1,899 people like this. New Dodgers' part-owner Branch Rickey (of baseball fame) suggested this experiment, and the Browns were chosen as the guinea pigs. The Browns now owned a 52-4-3 record and all four AAFC titles. The two leagues’ franchises and home fields for 1946 were: (**) Better remembered as War Memorial Stadium, the original home of the modern Buffalo Bills. "National Football League" was restored in March 1950. In the West, Cleveland led with a 12-2 record, three games ahead of San Francisco, followed by Los Angeles and Chicago. Although the Colts would controversially move to Indianapolis, on March 29, 1984, the NFL would return to Baltimore for the 1996 NFL season in the form of the Baltimore Ravens--ironically, descended from the original Browns franchise that played in the AAFC after their own controversial move. Tittle's pre-1950 statistics with the AAFC Baltimore Colts are not. He later played three seasons in the All-America Football Conference. An earlier minor league, the All-America Football Conference, was in play from 1946 to 1949. Meanwhile, the popularity of the original Bills franchise prompted Ralph Wilson (former minority owner of the Detroit Lions) to adopt the name "Buffalo Bills" for his American Football League franchise ten years after the AAFC dissolved. His success with the Browns forced the rest of both leagues to adopt his methods. Since 1934, the College All-Star Game had matched the defending NFL champions against an all-star team of recent college graduates. Sie gewannen in allen Spielzeiten ihre Division (1948 sogar ohne Niederlage; eine sog. In Cleveland, Brown would emerge as one of the game's greatest innovators. Während der kurzen Zeit des Bestehens waren die Cleveland Browns das Maß aller Dinge. Most pro teams shared Largely thanks to Paul Brown's innovations in organization and coaching. The NFL's thinking was more modest: it rejected Reeves' move because of travel expenses. To counter this, Commissioner Ingram attempted to get the strongest teams to distribute some players to the weakest. After the NFL refused to consider his second choice (Dallas), Reeves threatened to withdraw from the league. In 1948, attendance in both leagues declined, and negotiations to end the war became serious. Pp. 1,960 people follow this. [24] The football world would have to wait to see how the Browns matched up against the NFL's best. The 49ers, the AAFC's second-best team, struggled in 1950 and finished 3-9. The champion Browns faced a team of All-Stars from the other six teams. The Colts failed after the 1950 season. However, the AAFC wanted the NFL to admit four of its teams, while the NFL was willing to admit only the Browns and 49ers. Darunter der Unternehmer Anthony Morabito mit den San Francisco 49ers, der sich zuvor erfolglos um eine NFL-Lizenz beworben hatte, Schauspieler Don Ameche mit den Los Angeles Dons, James F. Breuil mit den Buffalo Bisons sowie Mickey McBride mit den Cleveland Browns.[1][2]. League Home; Select League; Hall of Champions; Power Rankings; Playoff Picture; Player Awards; Messages. In 1949, there was only one seven-team division, so the playoffs were a four team tournament. As with the 1968 Baltimore Colts and New York Jets, the Eagles were widely considered one of the NFL’s strongest-ever champions, while many discounted the Browns’ success in their “inferior” league. However, starting in 1947, the Sporting News named a Coach of the Year for all of pro football. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2018. American Football Wiki is a FANDOM Lifestyle Community. The Browns led 14-3 at halftime and dominated the rest of the game to win decisively, 35-10. There was some sentiment to admit the Bills rather than the Colts, as the Bills had better attendance and the better team. There were 11 franchises in 1944-45, but only 10 teams actually played. Not coincidentally, his team was badly hurt by the AAFC. Unfortunately for fans, each year the NFL refused. He had good reason: the Yankees had displaced the Giants as New York’s premier baseball team after moving into The House That Ruth Built, three rival football leagues had planted teams there hoping to duplicate that feat, and Topping (of Anaconda Copper) was significantly wealthier than Mara. However, the AAFC was ultimately unable to sustain itself in competition with the NFL. $45 softcover. The NFL likewise set attendance highs for both its season and title