Cleveland Browns
The history of the Cleveland Browns American football team began in 1944 when taxi-cab magnate Arthur B. "Mickey" McBride secured a Cleveland franchise in the newly formed All-America Football Conference (AAFC). Paul Brown was the team's namesake and first coach. The Browns began play in 1946 in the AAFC. The Browns won each of the league's four championship games before the league dissolved in 1949. The team then moved to the more established National Football League (NFL), where it continued to dominate. Between 1950 and 1955, Cleveland reached the NFL championship game every year, winning three times.
History of the Cleveland Browns
With Brown gone, halfback Leroy Kelly became the team's primary rusher in 1966. Kelly, an eighth-round draft choice who saw limited playing time in two years as a backup, ably filled his predecessor's shoes. Cleveland missed the playoffs in 1966, but made it to the postseason the following year after a realignment of the NFL's divisions that placed the Browns in the new Century Division. The Browns, however, lost the 1967 eastern conference championship to the Dallas Cowboys. After a year in which he made just 11 of 23 field goal attempts, placekicker Lou Groza, the last remaining player from the inaugural 1946 Browns team, retired before the start of the 1968 season. Groza, who had been on the roster for 21 seasons and was 44 years old when he hung up his spikes, said in his memoir that retiring was "the saddest day of my football life."