Talk:History of the Cleveland Browns
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[edit] Origin of team name
This article states the Browns were not named after Paul Brown, but rather the boxer Joe Louis, going further to state that the idea of the team being named after Paul Brown has just been a long rumor or myth.
I can't find any source that backs this statement. Joe Louis had no ties to Cleveland (he worked in rival city Detroit when he was young). The Joe Louis Wikipedia article makes absolutely no mention of any connection either.
Here's how the story is typically presented: "In 1945, Arthur McBride brought the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) team to Cleveland. He ran a newspaper contest to name the team and offered the winner a $1,000 war bond. Many entries suggested the name "Browns" after Head Coach Paul Brown, but Coach Brown felt it wasn't "proper" to name the team after himself. Instead, the winning suggestion was the Panthers. However, there was a semi-pro team called the Cleveland Panthers in the '20s, and the owner still had the rights to the name. So, Coach Brown reluctantly agreed to name the team the Browns."
Even the Pro Football Hall of Fame makes no mention of a connection to Joe Louis. This article backs up its statement of a connection merely through one single reference of a book written based on one man's research rather than the horse's mouth which is the NFL. Here's the link to the NFL's team nickname histories: NFL Team Nicknames --Heavy (talk) 17:22, 29 February 2008 (UTC)