game. For 1946, the AAFC began play with 8 teams playing a record 14 games (a double round-robin). Page created - May … Adding to the drama, the division races were often tight. "[9] At a time when the World Series had long been a national institution, and the Rose Bowl drew crowds of 90,000, the NFL's title game typically drew about 35,000 fans. Take your favorite fandoms with you and never miss a beat. Amateur Sports Team. An opening day tie with the Bills ended their winning streak, and on October 9 the 49ers ended their unbeaten streak in a 56-28 upset to move into first place. $45 softcover. It ultimately failed to achieve its goal of a peaceful coexistence with the NFL and folded in 1949. Amateur Sports Team . One notable difference between the All-America Football Conference and the American Football League (AFL), which merged with the NFL two decades later, is that the records and statistics of AAFC players and teams are not included in the NFL record book, while those of their AFL counterparts are. As the eight franchises built their teams, no move was more far-reaching than Cleveland's choice of Paul Brown as its head coach. Cleveland won the title in a predictable rout, 49-7. The Pittsburgh Steelers and Detroit Lions were also having serious financial problems.[6]. With the AAFC now down to 7 teams, it realigned into one division, reduced its schedule to 12 games (still a double round-robin), and changed its postseason to a Shaughnessy playoff. Reviewed by Richard A. Macales. 361. The AAFC posed a formidable challenge. However, Buffalo's size (only Green Bay was smaller) and climate were seen as problems. Longtime NFL president Joe Carr had said, "No owner has made money from pro football, but a lot have gone broke thinking they could. Some notable guests watched the Browns' opening game: the entire coaching staff of the 1946 NFL champion Chicago Bears. All Content Copyright © 2021 American Athletic Conference 545 East John Carpenter Freeway, Third Floor, Irving, TX 75062 (469) 284-5167 info@theamerican.org Privacy Policy A replacement team, also named the Colts, joined the league as an expansion team in 1953. These and other AAFC innovations and personalities helped lay the groundwork for Professional Football's great success. All-America Football Conference - League. The quarterbacks of the two outstanding teams, Cleveland’s Otto Graham and San Francisco’s Frank Albert, shared the MVP. Search. But in the late 1940s new powers rose in the NFL, as the Cardinals, Eagles, and Rams all won titles, and the Steelers reached a playoff. The enlarged league was renamed the National-American Football League. The third choice was the subject of some debate. [25] Now facing two cross-town rivals, the Bulldogs predictably had even lower attendance in New York than in Boston. View Free Agents; Player Search; Coach Search; Draft History; Help. In 1947 and 1948, the choice was from the NFL. From 1946 to 1948, the AAFC determined its champion in a title game between the winners of its two divisions. Die Cleveland Browns gewannen alle vier Titel, die ausgespielt wurden. See All-America Football Conference playoffs for box scores. (**): Team in NFL with that name, but unrelated to the AAFC team. They met again two weeks later in San Francisco, with the Browns now 12-0 and the 49ers 11-1. The war was getting increasingly costly thanks to rising salaries and dropping attendance. With pro football's second perfect season (after the 1937 Los Angeles Bulldogs of the second American Football League) and an 18-game winning streak and a 29-game unbeaten streak in progress, the Browns were making history. A group representing Baltimore was considered for admission, but could not secure a stadium. In 1948, there was a tie for first place in the Eastern Division. The league planned to begin play in 1945, but postponed its opening for a year as World War II still raged. Three Bills players were awarded to the Browns. The All-America Football Conference (AAFC) was a professional American football league that challenged the established National Football League (NFL) from 1946 to 1949. On the field, Cleveland finally showed some vulnerability. According to the NFL, this is because official scoresheets of AAFC games were not made available to the NFL after the merger. Black players were excluded from the NFL from 1934 to 1945. Franchises are ranked by win percentage. Nearly every team in both leagues lost money - enough that in December, the NFL officially acknowledged the AAFC as peace talks almost succeeded in ending the war. 