On this week’s National Football League schedule, the St. Louis Rams take on the Cleveland Browns, and our Throwback Thursday feature harkens back to an NFL championship game that pre-dates the Super Bowl era, the 1950 title game between these two franchises. Played on Christmas Eve, the game featured a clash between the Rams, based in Los Angeles at the time and a league offensive juggernaut, and the Browns, who were a powerhouse in the old All America Football Conference and joined the NFL, along with the San Francisco 49ers and Baltimore Colts, for the 1950 season. The Rams, already a strong club, were made stronger when they added players from the defunct AAFC L.A. Dons. They averaged almost 39 points per game, and scored over 60 in two of their games, in racking up a 9-3 record to reach the title game, while the Browns went 10-2 but were underdogs in the game due to being the “new kids on the block” in the NFL.
Program from the 1950 NFL Championship, played on Christmas Eve
The Rams were loaded with offensive weapons – future Hall of Famers like Bob Waterfield, Norm Van Brocklin, Tom Fears and Elroy “Crazy Legs” Hirsch, plus others – Deacon Dan Towler, Tank Younger and former Heisman Trophy winner Glenn Davis, who had a short-lived NFL career but had his best season in 1950. The Browns, under owner/coach Paul Brown, were a force in the AAFC, winning the title in all 4 years of the league’s existence. However, owners in the NFL considered them to be a decent team in what they considered an inferior league. Those feelings looked like they were correct when the Rams opened the game with an 82 yard touchdown throw from Waterfield to Davis, giving L.A. a 7-0 lead. Cleveland, however, stayed the course and kept the game close behind the play of their star quarterback, Otto Graham. He threw for 298 yards and 4 scores, compared to Waterfield, who wound up passing for 312 yards, but only one TD with 4 interceptions. The Browns’ defense proved to be ballhawks that day with the four picks, two of which were pilfered by Warren Lahr. As the game wound down, the Rams clung to a 28-27 lead, which they held only because the Browns had missed an extra point on one of their touchdowns. At this point, Graham led his team on a drive from his own 31 yard line, with 1:28 left, to set up a field goal attempt by Lou “The Toe” Groza, which he made to send the Browns on to a 30-28 win, securing the NFL championship in the team’s first year in the league. After the game, NFL commissioner Bert Bell called the Browns “the greatest team ever to play football”, now that they’d proven they could handle the old NFL’s best. The win was also of great satisfaction for the city of Cleveland, since the Rams had abandoned the town and moved to the west coast. Now their new (and better) team beat the Rams, the best the NFL had to offer.
Lou “The Toe” Groza kicks the winning field goal for Cleveland