The 1946 Cleveland Browns season was the team's first in the All-America Football Conference (AAFC). The Browns, coached by Paul Brown, ended the year with a record of 12–2, winning the AAFC's Western Division. Led by quarterback Otto Graham, fullback Marion Motley and ends Dante Lavelli and Mac Speedie, the team won the first AAFC championship game against the New York Yankees.
The Browns were founded by Arthur B. McBride, a Cleveland taxi-cab tycoon, as a charter franchise in the new AAFC. McBride in 1945 hired Brown, a successful coach at the high school and college levels. Brown, who was serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II, began to assemble a roster as the team prepared to begin play in 1946. After beating the Brooklyn Dodgers in an exhibition game, Cleveland opened the regular season against the Miami Seahawks at Cleveland Stadium on September 6, winning 44–0. The Browns proceeded to win six more games before losing for the first time in October against the San Francisco 49ers at home by a score of 34–20. Cleveland lost a second game in a row against the Los Angeles Dons the following week, but rebounded to win the final five games of the season, including a 66–14 victory over the Dodgers. Cleveland finished with the league's best record and a spot in the championship game against the Yankees. The Browns won the game 14–9.
Lavelli led the AAFC in receiving with 843 yards and 8 touchdowns, while placekicker Lou Groza led the league in points scored, with 84. Graham had the league's best passing average, with 10.5 yards per attempt. His quarterback rating of 112.1 was the highest in professional football history until Joe Montana surpassed it in 1989. Cleveland played all of its home games in Cleveland Stadium. The 1946 Browns set a professional football record with 67 defensive takeaways; the record still stands as of .
Founding of the Browns in the AAFC
In 1944 Arch Ward, the influential sports editor of the Chicago Tribune, started a new professional football league called the All-America Football Conference (AAFC). Ward, who had gained fame for starting all-star games for baseball and college football, lined up deep-pocketed owners including Arthur B. "Mickey" McBride, a Cleveland businessman who grew up in Chicago and knew Ward from his involvement in the newspaper business.
McBride developed a passion for football attending games at Notre Dame, where his son went to college. In the early 1940s he tried to buy the NFL's Cleveland Rams, owned by millionaire supermarket heir Dan Reeves, but was rebuffed. Having been awarded the Cleveland franchise in the AAFC, McBride asked Cleveland Plain Dealer sportswriter John Dietrich for head coaching suggestions. Dietrich recommended Paul Brown, the 36-year-old Ohio State Buckeyes coach. After consulting with Ward, McBride followed Dietrich's advice in early 1945, naming Brown head coach and giving him an ownership stake in the team and full control over player personnel. Brown, who had built an impressive record as coach of a Massillon, Ohio, high school team and brought the Buckeyes their first national championship, at the time was serving in the U.S. Navy and coached the football team at Great Lakes Naval Station near Chicago.
The name of the team was at first left up to Brown, who rejected calls for it to be christened the Browns. McBride then held a contest to name the team in May 1945; "Cleveland Panthers" was the most popular choice, but Brown rejected it because it was the name of an earlier failed football team. "That old Panthers team failed," Brown said. "I want no part of that name." In August, McBride gave in to popular demand and named the team the Browns, despite Paul Brown's objections.
Building a roster
As the war wound down with Germany's surrender in May 1945, the team parlayed Brown's ties to college football and the military to build its roster. The first signing was Otto Graham, a former star quarterback at Northwestern University who was then serving in the Navy. The Browns later signed kicker and offensive tackle Lou Groza and wide receivers Dante Lavelli and Mac Speedie. Fullback Marion Motley and nose tackle Bill Willis, two of the earliest African-Americans to play professional football, also joined the team in 1946. Cleveland's first training camp took place at Bowling Green University in northwestern Ohio. Brown's reputation for winning notwithstanding, joining the team was a risk; the Browns and the AAFC were nascent entities and faced tough competition from the NFL. "I just went up there to see what would happen," center Frank Gatski said many years later.
Almost all of the players Brown signed were war veterans. Gatski hitchhiked to Bowling Green from West Virginia in a military uniform. Once at training camp, the players faced intense competition for spots on the final roster. Rookies who had their college careers cut short by the war faced off against veteran players from NFL teams including the Chicago Cardinals and Chicago Bears. "It was a tough, dog-eat-dog situation, and you really had to hustle," Groza said later. Almost all of the men Brown signed had played for or against his teams at Ohio State and Great Lakes.
Five former Rams players also jumped to the Browns in 1946: center Mike Scarry, tackle Chet Adams and backs Gaylon Smith, Tommy Colella and Don Greenwood. Their move gave rise to a legal battle with the Rams, who had left Cleveland for Los Angeles shortly after winning the 1945 NFL Championship when Reeves, the Rams' owner, realized he had no prospect of competing with the Browns.
Reeves subsequently filed an injunction against Adams in federal court after he signed with the Browns, claiming the tackle had unlawfully broken his contract to play for the Rams. Adams argued he had no obligation under his contract to play for the Rams, as the team were now the Los Angeles Rams following their relocation.
At the end of August 1946, federal judge Emerich Freed denied the Rams' injunction, allowing Adams to play for the Browns. Judge Freed rejected the Rams' contention that Adams had signed a contract to play for Reeves, not a specific team, and also ruled that the Cleveland Rams (by extension, Adams' contract) had ceased to exist.
In addition to the players, Brown hired a number of assistant coaches. John Brickels, an Ohio native, was brought in early on to sign players while Brown was still in the Navy. He later served as a backfield coach. Another hire was Blanton Collier, a high school coach for 16 years who had been an assistant to Brown at Great Lakes: Collier would succeed Brown in 1963 as the team's head coach. Fritz Heisler was brought in as a guard coach, and he stayed with the Browns until the 1970s.
