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[edit] The History of the St. Louis Rams
[edit] Los Angeles Rams: Los Angeles Era (1946-1979)
[edit] 1946-1948: Starting over in Los Angeles
On January 11, 1946, Reeves pressured the NFL to allow his team to relocate to Los Angeles and its 92,000 seat Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in 1946.[citation needed] At the time, the NFL did not allow African-Americans to play in the league. The commissioners of the Los Angeles Coliseum stipulated as part of the agreement that the team be integrated. As a result, the team signed UCLA players Kenny Washington and Woody Strode, who became the first two blacks to play in the NFL, post World War II. [1]
The Rams were the second team in the NFL to play in Los Angeles. The first team were the Los Angeles Buccaneers who only lasted for one season in 1926. Reeves was taking a gamble that Los Angeles was ready for their own professional football team. He was proved to be correct when the Rams played their first pre-season game against the Washington Redskins in front of a crowd of 95,000 fans. The team finished their first season in LA with a 6-4-1 record, second place behind the Chicago Bears. At the end of the season Walsh was fired as head coach.
The Coliseum would be the home of the Rams for more than thirty years, but the facility was already over twenty years old on the day of the first kick-off having been built in 1922 and used for the 1932 Olympics. In 1948, Halfback Fred Gehrke painted horns on the Rams' helmets, making the first modern helmet emblem in pro football. [2]
[edit] 1949-1955: Three-end formation
The Rams' first heyday in Southern California was from 1949 to 1955, when they played in the NFL championship game (not yet called the Super Bowl) four times, winning once in 1951. During this period, they had the best offense in the NFL, even though there was a quarterback change from Bob Waterfield to Norm Van Brocklin in 1951. The defining player of this period was wide receiver Elroy Hirsch. Teamed with fellow Hall-of-Famer Tom Fears, Hirsch helped create the style of Rams football as one of the first big play receivers. During the 1951 Championship season, Hirsch posted a then stunning 1,495 receiving yards with 17 touchdowns. The popularity of this wide-open offense enabled the Los Angeles Rams to become the first pro football team to have all their games televised in 1950.
[edit] 1956-1962: Tanking out
The Rams suffered a down period on the field from 1956 until 1966 posting losing records in every season. However, the business side of the franchise was nurtured by a visionary exectutive in Pete Rozelle. During his time with Rams, Rozelle learned the value of television for the sport of pro football. Through Rozelle's savy use of television, the Rams remained a glamor NFL franchise despite their poor record. In a 1957 game against the San Francisco 49ers, the Rams set the all-time record for attendance for a regular season NFL game with 102,368. The Rams would draw over 100,000 fans twice the following year.
[edit] 1963-1969: The Fearsome Foursome
The 1960s were defined by the Rams great defensive line of Rosey Grier, Merlin Olsen, Deacon Jones, and Lamar Lundy, dubbed the "Fearsome Foursome". It was this group of players who restored the on-field luster of the franchise in 1967 when the Rams reached (but lost) the conference championship under legendary coach George Allen. That 1967 squad would become the first NFL team to surpass one million spectators in a season, a feat the Rams would repeat the following year. In each of those two years, the L.A. Rams drew roughly double the number of fans that could be accommodated by their current stadium for a full season.
George Allen led the Rams from 1966-70 and introduced many innovations. These included hiring a young Dick Vermeil as one of the first special teams coaches. Though Allen would enjoy five straight winning seasons and win two divisional titles in his time with the Rams he never won a playoff game with the team, losing in 1967 to Green Bay 28-7 and in 1969 23-20 to Minnesota. Allen would leave after the 1970 season to take the head coaching job for the Washington Redskins.
[edit] 1970-1972: Changes
Quarterback Roman Gabriel played eleven seasons for the Rams dating from 1962-72. From 1967-71, Gabriel led the Rams to either a first- or second-place finish in their division every year. He was voted the MVP of the entire NFL in 1969, for a season in which he threw for 2,549 yards and 24 TDs while leading the Rams to the playoffs. During the 1970 season, Gabriel combined with his primary receiver Jack Snow for 51 receptions totaling 859 yards. This would prove to be the best season of their eight seasons as teammates.
In 1972 Chicago industrialist Robert Irsay purchased the Rams for $19 million and then traded the franchise to Carroll Rosenbloom for his Baltimore Colts and cash. The Rams remained solid contenders in the 1970s, winning seven straight NFC West championships between 1973-79. Though they clearly were the class of the NFC in the 1970s along with the Dallas Cowboys and Minnesota Vikings, they lost the first 4 conference championship games they played in that decade, losing twice each to Minnesota (1974, 1976) and Dallas (1975, 1978).
[edit] 1973-1979: NFC West Champs
The Rams' coach for this run was Chuck Knox, who led the team through the 1977 season. The Chuck Knox coached Rams featured an unremarkable offense carried into the playoffs annually by an elite defensive unit. The defining player of the 1970s L.A. Rams was Jack Youngblood. Youngblood was called the 'Perfect Defensive End' by fellow Hall of Famer Merlin Olsen. His toughness was legendary, notably playing on a broken leg during the Rams' run to the 1980 Super Bowl. His blue-collar ethic stood in opposition to the perception that the Rams were a soft 'Hollywood' team. However, several Rams players from this period took advantage of their proximity to Hollywood and crossed over into acting after their playing careers ended. Most notable of these was Fred Dryer, who starred in the TV series Hunter from 1984-1991.
Ironically, it was the Rams' weakest divisional winner (an aging 1979 team that only achieved a 9-7 record) that would achieve the team's greatest success in that period. Led by third-year quarterback Vince Ferragamo, the Rams shocked the heavily-favored and two-time defending NFC champion Dallas Cowboys 21-19 in the Divisional Playoffs, then shut out the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 9-0 in the conference championship game to win the NFC and reach their first Super Bowl. Along with Ferragamo, key players for the Rams were halfback Wendell Tyler, offensive lineman Jackie Slater, and Pro Bowl defenders Jack Youngblood and Jack "Hacksaw" Reynolds.
The Rams' opponent in their first Super Bowl was the defending champion Pittsburgh Steelers. The game would be a virtual home game for the Rams as it was played in Pasadena at the Rose Bowl. Although some oddsmakers set the Rams as a 10½ point underdog, the Rams played Pittsburgh very tough, leading at halftime 13-10 and at the end of the 3rd quarter 19-17. In the end, however, the Steelers finally asserted themselves, scoring two touchdowns in the 4th quarter and completely shutting down the Rams offense to win their 4th Super Bowl, 31-19.
[edit] Notes and references
- ^ Rams Fun Facts: Rams Famous Firsts. Official Website of the St. Louis Rams. Retrieved 13 September 2006
- ^ Rams Fun Facts: The Rams Horns. Official Website of the St. Louis Rams. Retrieved 13 September 2006
