Cleveland Rams
The Rams' first home: founded in 1936, NFL champions in their last season in Ohio.
The Cleveland Rams played in Cleveland from 1936 to 1945, one season in the second American Football League and then in the NFL, and won the 1945 NFL championship before moving to Los Angeles.
Quick Facts
- Founded
- 1936
- Location
- Cleveland, Ohio
- Field
- League Park
- Shaw Stadium
- Cleveland Stadium
- League
- American Football League (1936); National Football League (1937–1945)
- Coaches
- Damon Wetzel
- Hugo Bezdek
- Art Lewis
- Dutch Clark
- Aldo Donelli
- Adam Walsh
- Championships
- 1 (1945)
Facts from the source article.
Background
Attorney Homer Marshman and player-coach Damon 'Buzz' Wetzel founded the club in 1936 and named it after the Fordham Rams, partly because the name was short enough for newspaper headlines. The team went 5-2-2 in the AFL and entered the NFL in 1937, where it struggled for years; rookie halfback Parker Hall was the league's MVP in 1939. Dan Reeves and Fred Levy Jr. bought the team in June 1941, and it sat out the 1943 season because of the wartime player shortage. In 1945, under new coach Adam Walsh, rookie quarterback Bob Waterfield was named MVP and the Rams went 9-1 and beat Washington 15-14 in the championship game. Reeves, who had lost money despite the title and faced the new Cleveland Browns, then took the team west.
More in Club History & Eras
Elsewhere in Los Angeles Rams
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