Saturday is the 72nd anniversary of unquestionably the greatest and most important game in Browns history.
It was on Christmas Eve, Dec. 24, 1950, at Cleveland Stadium that the Browns rallied to edge the Los Angeles Rams 30-28 on Lou Groza’s 16-yard field goal with 28 seconds remaining to win the NFL championship in their first year in the league.
Had they not won that game, then the legacy of the Browns’ great early years would be less impressive.
The Browns blew through the All-America Football Conference in their first four seasons of 1946-49, going an incredible 52-4-3 and winning all four league titles. That includes a perfect season of 15-0 in 1948.
The AAFC disbanded after the 1949 season and, per an agreement with the NFL, the Browns were among the three of its teams, along with the arch-rival San Francisco 49ers and the first version of the Baltimore Colts, to be absorbed into the bigger league.
Despite the disrespect shown them by NFL hard-liners, who believed they were a Micky Mouse team from a Mickey Mouse league, the Browns never missed a bear. Throttling the two-time defending NFL champion Philadelphia Eagles 35-10 on the road in the opener, the Browns finished the 1950 regular season at 10-2 and tied New York for first place in the American Conference. They then beat the Giants, who had defeated them both times in the regular season, by a score of 8-3 in a special playoff game to earn the right to face the Rams the next week in the title game.
That’s all well and good, but to be fully vindicated, earning the begrudging respect from all their doubters in the NFL, the Browns had to finish the job and beat the Rams and win the championship. Finishing runner-up would not be good enough.
Adding to the intrigue of the situation was the fact that the Rams were born in Cleveland in 1937 and played there through 1945, when they captured their first NFL title by edging the Washington Redskins 15-14 on the same field they’d be facing the Browns. After winning the championship, they bolted to Los Angeles instead of staying in Cleveland and vying with the new Browns for the city’s hearts in the 1946 season.
The game, featuring the league’s two best offenses, went back and forth until the Rams seemed to take control midway through the fourth quarter, building a 28-20 lead (this was long before the two-point conversion rule was instituted, so the Browns needed two scores to go ahead) and then recovering a fumbled snap by Cleveland quarterback Otto Graham.
A disconsolate Graham trudged to the sideline, where head coach Paul Brown met him and told him simply, “Don’t worry. We’ll get the ball back for you.”
And the Browns did just that, twice. The defense stopped the Rams and turned the ball back over to Graham, who drove the team to a touchdown to cut the deficit to one point, 28-27. The defense got the ball back for Graham again, and he marched the Browns into position for Groza to kick the game-winner.
Finally, the doubters had to give the Browns their due, and they solidified their status as a dynasty by going on to qualify for the league title game in each of their first 10 years of existence from 1946-55, winning seven titles.
By the way, the only player left from that 1950 Browns team is wingback Dub Jones. A Cleveland Browns Legend who probably should be enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, he played for the Browns from 1948-55. He was also the offensive coordinator of the Browns’ last NFL championship team in 1964.
He will turn 98 years young next Thursday, Dec. 29.
God bless you, Dub Jones, and Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday.
Steve King
