On February 13, 1937, the Rams were placed in the Western division to replace the Cincinnati Reds, who had folded in the middle of the 1934 season (the independent St. Louis Gunners had filled in for the Reds for the rest of the 1934 season). Marshman soon hired Hugo Bezdek to be the head coach and Buzz Wetzel as the General Manager of the new franchise, and home games were played in both Cleveland Municipal Stadium and League Park.[1][2] The 1937 NFL Draft was held on December 12, 1936, two months before the Rams joined the league. It was agreed by the league owners that the players would be drafted by them for the future team. They picked fullback Johnny "Zero" Drake out of Purdue in the first round, tenth pick overall.[3] Although the Rams finished their first season at 1-10, Drake was named the 1937 NFL Rookie of the Year.[1]
During the 1938 season, the Rams played all of their home games at Shaw Stadium. Marshman fired Bezdek after losing the first three games and replaced him with assistant coach Art Lewis. The Rams won their next three games, but finished the season at 4-7.[2]
Marshman hired Earl "Dutch" Clark as the head coach for the team during the 1939 season. Tailback Parker Hall was drafted during the 1939 NFL Draft in the first round, third pick overall.[3] He won the NFL Most Valuable Player of the Year award during his rookie year. The Rams ended the season at 5-5-1. The following season the Rams earn a 4-6-1 record.
In 1941, Daniel F. Reeves and partner Fred Levy, Jr. purchased the Rams for $135,000.[1] They kept Clark as the head coach, and hired Billy Evans as the General Manager for the Rams. They won their first two games, but lost their next nine.[2] Before the start of the next season, Evans resigned as the General Manager after a new contract could not be reached.[1]
Before the start of the 1942 season, Reeves joined the US Army as a lieutenant to fight in World War II. The Rams played without their owner and ended the season at 5-6. Clark resigned as coach soon after the close of the season, and Charles "Chile" Walsh was named the new head coach. Yet, the franchise suspended operations and sat out the entire 1943 season because of a shortage of players during World War II. Chile Walsh was named the new General Manager when the Rams resumed playing in 1944. He named Aldo "Buff" Donelli the new head coach. Coach Donelli had to form a team among free agents and pickups. The newly made team finished the 1944 season at 4-6.[1][2]
After Donelli left to join the military, Chile Walsh named his brother Adam Walsh as the team's new head coach. The Rams drafted quarterback Bob Waterfield from UCLA in the fifth round of the 1945 draft, forty-second player picked overall. He would lead the team to their first NFL Championship Game and be named the NFL MVP and the NFL Rookie of the Year. Waterfield and fellow Ram Parker Hill are the only two NFL players to be named MVP and Rookie of the Year in the same year. Waterfield was also the first player to win the NFL MVP with a unanimous vote.[2][3][4]
On Thanksgiving Day, November 22, 1945, Jim Benton would make ten receptions for 303 yards against the Detroit Lions. This record would stand for forty-four years until it was broken by fellow Ram Willie "Flipper" Anderson. He ended the season with 45 receptions for 1067 yards and eight touchdowns.[5]
The Rams finished the 1945 season with the best record in the NFL at 9-1 with their only loss against the Philadelphia Eagles on October 28 at Shibe Park. Waterfield ended the season with 88 pass completions on 171 attempts for 1609 yards, 14 touchdowns and 16 interceptions. He also kicked 31 extra points. The Rams also had a pair of running backs who put up good numbers during the 1945 season. Fred Gehrke ended the season with 467 yards on 74 attempts and seven touchdowns and Jim Gillette had 390 yards on 63 attempts and one touchdown.[5]
The Rams hosted the Washington Redskins during an icy day on December 16, 1945 for the NFL championship in front of 32,178 fans. In the first quarter of play, Sammy Baugh dropped back in his own end zone and hit the goal post with a pass. It bounced into the end zone for a safety (under the rules of that time). Baugh later left the game with a bruised rib and was replaced by Frank Filchock. Filchock threw two touchdown passes in the game, one to Steve Bagarus in the second quarter and another to Bob Seymour in the third quarter. Waterfield also threw for two touchdowns during the game, one to Jim Benton in the second quarter and another to Jim Gillette in the third quarter. Waterfield missed an extra point attempt. The Redskins had the opportunity to win the game twice in the fourth quarter with a field goal, but Joe Aguirre missed both of them. The Rams managed to win the 1945 NFL Championship Game 15-14.[6]
On January 12, 1946, Reeves was denied a request by the other NFL owners to move his team to Los Angeles and its 92,000 seat Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.[7] Reeves threatened to end his relationship with the NFL and get out of the professional football business altogether unless the Rams transfer to Los Angeles was permitted.[8][9][7] A settlement was reached and, as a result, the Los Angeles Rams were created.[7][10][11][12] and the NFL had become the first professional coast-to-coast sports entertainment industry.[7] At the time, the NFL did not allow African-Americans to play in the league.[citation needed]After the Rams had received approval to move to Los Angeles, the Rams entered into negotiations to lease the Los Angeles Coliseum. The Rams were advised that a precondition to them getting a lease was that they would have to integrate the team with at least one African American; the Rams agreed to this condition.[13][14][15][16] Subsequently, the Rams signed Kenny Washington on March 21, 1946,[17][18][19] and racial segregation in the NFL was completely ended.[20]
The Rams were the first team in the NFL to play in Los Angeles (the 1926 Los Angeles Buccaneers were strictly a road team), but they were not the only professional football team to play its home games in the Coliseum between 1946 and 1949. The upstart All-America Football Conference had the Los Angeles Dons compete there as well. Reeves was taking a gamble that Los Angeles was ready for its own professional football team - and suddenly there were two in the City of Angels. Reeves 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 (the Dons merged with them in late 1949),[21] but the facility was already over twenty years old on the day of the first kickoff. In 1948, halfback Fred Gehrke painted horns on the Rams' helmets, making the first modern helmet emblem in pro football.[22]
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.