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] Geschäftsführer der Liga war der ehemalige College-Football-Star Jim Crowley. In 1945, Layden remarked that the AAFC, still a year from its first game, should “first get a ball, then make a schedule, and then play a game.”[1] This insult, often paraphrased as "Tell them to get a ball first," would be long remembered. However, starting the next year they emerged as one of the better teams in the NFL’s Western Conference, reaching the postseason in 1957 after some near-misses. Brooklyn and Buffalo were seven games behind, followed by Miami. [1], After winning each of their titles, the Browns challenged the NFL champion to an interleague championship. Page Transparency See More. Although the AAFC played only four years, it had a major, lasting impact on pro football. The Browns and 49ers, as the AAFC's two strongest teams, were obvious choices. There was even a most valuable player award, unheard of for a regular-season game. The Seahawks saw two games postponed by hurricanes, never drew more than 10,000, finished last, ran up $80,000 in unpaid debts, and were ejected from the league after the season. [13], Again acting ambitiously, the AAFC chose stadiums larger than the NFL's in Chicago, New York, and Cleveland.[14]. Nearly every title game from 1933 to 1946 featured either the Giants or Redskins from the East against either the Bears or Packers from the West. Außerdem brach man mit dem auferlegten Tabu, keine dunkelhäutigen Spieler zu beschäftigen. Herkunftsstaaten der Teams 1946 und ihre Zuordnung Die All-America Football Conference (AAFC) wurde 1944 von dem US-amerikanischen Sportjournalisten Arch Ward der Chicago Tribune ins Leben gerufen. In 1945, he commented “I did not realize there was another league, although I did receive some literature telling about a WPA project”. However, in the case of the AFL-NFL Merger completed in 1970, the AFL gave all of its official scoresheets to the NFL making it possible for the NFL to accept the AFL's statistics and records. March 12, 2021. no comment No tags. The defending champions of two leagues that had never met on the field were about to play, foreshadowing tensions present in the early Super Bowls of the 1960s. All of these teams were at the bottom of the standings and all were sold after the 1947 season, the Rockets for the second time. The result was just as shocking: the Eagles underestimated the highly motivated Browns (coach Greasy Neale did not even scout the Browns’ preseason games),[34] while Paul Brown found some previously unknown weaknesses in the widely imitated “Eagle Defense”. [5] The Boston Yanks had played only one season as an independent entity. League Forums; Community Forums; Trades; Players / Coaches. Page Transparency See More. All-America Football Conference Professional American football league that challenged the established National Football League (NFL) from 1946 to 1949. Officially, the NFL considers the "expansion" Browns (1999 on) to be one continuous entity from the original 1946 AAFC team, with it having suspended operations from 1996–1998, while the Ravens unofficially consider the pre-1984 history of the Colts as their own. The Browns’ 1950 season confirmed the quality of their AAFC achievements as nothing else could. All-America Football Conference (AAFC) Standings (1946-1949) | Pro Football … Die dominanten Teams der Liga waren die Cleveland Browns und die New York Yankees. However, the AAFC was ultimately unable to sustain itself in … Index. Commissioner Ingram stepped down, and another admiral, Oliver O. Kessing, was named to head the league. [17] They survived unscathed, and went on to complete an unprecedented 14-0 regular season. ALL-AMERICA FOOTBALL CONFERENCE By Stan Grosshandler Two days prior to D-Day, 1944 a group described by the A.P. 1947 All American Football Conference Standings 1947 All American Football Conference … Brooklyn and Miami were later added. The All-America Football Conference and the National Football League battled for supremacy from 1946 through 1949. On November 14, nearly 83,000 (a record) in Cleveland Municipal Stadium watched the 9-0 Browns win a 14-7 defensive struggle over the 10-0 49ers. The Browns'. Most of his players followed. The Browns went 10-2 to finish in a first-place tie