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.
1948 Cleveland Browns season
The Browns' perfect season and third championship victory came during a strong year for Cleveland sports teams. That April, the Cleveland Barons, the city's American Hockey League team, won the Calder Cup championship. The Cleveland Indians, the city's Major League Baseball club, set an all-time season attendance record and won the World Series. The Browns' success was also a major draw for fans: the team led professional football in attendance in 1948 with an average of 45,517 people per game, although that was still 10,000 lower than the year before. The distribution of talent and fortune among AAFC's teams was unbalanced, however, and while the Browns, the 49ers and the Dons were successes at the gate, teams including the Rockets and Colts languished financially. The NFL was also facing major financial trouble – nine of its ten teams lost money that year – and the two leagues' competition for talent led to talks about a merger. Discussions centered around how many AAFC teams the NFL would absorb; most owners favored four teams, but the talks broke down when powerful owners George Preston Marshall of the Washington Redskins and Tim Mara of the New York Giants intervened and suggested only Cleveland and San Francisco should be absorbed. The AAFC continued play in 1949, but was disbanded after that season. The Browns, 49ers and Colts were merged into the NFL starting in 1950.