Did You Know? 8/2/11

In the early 1950′s, the Browns drafted a defensive back and a linebacker that would both go on to eventually make it into the Pro Football Hall of Fame… as coaches.  In 1951 they drafted Don Shula

and in 1953 they drafted Chuck Noll.

Trivia for April 9, 2011

John W. Heisman

Did you know that John W. Heisman was born in this house in Cleveland, Ohio on October 3, 1869?

He then grew up in Titusville, PA and went to Brown University and then Penn where, though small of stature he played offensive line on the football team.

After getting his law degree, he took on the coaching job at Oberlin College. He also coached at Auburn, Clemson, University of Pennsylvania, Washington and Jefferson and Rice and his most productive coaching was at Georgia Tech (1904-1919)where he coached the team to 33 straight wins.

Heisman was credited with many football innovations including the forward pass and having the center snap the ball to the quarterback.

After retirement, John W. Heisman was named the first Athletic Director of the Downtown Athletic Club (DAC) in New York. This led to the DAC voting to determine the best college football player in the country. Jay Berwanger, a halfback from the University of Chicago was selected as the first winner in 1935.

Before the next year's award could be announced, Heisman died and the Downtown Athletic Club award was renamed the Heisman Trophy.

The home is at the corner of West 29th and Bridge in the Ohio City Neighborhood of Cleveland, near the West Side Market.

 

Trivia...2/26/11

Did You Know?...2/24/11

The first two-point conversion scored in the NFL was scored in 1994 when Cleveland Browns Punter Tom Tupa, acting as holder on an extra point, ran the ball across the goal line.

He scored a total of three such conversions that season earning him the nickname "Two Point Tupa."

Did You Know?...2/20/11

Did You Know...2/19/11

Did You Know...2/17/11

Did You Know...2/15/11

Did You Know...2/11/11

Did you know...2/10/11

2/5/2011..........Did You Know?

Super Bowl Tidbits

Money game: Lowest-priced face-value seat (not standing-room only) ticket is $600. And a 30-second commercial is running about $3 million. Yes, that's $100,000 per second. On eBay in January, an auction listed 47 luxury-suite tickets (32 seats and 15 standing-room only) for $510,000. Free shipping was included; parking passes were not. Speaking of parking, some spaces across the street from the stadium were going for $550.

 

No cheers: Just like the Browns, neither team has a cheerleading squad. The game will be the first Super Bowl without cheerleaders on the sidelines, Yahoo Sports reports.

 

Wiped out: Legend says no tape exists of the inaugural Super Bowl, that a soap opera was taped over it.

Super ball: Football front-office pioneer Lamar Hunt came up with the name for the game after watching his kids play with the then-new toy Super Ball.

Super song: On Jan. 15, 1967 (the date of Super Bowl 1), the nation's No. 1 song was the Monkees' "I'm a Believer."

To the victors: The winning team gets the Tiffany-made Vince Lombardi Trophy, which cost the iconic company $25,000 to make. It's 203/4 inches tall and weighs 6.7 pounds. 

In the house: Green Bay's population is just over 100,000. With expanded seating, the capacity of Cowboys Stadium on Sunday is expected to be close to that, and may even exceed it.

Need a towel? The official "Terrible Towel," waved by many a Steelers fan, is actually made in . . . Wisconsin.

Speaking of overtime: Should the game go to overtime, Papa John's -- the official pizza sponsor of the Super Bowl -- will offer free pizzas to the whole country. Seriously. But you need to register by tonight. Go to papajohns.com/rewards.

Jim Brown also holds the Browns team mark for most 100 yard games at 39.  This doesn’t however count his 100 yard games from before 1960 when the Browns were still part of the AAFC.

Jim Brown rushed for more 100 yard games than any other player during the 1960s with 39.  Another Browns player, Leroy Kelly, was tied for third on that list with 20.

 

In 1963, Jim Brown became the first Browns player to ever gain more than 100 yards rushing and receiving in the same game.

 

In 1948, as a member of the All-American Football Conference, the Cleveland Browns would go 14-0 and win the league title.

Where Did The Browns Elf Come From?

