All-America Football Conference

• 1. Founding And Early Struggles

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  On the 4th of June 1944, Chicago Tribune sports editor Arch Ward gathered a group of wealthy football enthusiasts to launch the All-America Football Conference. Ward had previously created baseball's All-Star Game and hoped to establish a permanent second league with its own championship series against the NFL. The idea did not emerge in isolation. Two other upstart leagues were attempting to challenge the established National Football League that same year. Gary Webster's United States Football League announced teams in eight cities including Akron, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Honolulu, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington. That league faded after failing to attract major investors or sign players. Red Grange claimed they were holding out for between $400 and $600 a game when they used to get $150. The Trans-America Football League also planned franchises in multiple cities but folded on the 4th of June 1945, after failing to secure a lease to Yankee Stadium. On the 21st of November 1944, the AAFC chose James Crowley as its commissioner. He was one of the Four Horsemen of Notre Dame. Not coincidentally, the NFL commissioner at this time was Elmer Layden, another member of Knute Rockne's legendary 1924 Fighting Irish backfield. During the next months, the AAFC's plans solidified. The league initially issued franchises for Buffalo, Chicago, Cleveland, Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco. Brooklyn and Miami were later added. A group representing Baltimore was considered for admission but could not secure use of Baltimore's stadium. The league planned to begin play in 1945 but postponed its opening for a year as World War II continued.

• 2. The War For Talent And Markets

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  In 1946, the AAFC posed a formidable challenge to the established National Football League. The NFL was just emerging from wartime retrenchment. The Cleveland Rams had suspended operations for 1943, and teams merged for seasons on three occasions. The Philadelphia Eagles and Pittsburgh Steelers merged in 1943. The Chicago Cardinals and Pittsburgh Steelers merged in 1944. The Boston Yanks and Brooklyn Tigers merged in 1945. Meanwhile, the AAFC owners dubbed themselves the millionaires coffee klatch. They were wealthier than their NFL counterparts. Among them were Cleveland's Arthur B Mickey McBride, a real estate and taxi magnate. San Francisco's Anthony Morabito owned lumber companies. Chicago's John L. Keeshin ran trucking businesses. Los Angeles' group included racetrack owner Benjamin Lindheimer, actor Don Ameche, and MGM's Louis B. Mayer. Peace produced a surplus of talent and an opening for a new league. Many pro and college players returned to civilian life after serving on military teams. The AAFC took its share. Its 1946 rosters included 40 of the 66 College All-Stars. Two recent Heisman Trophy winners Frank Sinkwich and Angelo Bertelli joined the league. More than 100 players with NFL experience signed with the AAFC. Air travel was now viable. Like Major League Baseball, all NFL teams still played in the Northeast and Midwest. The AAFC seized the opportunity to place teams in open cities in Florida and California. In 1946, there would be 18 teams including three in Chicago, three in New York, and two in Los Angeles. Dan Topping, owner of the NFL's Brooklyn Tigers, wished to move his team from Ebbets Field to the much larger Yankee Stadium. New York Giants owner Tim Mara used his territorial rights to block the move. Topping responded by buying into the baseball Yankees and transferring his football club to the AAFC. Most of his players followed. His renamed New York Yankees were rewarded with $100,000 from each of the other seven AAFC teams while the AAFC's initial New York investor withdrew.

• 3. Paul Browns Revolutionary Coaching

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  No move was more far-reaching than Cleveland's choice of Paul Brown as its head coach. Brown had won six Ohio state championships in nine years at Massillon High School. He also won the 1942 national championship at Ohio State. He coached successfully at the military's Naval Station Great Lakes. As coach of the new Cleveland franchise, Brown became one of American football's greatest innovators. He produced numerous innovations to the game on and off the field. Among them were year-round coaching staffs and precision pass patterns. The face mask appeared under his direction. Coaches began calling plays via messenger guards. He was the first coach to have his staff film the opposition. His team broke down those game films in a classroom setting. The classroom setting and chalkboard analysis can be attributed to him. His success with the Browns forced the rest of both leagues to adopt his methods. Many of his players and assistants eventually coached champions. In the AAFC's first game on the 6th of September 1946, the Cleveland Browns hosted the Miami Seahawks. They won 44, 0 before a professional football record crowd of more than 60,000 fans. Largely thanks to Paul Brown's innovations in organization and coaching, the Browns were on their way to setting a new standard of pro football excellence. Commissioner Crowley acknowledged that allowing an open market for signing players was a fatal mistake. It planted the seeds for the Browns' near-total dominance of the league.

