NFL Old School Game of The Week: Browns Win "World Series of Pro Football"

The game program for the 1950 meeting between the 2-time NFL champion Philadelphia Eagles and 4-time AAFC Champion Cleveland Browns.

On September 16, 1950, the Cleveland Browns traveled to Philadelphia to face the Eagles in one of the most historic games in NFL history.

The Browns were making their debut in the NFL after spending four years in the All-American Football Conference, where Cleveland went 47-4-3 during that span and won the league title in all four seasons.

The Browns were named after their head coach, Paul Brown, and led by quarterback Otto Graham, who threw for over 10,000 yards in his four seasons in the AAFC.

Every time they won the AAFC title, the Browns clamored NFL commissioner Bert Bell to face off with whoever the league champion was that year and each year were denied.

Then two days before the 1949 AAFC championship game, the NFL announced they would be taking three teams from the AAFC and merge them into the NFL.

The three teams were the Baltimore Colts(who folded after one year and then were reborn in 1953), the San Francisco 49ers, and of course, the Browns.

Knowing how the Browns had been itching to face with the NFL champions, Bell decided that the Browns’ first NFL game should be against the NFL’s most dominant team at the time, the Philadelphia Eagles.

The Eagles had played in the NFL championship game the previous three seasons and were the two-time defending NFL champions, thanks to the leadership of head coach Earl “Greasy” Neale and running back Steve Van Buren, who was the league’s leading rusher in each of the three seasons the Eagles made it to the title game.

Philadelphia had been especially dominant during the 1948 and 1949 seasons as they had gone 22-3-1 with an offense that averaged 28.5 points per game and a defense that had given no more than seven points in 14 of those 26 games, including eight shutouts.

With the best teams in their respective leagues facing off to start the 1950 season, the game was billed as the “World Series of Pro Football” as over 70,000 fans traveled to Philadelphia’s Municipal Stadium to see the two teams faced off under the lights in the first game of the 1950 NFL season.

Almost all the experts expected the Eagles to blow out the Browns as the AAFC was considered a minor league compared to the NFL.

However, the Eagles would have to defeat the Browns without Van Buren who was still recovering from a broken toe he had suffered a month earlier in an All-Star game.

The Eagles got the ball to start the game but went three-and-out and were forced to punt the ball to the Browns when Cleveland’s Don Phelps returned the kick 64 yards for an apparent touchdown, only to have it called back because of a clipping penalty.

After three straight incomplete passes by Graham, the Browns punted the ball back to the Eagles who took over at their own 37-yard-line and marched to the Cleveland’ eight-yard-line behind the running of Frank Ziegler and Clyde Scott to set up a 15-yard field goal by Cliff Patton which put Philadelphia ahead 3-0.

The Browns were forced to punt again on their next possession but caught a break when Scott muffed the kick, leading to a fumble that was recovered by Jim Martin at the Eagles’ 39-yard-line.

Marion Motley had back-to-back fumbles but made up for them being playing a key part in a goal line stand for the Browns.

A 19-yard pass from Graham to Mac Speedie help set up a 25-yard field goal attempt by Forrest Grigg, who was filling in for an injured Lou Groza, but his kick was low and no good, keeping the score 3-0 in favor of the Eagles.

The Browns forced the Eagles to go three-and-out on their ensuing possession and got the ball back at their own 41-yard-line when on the first play from scrimmage, Graham dropped back and fired a pass deep downfield for Dub Jones, who was five yards behind the Eagles secondary, to make a catch at the Eagles’ 25 and then raced in untouched for a 59-yard touchdown reception that put Cleveland in the lead at 7-3.

The early minutes of the second quarter was a series of fumbles between the two teams which started with Cleveland’s Marion Motley fumbling the ball at the Eagles’ 34-yard-line, which was recovered by Philadelphia’s Joe Muha, only to have the Eagles give the ball back to Cleveland when Ziegler lost the football at the Browns’ 25, which was recovered by Cleveland’s Hal Herring.

However, Motley would fumble the football for the second straight possession when he lost the ball at his own 37-yard-line which was recovered by Eagles defensive tackle Vic Sears, giving the Eagles an excellent opportunity to retake the lead.

Behind the running of Scott and Ziegler, the Eagles traveled to the Browns’ three-yard-line where they had a 1st-and-goal when the Browns’ defense rose up and made a stand as they held the Eagles out of the end zone and forced a turnover on downs, thanks in large part to Motley who made the tackle on three of the four plays.

Even worse for the Eagles, they lost Scott for the season when he suffered a broken shoulder during the drive.

After the goal line stand, the Browns punted but got the ball back when Cliff Lewis intercepted a deep pass at his own 29-yard-line.

That is when Graham led the Browns down the field for the game’s second touchdown as he found Dante Lavelli wide open in the end zone for a 26-yard touchdown that increased the Cleveland lead to 14-3 which would be the score as the first half came to a close.

The Browns got the ball to start the second half when Graham hit five passes in a row, three of them to Rex Burmgrader for a total of 37 yards, to lead Cleveland to the Eagles’ 13-yard-line when Graham eluded two Eagle tacklers to find Speedie for a 13-yard touchdown to push the Browns’ lead to 21-3 in front of the stunned Philadelphia fans.

The Eagles look to mount a comeback when they drove from their own 14 to the Browns’ 33-yard-line until quarterback Tommy Thompson was intercepted by Herring.

However, the Browns gave the ball right back to the Eagles when Graham was intercepted by Eagles defensive back Joe Sutton, giving the Eagles possession at the Cleveland 45-yard-line.

That is when Neale replaced Thompson with Bill Mackrides, who promptly lead the Eagles to their first touchdown of the game when he connected with Pete Pihos for a 17-yard touchdown, 40 seconds into the fourth quarter that cut the Browns lead to 21-10.

The touchdown gave Eagles fans some hope which only grew after the Philadelphia defense forced the Browns to punt on their ensuing possession.

Otto Graham poses with the MVP trophy after he accounted for four touchdowns, three through the air and one on the ground.

But Browns punter Horace Gilliam was able to pin the Eagles back at their own three-yard-line and after the offense was unable to gain a 1st down, Philadelphia punted the ball back to the Browns, who took over at the Eagles’ 45-yard-line.

With a short field, the Browns were able to drive for the back-breaking touchdown, a one-yard sneak by Graham that made it 28-10.

The Browns added one more touchdown when they drove 64 yards, which was set up by a Warren Lehr interception of a Mackrides pass, which ended with a two-yard touchdown run by Bumgardner with 23 seconds left to complete Cleveland’s historic 35-10 win over the two-time defending NFL champions.

Cleveland totally dominated the game as they accounted for 487 yards of total offense, 346 coming on the arm of Graham on 21-of-36 passing which earned him the game's MVP award, and held the Eagles' vaunted offense to just 266 yards.

Even NFL commissioner Bert Bell had acknowledge the Cleveland's  dominance as he called the Browns "the greatest team to ever play the game".

The Eagles never recovered from the opening night shocker as they finished the season 6-6 and ended up firing Neale after the season.

As for the Browns, the win proved to be no fluke as they finished the regular season 10-2 and then defeated the New York Giants 8-3 in the American Conference playoff game to play for the NFL Championship where Graham lead Cleveland to a 30-28 win over the Los Angeles Rams in the first of six straight NFL championship game appearances for the Browns, which they went 3-3, all with Graham at the helm at quarterback.

Not bad for a “minor league” football team.