The Browns have been an integral part of two Thanksgiving Day pro football traditions, one that faded into history long ago one that still thrives today.
Their first foray into playing on Thanksgiving occurred in the All-America Football Conference, where the Browns played for their first four years of existence from 1946-49 before it dissolved and they joined the NFL in 1950.
Taking their lead from the NFL’s Detroit Lions, who began playing on Thanksgiving way back in 1934, the people running the fledgling AAFC knew they had to have a counter to that to get a piece of the holiday football audience.
The Browns weren’t selected to play in that opening season, but after they won the championship that year and continued to dominate on the way to winning the next three titles and becoming the league’s biggest draw, they appeared every year thereafter —all on the road — and went undefeated.
In 1947, they topped the Los Angeles Dons 27-17, then in their perfect season of 1948, they beat the Dons again 31-14 as part of a week in which they pulled off the incredible feat of playing three games on the road on opposite coasts against their biggest rivals. It had never happened before, it hasn’t happened since and spark sparkling water it will never happen again.
They beat the Chicago Hornets 14-6 in 1949.
In the NFL, the Browns have played on Thanksgiving three times, the last two of which came in that weird, strike-shortened season of 1982 when, in just their fourth game of the year, they lost 31-14 to the Dallas Cowboys, and then in 1989 when they were upset 13-10 by the Lions as they joined the rest of the league in not being able to tackle Barry Sanders.
But there was nothing very significant about either of those games. It was the Browns’ first NFL game on Thanksgiving, on Nov. 24, 1966 (the 57th anniversary of that game will be Friday), when the Browns lost 26-14 to Dallas before 75,504 (which still stands as the largest crowd ever to see the Cowboys play at the Cotton Bowl during their 1-1/2 decades there), that really stands out.
It marked the first Thanksgiving game the Cowboys ever hosted. They have hosted a Thanksgiving game every year but two since then, and will do so again on Thursday against their longtime rivals, the Washington Commanders.
It was also the game that changed everything — for the Browns, the Cowboys and the NFL.
Despite a slow start, the two-time defending Eastern Conference champion Browns entered the game with a 7-3 record after having won two in a row and six of their last seven. This was a typically good season for the Browns. They had had only one losing season in their history, and just two years earlier had won the NFL title.
The Cowboys had never posted a winning record in their first six seasons of existence, but they had been getting a little better all along. In 1965, they got to 7-7 and finished second in the East, pushing the Browns to the max in both games before losing. They carried that momentum into 1966. Even though they had lost to the Browns again, this time by 30-21, a month earlier at Cleveland Stadium in the teams’ first meeting of the year (it was Cleveland’s seventh straight win in the series), they were rolling. They started the year with four straight victories, and entered the rematch with the Browns having won two in a row and three of their last four. That put them at 7-2-1and in first place in the conference, a half-game ahead of Cleveland. There would be just three games left after the Thanksgiving contest, so the Cowboys could get a big edge over the Browns in the race with a victory. Indeed, Cleveland really needed to win.
Every year except one from 1950 through 1965 (1960 with the Philadelphia Eagles), either the Browns or New York Giants had captured the Eastern championship. So a changing of the guard would be significant.
The Browns led 14-13 at halftime on a one-yard touchdown run by Leroy Kelly, who was in his first year as a starter following the offseason retirement of the incomparable Jim Brown, and Frank Ryan’s 16-yard scoring pass to the other running back, Ernie Green, But the Cowboys took charge in the second half to get a huge win, one that would jumpstart their long run of success as one of the greatest franchises in NFL history.
The Cowboys improved to 8-2-1 and took a game-and-a-half lead over the 7-4 Browns. Dallas went 2-1 the rest of the way, the same as Cleveland, to finish 10-3 -1 and well ahead of the 9-5 Browns to gain the conference title. The Cowboys would win it again in 1967 over Cleveland.
Steve King