with the New York Giants, then won a playoff 8-3 to qualify for the 1950 NFL championship game. As it turned out, “The World Series of Pro Football” resembled Super Bowl III nearly two decades later. Die All-America Football Conference war eine amerikanische American-Football-Liga in den Jahren 1946 bis 1949. The Cleveland Browns won the 1947 AAFC championship. This was not the first alternative league combatting the NFL and it would not be the last. In a remarkable move, Commissioner Crowley (a successful former college coach) gave up a five-year contract to become their part-owner and coach. Although 1947 had been a successful season for the AAFC in many respects, the league still lost money. The Buffalo Bills, Brooklyn-New York Yankees, Chicago Hornets, and Los Angeles Dons folded. The Pro Football Hall of Fame recognizes the Browns' latter streak as the longest in the history of professional football.[18]. Buffalo won a playoff and the dubious privilege of meeting Cleveland for the title. The All-America Football Conference: Players, Coaches, Records, Games and Awards, 1946-1949. Decades before Pete Rozelle, Bert Bell promoted parity by purposely matching strong teams early in the season, keeping them from getting far ahead in the standings. (*): Team now in NFL. All these teams had long histories of futility and had merged or suspended operations during the war. Die dominanten Teams der Liga waren die Cleveland Browns und die New York Yankees. As the war entered its fourth season, financial problems forced reorganization in both leagues. Vor der ersten Saison 1946 vergab die Liga insgesamt acht Franchises. The Yankees' players were divided between the Giants (who chose six players) and Bulldogs (who received the rest). Last updated: March 12, 2021 at 8:58 am. as "men of millionaire incomes" met in St. Louis to organize a new professional football league. After a decent start in 1946, the Rockets collapsed on the field and found themselves playing before tens of thousands of empty seats in huge Soldier Field. The Browns won the rematch with the 49ers, 30-28, and Cleveland (9-1-2) and San Francisco (9-3) finished one-two for the fourth consecutive year. (Ironically, this was the Rams’ first game in Cleveland since winning the 1945 title as the Cleveland Rams.) Die All-America Football Conference wurde 1944 von dem US-amerikanischen Sportjournalisten Arch Ward der Chicago Tribune ins Leben gerufen. Peace produced a surplus of talent and an opening for a new league, as many pro and college players (some of whom had played on military teams) returned to civilian life. However, the Dodgers, Rockets, and to a lesser extent the Colts were having serious problems. The Dons and Rams had already consolidated operations shortly after the 1949 season. Admitting Baltimore over Buffalo proved to be a mistake, as the AAFC's Colts folded after one season in the NFL, bringing the league back to an even 12 teams. [24] The Green Bay Packers, then as now owned by a local civic group, had to issue new stock to remain solvent. Yet professional football could offer the public nothing comparable to the compelling rivalries, youthful Community See All. Of all the leagues that challenged the NFL, only the American Football League of the 1960s influenced the NFL more than the AAFC. The AAFC was founded by a key figure at a major newspaper, so it enjoyed ample attention in the press. Facebook is showing information to help you better understand the purpose of a Page. Page created - May … All-America Football Conference playoffs American football league which challenged the established National Football League (NFL) from 1946 to 1949. The league would have a wide gap between its best and worst teams, and its standings would be remarkably consistent from year to year. 13. This brought about another innovation: AAFC teams traveled by air while NFL teams still traveled by train. Playing near the Yankees and the NFL Giants, the Dodgers drew fewer than 12,000 fans per game, least in both leagues. Finally, this game marked the end of pro football’s color line. Meanwhile, the Dodgers, the AAFC's least-drawing team, merged with the Yankees. 2018) AAFC: Anti-Aircraft Fire Control: AAFC: Atlantic Africa Fisheries Conference: AAFC perfekte Saison) sowie alle Championship-Spiele. Die dominanten Teams der Liga waren die Cleveland Browns und die New York Yankees. 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