Join us on a Cleveland Browns birthday ride. Here's what's in store.
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While the exact date is subject to discussion, the Cleveland Browns are celebrating their 80th birthday.
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Should the party be thrown on the anniversary of the first 1946 practice at Bowling Green? The date of the first regular-season game? The date the ’46 Browns won a league championship?
Perhaps someone should light a giant cake with 80 candles at the remains of the Rubber Bowl.
On Aug. 30, 1946, a crowd of 35,964 jammed the Akron landmark to watch the Browns beat the Brooklyn Dodgers 35-20 in the franchise's first game-conditions event.
It was the one-and-only practice game before the Browns kicked off their first season in the new All-America Football Conference.
In their first actual game, on Sept. 6, 1946, in Cleveland Municipal Stadium, the Browns socked it to the Miami Seahawks 44-0.
We're not picking one date. We've planned a party that lasts the rest of 2026.
We'll salute the 80th birthday with a succession of articles on notable topics defining a franchise that was great once, and that so many people hope will be again.
The nucleus of the project will break the story of the Browns into 10-year periods.
With each 10-year block — 1946-55, 1956-65, 1966-75, and so on — we'll present an article featuring 10 items germaine to that period. A second story will touch on a key aspect of each 10-year period — a “Story of the Decade,” if you will.
Additional stories and lists, including our 80 favorite Browns, will pop up along the way. Yes, we understand there was no team from 1996-98, owing to the despicable move to Baltimore.
Hopefully, my background lends authenticity to the project.
I was born in Canton in 1954, by which time Paul Brown, the Massillon man who was founding head coach, had the Browns humming along quite nicely. I became interested through my parents. Our big yard in Canton Township was ideal for backyard football. I imagined running like Jim Brown. My coaches never saw a resemblance.
I worked on Canton South's school paper for Claude Paumier and then on the paper at Miami University, where Paul Brown played quarterback on his way to becoming a Browns legend. When I went to work for the Canton Repository in the 1970s, one of the first perks was covering some Browns home games.
I joined the multitudes who were sickened by the 1996 move to Baltimore. After the Browns came back in 1999, I covered them as a beat writer for a long time. Across the years, working in the home of the Pro Football Hall of Fame afforded endless acquaintances and opportunities.
The assorted experiences show up throughout the project.
One of my favorite days was spending four hours with Paul Brown in 1991. Later in the year, I attended the coach's funeral, in Massillon.
Starting in 2001, The Repository assigned me to 19 Super Bowls, even though Cleveland was never a participant. Spending a week at all those Super Bowls always led to an ex-Brown willing to share a tale or two.
My favorite part of a long career has been to write about Stark County people and things. I am glad to also have been turned loose on many Browns things.
I personally encountered the majority of people whose names you will see in our Browns birthday series.
It doesn't strike me as trite to present the project is a labor of love. With the Browns, of course, love hurts, sometimes.
That noted, the aim is to present an accurate, occasionally subjective, hopefully entertaining, for-better-or-for-worse, big-screen picture of the birthday boys. Thank you for looking in.
Reach Steve at [email protected]
This article originally appeared on The Repository: Join us on a Cleveland Browns birthday ride. Here's what's in store.