Arthur B. "Mickey" McBride (20 March 1888-10 November 1972) was the founder of the Cleveland Browns professional football team. McBride was a real estate developer and operator, active in Chicago, Cleveland and Florida. He also operated taxicab companies in Cleveland, Akron and Canton, Ohio, a printing company, and a horse racing news wire syndicate that sold information to bookmakers. He is perhaps best known, however, for his role as a pioneering owner in the National Football League (NFL).
McBride became a football fan in 1940 after attending a college game at the University of Notre Dame, where his son was a student. After Dan Reeves rejected his 1942 offer to buy the NFL's Cleveland Rams, in 1944 McBride purchased the Cleveland franchise in Arch Ward's newly created All-America Football Conference (AAFC). This team was the origin of the first Cleveland Browns.[1]
McBride aggressively promoted his new team and spared no expense. He hired legendary football coach Paul Brown away from the Great Lakes Naval Training Station during World War II, agreeing to pay Brown $20,000 per year plus 15% of the team's profits once it started operating, plus $1,000 per month until the end of the war.
McBride left the football side of the team to Brown and handled the business end himself. Although the AAFC floundered, under McBride and Coach Brown the Cleveland Browns were financially successful. After the AAFC's demise, McBride's Browns, the San Francisco 49ers and the original Baltimore Colts were admitted to the NFL in 1950. McBride sold his controlling interest in the team in June 1953 for $600,000 to a group headed by David Jones which included Ellis Ryan, an insurance man and former president of the Cleveland Indians, Saul Silberman, owner of the local horse race track later known as Thistledown Racecourse, and Homer Marshman, the attorney who had founded the Cleveland Rams. The price tag was twice as large as any that had been brought by any other pro football team before that.[2]
McBride contributed to the lexicon of football with the term "taxi squad." Browns' players who were not on the active roster, due to injury or other reason, were temporarily put on the McBride's payroll as taxi drivers, though it is unclear if any of them actually drove cabs.
Aside from football, some believed McBride's horse racing syndicate venture was not entirely above-board. In January 1951, McBride testified in nationally televised hearings before the Senate Crime Investigating Committee, which questioned his Continental Press Service, a nationwide distributor of horse racing news, about his alleged ties to organized crime and participation in illegal gambling. McBride denied the connections, claimed he never broke the law, and was never charged with any crime. Congress later passed legislation making such wire services illegal.[3]
McBride was married to the former Mary Jane Kane. They had 3 children: Arthur B., Jr., Edward, and Jane. McBride died in Cleveland and was buried in Cleveland's Holy Cross Cemetery.
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