unfit even for temporary use.

Though only the third-largest shareholder, Brown became the team’s public face.