Sound Off! : How NFL Team Got Here From Cleveland

From Cleveland to Los Angeles to Anaheim, the Rams have packed their bags and sought out new homes just twice in the team’s 51-year history.

Originally franchised in Cleveland in 1937, the club had just one season over .500 before winning the National Football League title in 1945. Fans may have been thrilled, but the owner was less content.

The next year, the Rams moved to Los Angeles.

It was a bold move--the Los Angeles Rams became the first NFL team west of St. Louis. The club finished its first season on the West Coast with a disappointing 6-4-1 record.

From those humble beginnings, though, the Rams became an institution in Los Angeles, retaining that city’s name even after leaving in 1980 for Anaheim. And though the team was lured to Orange County by an expanded suburban stadium, its new home has not brought complete happiness, either on the field or off.

Finishing last year with a 6-9 record, the Rams took a bigger blow in June in Orange County Superior Court. There the club was the loser in a battle between the city and the California Angels, with whom they share the stadium, over the right to develop part of the stadium parking lot into office buildings--a key element of the deal that drew the Rams to Anaheim in the first place.

Now the team is reportedly negotiating to move back to the big city.

After the first three seasons in Los Angeles impressed few, the Rams won divisional titles in 1949 and 1950. The next year, the Rams won their first NFL title since moving west.

Ownership changed several times through the years. Then in 1972 Carroll Rosenbloom stepped in. Rosenbloom, owner of the Baltimore Colts, traded in his Baltimore franchise for the Rams. That was a lackluster year, but starting in 1973 the team won seven consecutive divisional titles.

But Rosenbloom was dissatisfied with the Rams’ home in Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, located in an economically blighted area of the city. Saying he wanted the fans to feel “comfortable,” in 1978 he negotiated a move to Anaheim Stadium, which was to be expanded and improved at a cost of $33 million. The move to the Big A would provide a stadium “where fans can be more a part of the game,” which “will help us win,” Rosenbloom said at the time.

The next year, as the Rams played their final season in Los Angeles, the team went to the Super Bowl. The Rams lost to Pittsburgh, 31-19.

But before that season started, Rosenbloom died, and his widow, Georgia, became the majority owner of the Rams.

The first game in the Bigger A on Aug. 11, 1980, did not bear out Rosenbloom’s hopes. The Rams lost to the New England Patriots, 35-31, despite the screaming and waving of yellow kerchiefs by 69,000 fans.