The Cleveland Browns are occasionally called the Brownies by their fans and used a brownie elf as an official mascot from their beginnings in 1946 until owner Art Modell phased it out in the mid-1960s. It was revived on a limited basis by the Browns since the team returned in 1999. During the 2004 Season, The Brownie appeared on the Team's sideline ponchos and equipment trunks.

And...

The story of Brownie the Elf the logo begins long before the Cleveland Browns adopted the little creature — long before the team even existed, in fact. "Brownies" date back to folklore, where they were elf-like creatures who helped out with household chores as long as you left them little goodies to eat (Palmer Cox was one of the first artists to illustrate Brownie on a consistent basis in his cartoons. He began drawing and using the elves in advertising work that he produced for different companies, including Kodak.

All of which brings us, finally, to the Cleveland Browns.

The association of the elf and the gridiron Browns begins in the late 1940s with Arthur McBride, who was the team's owner at the time. During a string of four incredibly successful seasons from 1946-49 (each of which resulted in an All American Football Conference championship), McBride sought to make his team more recognizable and marketable with music, parades, marching bands, and so on. He also asked for submissions for mascot logos, and after careful consideration chose Brownie as the new face of the team.

Brownie got an update around 1950 and looked like this until 1969. Alternate logos included an orange elf from 1950-69, and a halfback elf from 1960-69. After the Browns won the NFL title in 1964 (yes, it was that long ago, Cleveland fans), Brownie was often depicted with a crown signifying the team's achievement.

Even representatives from the Cleveland Browns are befuddled as to the exact origin, date, and key figures in the creation of the logo (which made its first appearance in an ad for tickets to the 1946 opening game against the Miami Seahawks). However, many of the earliest versions of the elf are credited to Dick Dugan, who became the sports cartoonist for the Cleveland Plain Dealer and often depicted Brownie in battle against the team's opponents, like the Broncos.

Cleveland fans loved the athletically inclined little creature with pointed shoes, whose image could be seen adorning various publications and advertisements (from both the team and the public), such as in this 1949 Media Guide.

So, what do you do with a logo that the fans love?

Well, if you're Art Modell, you get rid of it. Apparently, Modell, who became the team's owner in 1961, was completely embarrassed by the elf and hated it so much that in the mid-1960s he began to phase it out. Yes, in addition to taking the team from Cleveland, Modell also was responsible for putting the lovable Brownie on the unemployment line.

Thankfully, when the Browns were resurrected in 1999, Brownie got a new lease on life. New owner Randy Lerner has made a big push to use the elf logo more and more for the organization. "I think it's a great anchor for our tradition and for the look and feel of the Browns," he has said. "But I also understand that there is something to freshening up the act, so I think that's a balancing act we're having right now."

As you can see from the team's sideline ponchos, the organization is using Brownie in more ways than just for merchandise sales (although it's clearly evident from the hats and shirts and fleeces that there is a definite push in that direction too). In fact, the Browns have used the elf logo on the 2006 Training Camp Patch celebrating the franchise's 60th anniversary, and a throwback elf logo appears on the front of their 2006 Media Guide (here's a close-up view). Fans have embraced Brownie, too — one guy has gotten permanent reminder of his allegiances.

While Brownie's revival is welcome news, there's one place that the elf should never appear, on the helmet (and thankfully, Lerner agrees). Paul Brown actually proposed this idea in 1953, but dismissed the idea after seeing mock-ups created by then trainer Leo Murphy. Good thing too, because the only thing that should ever be added to the team's helmets are uniform numbers, like the ones the team wore with for a throwback game against the Bengals.

We're generally pleased with Brownie's reappearance. It adds a great traditional aspect to the team's imagery, which meshes nicely with the more recent addition of the "Dawg" logo

 

In the early 1950′s, the Browns drafted a defensive back and a linebacker that would both go on to eventually make it into the Pro Football Hall of Fame… as coaches.  In 1951 they drafted Don Shula and in 1953 they drafted Chuck Noll.

The Cleveland Browns began as one of the teams in the All-American Football Conference (AAFC) that was a rival of the more established National Football League (NFL).