• 4. Integration And Social Impact

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  This historic game marked the end of pro football's color line. The Browns' Marion Motley and Bill Willis became the first black players to play pro football since 1933. Both men would later become Hall of Famers. The NFL Rams had also signed two black players UCLA great Kenny Washington and future actor Woody Strode but opened several weeks later. Notably, this was before Jackie Robinson's debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Robinson was then playing for the Montreal Royals, the Dodgers' top farm team. In coming years, the AAFC would tap this talent pool more than the NFL. Twenty black players appeared in the AAFC compared with seven in the NFL by 1949. Through its poaching of NFL official Tommy Hughitt, the AAFC took an explicitly anti-racist stance toward rough play. They aggressively penalized racist unsportsmanlike conduct. Motley credited this, along with the AAFC fans' embrace of black talent, with helping to establish the legitimacy of integrated professional football. Black players were excluded from the NFL from 1934 to 1945. The AAFC helped reintegrate professional American football in 1946 when Cleveland signed Marion Motley and Bill Willis. The NFL Rams, having been driven out of Cleveland by the AAFC Browns, signed Kenny Washington and Woody Strode only after the venue they sought to play in, the Los Angeles Coliseum, enforced its policy of integration.

• 5. Financial Collapse And Merger

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  Despite the fiasco in Miami, the AAFC had enjoyed a successful debut. However, as salaries shot up with two leagues competing for players, the only teams to make a profit were the two champions, the Browns and the NFL Bears. Red ink on both sides continued to flow. The Colts and Hornets were only kept afloat when Dons owner Ben Lindheimer subsidized them. The Green Bay Packers then owned by a local civic group had to issue new stock to remain solvent. Now facing two cross-town rivals, the Bulldogs predictably had even lower attendance in New York than in Boston. The Pittsburgh Steelers and Detroit Lions were also having serious financial problems. Remarkably, the AAFC actually enjoyed better attendance than the NFL over its four-year run. In an era when sports teams were wholly dependent on gate receipts to remain in business, revenues from sources such as media rights were negligible. This had the potential to put the AAFC on essentially an equal financial footing. However, the NFL had a critical advantage in that its ownership was deeply committed to ensuring the survival of their teams. It became clear that the AAFC's better-financed owners who were accustomed to operating profitable businesses were not willing to absorb losses indefinitely. On the 9th of December 1949, two days before the AAFC title game, the two leagues made peace. Three AAFC teams were admitted to the NFL: the Browns, 49ers, and Colts. The Dons merged with the Rams while the Bills, Yankees, and Hornets folded. The enlarged league was renamed the National, American Football League.

• 6. Legacy Of The Cleveland Dynasty

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  The Browns now owned a 52, 4, 3 record and all four AAFC titles. They went 10, 2 to finish in a first-place tie with the New York Giants. They won a playoff 8, 3 to qualify for the 1950 NFL championship game. Their opponent was a formidable Los Angeles Rams team that averaged nearly 39 points per game. In a classic seesaw game, the Browns prevailed on a last-minute field goal, 30, 28, to win their fifth consecutive league title. After the title game, Commissioner Bell called the Browns the greatest team to ever play football. Cleveland remained near the top of the NFL for years. Although in 1951 they were finally denied a league title by the Rams, the Browns played in every NFL title game from 1950 to 1955. They won three of them for a grand total of seven league titles in ten years. Sixteen AAFC alumni are enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The AAFC put the first pro football teams in Baltimore, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Miami. Indeed, the AAFC was a coast-to-coast league more than a decade before Major League Baseball. This brought about another innovation: AAFC teams traveled by air while NFL teams still traveled by train. The merger would also benefit the Pittsburgh Steelers. One of the NFL's shakiest franchises financially prior to the merger, the addition of the Browns helped form a rivalry due to the close proximity of Cleveland and Pittsburgh. That distance would be cut to two hours driving time by the mid-1950s when the Ohio Turnpike and western extension of the Pennsylvania Turnpike were completed.