Roster and coaching staff 1946 Cleveland Browns rosterBacks CB/RB/P CB/RB/P FB/LB QB/S CB/RB RB/CB QB/S RB/CB FB/LB QB/S FB/LB RB/CB RB/CB
Ends/Receivers
Linemen/Linebackers DT/T/K T/DT MG/G T/DT LB/C K/T G/MG C/LB DT/T LB C/LB G MG/GReserve RB/CB (IR) G/MG (IR) G/MG (IR) T/DT (IR)
Head Coach Paul Brown
Assistants John Brickels (Backfield) Blanton Collier (Backfield) Red Conkright (Ends/Center) Dick Gallagher (Ends) Fritz Heisler (Guards) Creighton Miller (Backfield) Bob Voigts (Tackles)
rookies in italics
Preseason
Source: Cleveland Plain Dealer
The Browns' first and only preseason game took place at the Rubber Bowl in Akron, Ohio, against the Brooklyn Dodgers. Cleveland won the game 35–20. Brooklyn opened the scoring with a touchdown in the first quarter and another on the first play of the second quarter. Both touchdowns followed interceptions thrown by Otto Graham. Substituting for Graham, Cliff Lewis threw a short touchdown pass to Fred Evans near the end of the second quarter to give the Browns their first points. Cleveland scored again in the second half after John Rokisky picked up a fumble by Brooklyn halfback Glenn Dobbs and ran it 55 yards for a touchdown, giving the Browns the lead. Graham threw a short pass to Mac Speedie for another touchdown in the third quarter, and added a 20-yard pass to George Young in the fourth quarter to widen the lead. In the same quarter, Evans intercepted a Dobbs pass and ran 83 yards for his second touchdown. Brooklyn had a touchdown near the end of the game to make the final score 35–20. Cleveland won the game despite trailing the Dodgers in rushing yards, 93 to 63. After the win, the Browns prepared to face the Miami Seahawks in their first regular-season game the following Friday.
Schedule
Game Date Opponent Result Record Venue Attendance Recap Source 1 September 6 Miami Seahawks W 44–0 1–0 Cleveland Stadium 60,135 Recap 2 September 13 at Chicago Rockets W 20–6 2–0 Soldier Field 51,962 Recap 3 September 22 at Buffalo Bisons W 28–0 3–0 War Memorial Stadium 30,302 Recap 4 September 26 New York Yankees W 24–7 4–0 Cleveland Stadium 57,084 Recap 5 October 6 Brooklyn Dodgers W 26–7 5–0 Cleveland Stadium 43,713 Recap 6 October 12 at New York Yankees W 7–0 6–0 Yankee Stadium 34,252 Recap 7 October 20 Los Angeles Dons W 31–14 7–0 Cleveland Stadium 71,134 Recap 8 October 27 San Francisco 49ers L 20–34 7–1 Cleveland Stadium 70,385 Recap 9 November 3 at Los Angeles Dons L 16–17 7–2 Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum 24,800 Recap 10 November 10 at San Francisco 49ers W 14–7 8–2 Kezar Stadium 41,061 Recap 11 November 17 Chicago Rockets W 51–14 9–2 Cleveland Stadium 60,457 Recap 12 November 24 Buffalo Bisons W 42–17 10–2 Cleveland Stadium 37,054 Recap 13 December 3 at Miami Seahawks W 34–0 11–2 Miami Orange Bowl 9,038 Recap 14 December 8 at Brooklyn Dodgers W 66–14 12–2 Ebbets Field 14,600 Recap Note: Intra-division opponents are in bold text.
Game summaries
Week 1: vs. Miami Seahawks
Source: Pro Football Reference
The Browns' first game, against the Miami Seahawks, took place on a warm late-summer evening in September. The crowd was the second-largest ever for a professional football game. The game was well-attended in part because of team owner Arthur B. McBride's promotion of the new team, but also because the Browns' two black players helped draw a large African-American crowd. Miami's team, drawn mainly from the Southern United States, was overmatched by Cleveland. The score was 27–0 at halftime and the final was 44–0. Browns end Mac Speedie scored the team's first points on a 19-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Cliff Lewis. Otto Graham came in at quarterback in the second quarter and threw a touchdown to Dante Lavelli. Placekicker Lou Groza kicked three field goals, and the Browns had two defensive touchdowns. Miami never advanced past the Browns' 39-yard line.
Week 2: vs. Chicago Rockets
Source: Pro Football Reference
In their second game, the Browns faced the Chicago Rockets at Soldier Field before a crowd of 51,962 people, an attendance record for a professional football game in Chicago. It was the first of many games during which Cleveland's two black players, Marion Motley and Bill Willis, endured racially charged verbal and physical abuse. Some of their white teammates, including Lou Rymkus, retaliated by dealing their own cheap shots. Motley opened the scoring with a 20-yard run for a touchdown, the first in his career. Lou Groza added two field goals in the third quarter, and halfback Don Greenwood ran for a 41-yard touchdown to make the final score 20–6. Chicago's only points came on a touchdown run by Billy Hillenbrand on the first play of the fourth quarter. Motley later said that racism on the field stopped after opponents saw how well he and Willis played: "They found out that while they were calling us niggers and alligator bait, I was running for touchdowns and Willis was knocking the shit out of them. So they stopped calling us names and started trying to catch up with us."
Week 3: vs. Buffalo Bisons
Source: Pro Football Reference