1950 Cleveland Browns vs. Los Angeles Rams NFL Championship Program
Municipal Stadium, December 24
Final score - Browns 30 - Rams 28
36 pages - very good condition. There's considerable soiling on the teams' roster pages (see scans 2 & 3). There's rippling and bending on the bottom right corners of the covers and pages. There's also slight soiling on the edges of several other pages. The binding is tight. The ticket stub is in excellent condition with one jagged edge (see scan 4).
1950 Cleveland Browns NFL Championship program - This is perhaps the rarest NFL Championship program of the past 64 years, and it is from one of the tightest title games in league history. Christmas Eve was a miserable day weatherwise in Cleveland with rain, snow, sleet and gloom of night, and many of the programs from the game turned into pulpy mush, so very few have survived. Plus, the foul weather held the crowd down to about 29,000 at cavernous Municipal Stadium. Despite the awful conditions, this program and ticket stub are in reasonably nice shape. The binding is tight, and the pages are legible.
It was an outstanding game that the hearty fans witnessed, as the upstart Browns proved they belonged in the NFL with a last-second win over the Rams. The Browns had joined the NFL in '50 after winning four straight championships in the defunct AAFC. The move to the NFL didn't appear to phase the Browns, as they racked up a 10-2 record.
The game was a see-saw battle between the Browns and Rams. LA's Glenn Davis opened the scoring, hauling in an 82-yard pass from Bob Waterfield. Dub Jones tied it up with a 27-yard td pass from Otto Graham. Dick Hoerner gave the Rams a 14-7 lead with a 3-yard rush. Dante Lavelli and Graham hooked up on a pair of td passes to give Cleveland a 20-14 lead. But the Rams came back with a 1-yard Hoerner plunge, and Larry Brink returned a costly Graham fumble to give LA a 28-20 lead. Then the Browns mounted an unforgettable comeback - Graham connected with Rex Bumgardner on a 14-yard td pass and Lou Groza earned his nickname - "The Toe" - booting a 16-yard game winning field goal as the clock ran out.
In spite of the weather, there was dancing in the streets of Cleveland, as the home club captured their first NFL crown in an unforgettable game. The program includes individual photos of the Browns and many of the Rams. There are Browns and NFL season stats and a team photo of the '50 Browns on the inside back cover.