If the question is were they good? Good enough to play the Eagles for the Championship. Same for 1950 when they lost to the team that replaced them in Cleveland namely the Cleveland Browns-on a last second FG by HOF kicker Lou Groza. But then in 1951 they again played the Browns at the Coliseum for the Championship. By this time they had drafted Van Brocklin who split time with Bob Waterfield the HOF QB from UCLA. I was at the game with my mom sitting about 20 rows up when VanBrocklin threw the winning TD pass to Tom Fears. I think it was like a 70 yd play and Rams won 24-17.
After winning the title in 1946 as the Cleveland Rams the owner-Dan Reeves-wanted the City of Cleveland to upgrade the old Cleveland Municipal Stadium. They refused and with a lot of Hollywood money-including Bob Hope-he moved the team to Los Angeles in 46. There was a lot of politics involved because most, if not all, of the NFL teams didn't want to pay for all the air flights that would now be required.
There is an outstanding book by James C. Sulecki that goes into the move.
"The Cleveland Rams-The NFL Champs Who Left Too Soon, 1936-1945"
BTW: at the time of the move there was a minor league team in San Francisco. You may have heard of them. "San Francisco 49ers." They joined the NFL when the Rams moved to L.A. They were not very good for a long time.
an add on: Least we forget-the Rams are the reason the game of professional football is so popular today. In the 50s with VanBrocklin at the held and with Fears and Crazylegs Hirsch as ends they opened up the game of football from a running game to an open field passing game. I believe they still hold records for passing yardage in a game-something in the 500 yards. Believe it or not the Coliseum drew many crowds of over 100,000 people to see the Rams offense. It wasn't long before NBC, ABC, and CBS could see the money and the fact that football is perfect for television-probably the only sport that is. Then came national broadcasts of the games that no longer would be only local. The rest is well known.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/23/2024 04:07PM by waterfield.
