Cleveland Browns vs Packers Ad – 1954

The Cleveland Browns open their 2024 regular season this Sunday against the Dallas Cowboys. The team has already met the Green Bay Packers, the Minnesota Vikings and the Seattle Seahawks in preseason games.

Seventy years ago (!) the Browns also met the Packers in the first preseason game. Above you see the ad that appeared in the Lorain Journal on August 20, 1954 promoting the game.

It's interesting seeing that the game was going to be broadcast on WGAR. It seems that the Browns games were on 1100 WWWE for so many years that I thought it was always their home. But the radio home changed many times over the decades. Even now, I seem to forget that the games are on 850 The Fan.

Radio announcers for the 1954 season were Bill McColgan (who called Browns games from 1954 - 1960) and play-by-play man Ken Coleman (father of Emmy Award-winning sports anchor Casey Coleman).

Note the sponsor of the games: Carling's Black Label Beer, a favorite topic on this blog and – when I can find it – a favorite beer in my fridge.

Cleveland Browns Apparel at Sears – Oct. 1973

Showing your support for your favorite professional sports team by wearing apparel emblazoned with their logo is pretty easy nowadays, if you have deep pockets. Websites such as Fanatics.com carry an incredible variety of top quality merchandise – jackets, sweatshirts, caps, etc. – for all of the leagues, all available at your fingertips with a few clicks. 

(I've bought a few Toronto Maple Leaf items on Fanatics.com over the years, so I'm all set to blend in with the crowd in Toronto when they eventually win the Stanley Cup.)

But finding and buying stuff with a team logo on it wasn't always so easy fifty years ago. It used to be that only certain area stores might carry a team's line of merchandise.

Sears was one of those stores, selling officially licensed Cleveland Browns apparel. The ad below ran in the Lorain Journal back on October 11, 1973.

I remember seeing kids wear the hats and jackets shown in the ad. But while my brothers and I liked the Cleveland Indians (and went to some games), I don't remember us being big Browns fans as kids. In fact, I've never bought a Browns cap or T-shirt in my life. 

Anyway, the Sears ad is kind of neat in that it features nine Cleveland Browns who were scheduled to make personal appearances at various Sears stores: Walter Johnson, John Demarie, Sandusky's Thom Darden; Jerry Sherk (at the Midway Mall store); Milt Morin, Billy Andrews, Don Cockroft, Bob DeMarco and Charlie Hall.

One thing comes to mind when I see that list. Why did they send Thom Darden to Southgate, instead of a store in Sandusky – his hometown?

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I still remember those unfunny commercials for Southgate USA starring actor Ted Knight.

Name that Brownie

Do you recognize this guy? 

If you were a regular reader of the Plain Dealer back in the 1960s, you probably do.

Why, the little elf is none other than Andy, whose syndicated "Ask Andy” column for kids appeared in newspapers across the country. Children were invited to submit questions to Andy about nature, science, astronomy, etc. If their query was selected for the column, they received a prize (usually a set of encyclopedias). The column dates back to the early 1950s and was similar to “Tell Me Why,” which appeared in the Lorain Journal.

(To read a great article about the history of the long-running “Ask Andy” column and Ellen Wales Walpole, the woman behind the column, click here.)

Here’s a promotional piece for “Ask Andy" from the August 5, 1958 Des Moines Tribune about the column’s impending appearance in that paper.

And here’s a sample column from the Los Angeles Times of April 5, 1964 with the more familiar rendering of the helpful elf.

When I was a kid, I used to see (and sometimes read) the "Ask Andy" column in the Plain Dealer. I remember thinking that Andy was just another version of the Cleveland Browns brownie mascot! 

And speaking of the Browns, here’s wishing them good luck on Sunday in their game against the Kansas City Chiefs!

December 5, 1960 newspaper ad

Cleveland Browns vs. Yankees Ad – Dec. 17, 1946

We’re all still happy that the Cleveland Browns snapped their losing streak last Sunday, so it’s a good time for me to post this Richman Brothers ad dating back to the team’s very first season as a team. It ran in the Lorain Journal on December 17, 1946 and promotes the Browns’ appearance in the first All-America Football Conference championship game, against the New York Yankees. (The Browns won. You can read more about that season here.)

The ad has a great illustration of the Browns’ Brownie mascot in a tug of war over the crown with the Yankee.

The game was also the final appearance that season of George Bird's Musical Majorettes, an all-girl marching band that played during halftime for the Browns during their 1946 and 1947 seasons. (George Bird had been director of the Massillon Tigers high school marching band. Cleveland Browns coach Paul Brown – formerly the football coach at the Massillon high school early in his career – enlisted Bird to be entertainment director of the new Browns organization.)

Here’s a photo of the group taken on December 8, 1947, courtesy of www.ohiomemory.org.

The Reminisce magazine website has a nice story by Elvira Lausche Flynn of Willoughby Hills, Ohio about her time as a trombonist with the group. You can read it here.

Elvira Lausche Flynn is second from the right in this photo.
(Photo courtesy www.reminisce.com)

Happily, the Musical Majorettes held a 50th anniversary get-together in 1996, which you can read about it here in this Washington Post article. 

Richman Bros/Cleveland Browns Ad – November 12, 1946

It’s a pity that the era of great sports cartoon mascots seems to have passed, at least when it comes to their utilization in advertising and marketing. I guess they must be deemed too old-fashioned and corny, as many teams both professional and local currently have no real mascot character to represent them – just a flashy all-type design.

The Cleveland Indians have certainly downplayed Chief Wahoo in recent years for well-known reasons. The Cleveland Brownie, on the other hand, has made a comeback of sorts.

In the old days, you used to be able to count on seeing a clever cartoon or illustration (especially in the pages of the Plain Dealer, where Dick Dugan’s art was featured) depicting an upcoming matchup between the hometown favorites and the visiting team.

The Chicago Rockets
mascot

This tradition was also on display in newspaper ads designed to be imprinted with the names of a local business, such as the Richman Brothers ad above, which appeared in the Lorain Journal on November 12, 1946. The Browns were taking on the Chicago Rockets, so the cartoon appropriately shows the Brownie mascot getting ready to send one into orbit.

I’d never heard of the Chicago Rockets (I’m not a big sports fan). The Rockets’ Wiki page explained that the All-American Football Conference football team did not join the National Football League, unlike the Browns.

Anyway, it’s a cute newspaper ad, cleverly incorporating the names of several Chicago Rockers team members, including Elroy “Crazy Legs” Hirsch, Billy Hillenbrand, Bob “Hunchy” Hoernschemeyer and Ralph Heywood.

The ticket prices are pretty amazing. $3.60 is the price of the most expensive reserved seat.

The Browns ended up winning the game, beating the Rockets 51-14 before a hometown crowd of 60,457. You can review the Browns’ whole 12-2-0 1946 season right here.

Cleveland Browns Brownie Mascot Through the Years

I'm sure everyone will be talking about the Cleveland Browns today at work since they beat the Steelers on Sunday, so here's a little look back at their classic Brownie mascot through the years. Many of the images are from Ebay. I had my pal Gene at work – who is a sports authority and collector of sports memorabilia – help me establish a rough time frame for some of them.

There's few that are downright unusual – and a couple that are hilarious.

Courtesy www.clevescene.com

Although I'm not a big football fan, I've always rooted for the Browns – and liked their Brownie mascot too. I was disappointed that Browns owner Art Modell didn't like him and did away with him for so many years. But the team's new ownership brought the little elf back and he's more popular than ever.

For a terrific article about the history of the Cleveland Browns Brownie mascot, click here.