The CLEVELAND BROWNS are one of the most successful clubs in professional football history. Between 1946-83, they won 18 divisional titles, captured 8 league championships, and made the playoffs in 24 seasons. Under Bill Belichick, and led by all-pros Eric Turner and Leroy Howard, the Browns returned to the Conference Playoffs in 1994. As of 1995 13 Browns had been inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame: Jim Brown, PAUL BROWN†, Dante Lavelli, LEN FORD†, F. Gatski, Otto Graham, Lou Groza, Leroy Kelly, Mike McCormack, Bobby Mitchell, Marion Motley, Paul Warfield, and Bill Willis.

The Browns organization was founded on 20 April 1945 by ARTHUR B. "MICKEY" MCBRIDE† with the help of Robert H. Gries, whose family continued to own an important minority share of the Browns into the 1990s. The team, named after its first coach, Paul E. Brown, played in the newly formed All-American Football Conference in 1946-49, winning all 4 conference titles. The Browns joined the National Football League in 1950. Brown, head coach from 1946-62, was an innovative and influential football practitioner whose many contributions to the game included the racial integration of its players at the professional level. By signing Bill Willis and Marion Motley to contracts in 1946, the Browns joined the Los Angeles Rams in breaking the 13-year-old color barrier in professional football. During Brown's tenure, stars such as Otto Graham, Dante Lavelli, Lou Groza, Marion Motley, and Bill Willis dominated the AAFC, and in their first NFL season, in 1950, the players proved their worth by defeating the Los Angeles Rams 30-28 in the NFL championship game.

On 9 June 1953, McBride sold his interest in the Browns for $600,000; 50% went to a group of investors headed by local industrialist Dave R. Jones. With Otto Graham still as quarterback, the Browns won back-to-back league championships in 1954 and 1955. They endured their first losing season in 1956 but drafted Syracuse's Jim Brown, who set several NFL records during his outstanding career (1957-65). In 1961 former advertising executive Arthur B. "Art" Modell bought a majority share in the Browns for $3.925 million, and in a controversial move fired Paul Brown in 1963. Under new head coach Blanton Collier, the Browns won the NFL crown in 1964 and from 1965-69 won 4 divisional titles, but no league championship.

The realignment of the league in 1970 following the merger of the NFL with the American Football League placed the Browns in the Central Division of the new American Football Conference. Nick Skorich served as head coach from 1971-74, leading the team to the playoffs in 1971 and 1972. After 2 years under Forrest Gregg, 1975-77, Sam Rutigliano took over in 1978. The team won a divisional title in 1980 but lost in the playoffs in 1980 and 1981. The team's poor performance at the beginning of the 1984 season prompted Modell to fire Rutigliano and promote defensive coordinator Marty Schottenheimer to head coach. In 1986, led by quarterback Bernie Kosar, the team won the Central Division title. Although the Browns advanced to the playoffs each succeeding year through 1989, a place in the Super Bowl eluded them. In late 1995 Modell announced the move of the franchise to Baltimore. In Feb. 1996 the NFL agreed to leave the team name and colors in Cleveland. The city was promised a new franchise by 1999 pending completion of a new stadium.

In 1997, Mayor Michael White unveiled plans for a $247 million stadium and commenced the process of bringing professional football back to Cleveland. On 8 September 1998, Al Lerner, chairman and CEO of MBNA Corp., was awarded the new Cleveland Browns by offering the highest price ever paid for a sports franchise: $530 million. Lerner's partner, Carmen Policy, became president of the Cleveland Browns. Lerner and Policy quickly scrambled to put together a team in the 370 days they had until the opening of the 1999 season. Their first move, on the 30 November 1998, was to name Dwight Clark as vice president and director of football operations. On 21 January 1999, Chris Palmer was selected as the head coach of the new football team. On 17 April 1999, with the first pick of the draft, the Browns selected their franchise quarterback, Tim Couch. The stadium, christened Cleveland Browns Stadium in the summer of 1999, was completed and opened to the public the day before the first home pre-season game. But the game everyone was waiting for was the regular season opener against the Pittsburgh Steelers at Cleveland Browns Stadium on 12 September 1999. The Browns were trounced by their arch rivals, 43-0. Although the final record of their first season, 2-14, did not show it, the Browns demonstrated significant signs of improvement throughout the season. They avenged their loss to the Steelers with a victory in Three Rivers Stadium at their next meeting.

The following season, additional improvements were visible at virtually every position, the most important of which was the replacement of Chris Palmer with former University of Miami (Florida) head coach Butch Davis. In Davis' first year (2001-2002), the team went 7-9.

See also FOOTBALL.

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