The Dawg Pound

Lore & Background

According to Hanford Dixon, then a cornerback with the Browns, Dixon himself gave his defensive teammates the name 'Dawgs' to inspire them before the 1985 season. The Dawg Pound started during the 1985 training camp at Lakeland Community College in Kirtland. Dixon and fellow cornerback Frank Minnifield started the idea of the pound by using the dog-versus-cat relationship between the quarterback and the defense. 'We had the idea of the quarterback being the cat, and the defensive line being the dog,' Dixon said. 'Whenever the defense would get a regular sack or a coverage sack the defensive linemen and linebackers would bark.' This attitude carried into the stands at the training camp, where fans started barking along with the players. Dixon and Minnifield then put up the first 'Dawg Pound' banner in front of the bleachers before the first preseason game at old Cleveland Stadium. The bleacher section had the cheapest seats in the stadium, and its fans were already known as the most vocal. They adopted their new identity whole-heartedly, wearing dog noses, dog masks, bone-shaped hats and other outlandish costumes. Dawg Pound fans quickly developed a reputation for misbehavior as well as vociferousness. Team officials banned the carrying of dog food into the stadium, as bleacher fans would shower the visiting team with Milk-Bones, along with eggs, batteries, and other objects. Dawg Pound fans also consumed hefty amounts of alcohol, even sneaking a keg into the stadium inside a doghouse. Their reputation was such that other teams' rowdy fans would often be compared to them—in 1989, when a Cincinnati Bengals game was halted by the throwing of debris at the visiting Seattle Seahawks, Bengals coach Sam Wyche addressed the crowd, angrily reminding them, 'You don't live in Cleveland, you live in Cincinnati!' On at least one occasion, Dawg Pound rowdiness affected the outcome of a game. In the fourth quarter of a 1989 game against the hated Denver Broncos, the rain of batteries, rocks, eggs, and other debris coming down from the bleachers endangered the safety of the players. To move the action away from the east end, referee Tom Dooley had the teams switch sides. That put the wind at the Browns' back. The Browns won on a Matt Bahr field goal that barely cleared the crossbar.

Reader's Guide

Current ticket prices for the Dawg Pound are $50 per game, and usually require purchase of season tickets. Since construction of the new stadium, the Dawg Pound is populated by more affluent attendees compared to the generally blue collar fan base that made the Municipal Stadium's Dawg Pound famous. One of the more famous Dawg Pound season-ticket holders is John Big Dawg Thompson (he had a legal name change to include his nickname), known as the 'Canine-in-Chief.' Television cameras often showed the offensive-lineman-sized man in his dog mask and No. 98 jersey, although recently he has undergone gastric bypass surgery and lost considerable weight. In 1995, Thompson became an unofficial spokesman for Browns fans fighting the move of the team to Baltimore. He testified before the U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary and appeared on Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher. Other recognized fans include the Bone Lady (Debra Darnall), Pumpkinhead (Gus Angelone), and The Macho Fan (real name unknown).

Did You Know?

• The Dawg Pound logo was created by NFL Properties and is the only such logo developed for an NFL fan base by the league.
• The 'Bottlegate' incident in 2001 led to the ban of plastic beer bottles from future Browns home games.
• The hashtag #GPODAWUND originated from a banner mistake in October 2016 and became a symbol of the Browns' 1–15 and 0–16 seasons.