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 executive in Pete Rozelle. During his time with Rams, Rozelle learned the value of television for the sport of pro football. Through Rozelle's savvy 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.
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 to 1970 and introduced many innovations, including the hiring of 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.
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 four conference championship games they played in that decade, losing twice each to Minnesota (1974, 1976) and Dallas (1975, 1978) and failing to win a league championship.
The Rams' coach for this run was Chuck Knox, who led the team through 1977. 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 to 1991, as well as Merlin Olson, who retired after 1976. During the 1977 offseason, the Rams, looking for a veteran quarterback, acquired Joe Namath from the Jets. In spite of a 2-1 start to the regular season, Namath's bad knees rendered him nearly immobile and after a Monday night defeat in Chicago, he never played again. With Pat Haden at the helm, the Rams won the division and advanced to the playoffs, but lost at home to Minnesota. Chuck Knox left for the Bills in 1978, after which Ray Malavasi became head coach. Going 12-4, the team won the NFC West for the sixth year in a row and defeated the Vikings, thus avenging their earlier playoff defeat. However, success eluded them again as they were shut out in the NFC Championship by the Cowboys.
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 third 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 fourth Super Bowl, 31-19.
Prior to the 1979 Super Bowl season, owner Carroll Rosenbloom died in a drowning accident, and his widow, Georgia Frontiere, inherited 70% ownership of the team. Frontiere then fired stepson Steve Rosenbloom and assumed total control of Rams operations. As had been planned prior to Rosenbloom's death, the Rams moved from their longtime home at the Coliseum to Anaheim Stadium in nearby Orange County in 1980. The reason for the move was twofold. First, the NFL's blackout rule forbade games from being shown on local television if they did not sell out within 72 hours of the opening kickoff. As the Los Angeles Coliseum seated 100,000 people, it was rarely possible to sell that many tickets, and so most Rams home games were blacked out. Second, this move was following the population pattern in Southern California. During the 1970s and 1980s, the decline of manufacturing industries in the northeastern United States combined with the desire of many young people to live in a warmer climate cause a large-scale population shift to the southern and western states. As a result, many affluent new suburbs were built in the Los Angeles area. Anaheim Stadium was originally built in 1965 to be the home of the California Angels. To accommodate the Rams' move, the ballpark was reconfigured and enclosed to accommodate crowds of almost 70,000 in football configuration. With their new, smaller home, the Rams had no problem selling out games.
In 1980, the team posted an 11-5 record, but only managed a wild card spot and were sent packing after a loss to the Cowboys. Age and injuries finally caught up with the Rams in 1981, as they only won six games and missed the playoffs for the first time in nine years. After the 1982 season was shortened to nine games by a strike, the Rams went 2-7, the worst record in the NFC.
In 1982, the Oakland Raiders moved to Los Angeles and made their home in the Coliseum. The combined effect of these two moves was to divide the Rams' traditional fanbase in two. This was coupled with the early 1980s being rebuilding years for the club, while the Raiders were winners of Super Bowl XVIII in the 1983 season. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Lakers won championships in 1980 and 1982 en route to winning five titles in that decade, the Los Angeles Dodgers won the World Series in 1981 and 1988, and even the Los Angeles Kings made a deep run in the playoffs in 1982. As a result, the Rams declined sharply in popularity during the 1980s.
Therefore, the hiring of coach John Robinson in 1983 provided a needed boost for pro football in Orange County. The former USC coach began by cutting the aged veterans left over from the 1970s teams. His rebuilding program began to show results when the team rebounded to 9-7 in 1983 and defeated Dallas in the playoffs. However, the season ended after a rout at the hands of the soon-to-be champion Redskins. Another trip to the playoffs in 1984 saw them lose to the Giants. They made the NFC Championship Game in 1985 after winning the division, where they would be shut out by the eventual champion Chicago Bears.
The most notable player for the Rams during that period was running back Eric Dickerson, who was drafted in 1983 out of SMU and won Rookie of the Year. In 1984, Dickerson rushed for 2,105 yards, setting a new NFL record. Dickerson would end his five hugely successful years for the Rams in 1987 by being traded to the Indianapolis Colts for a number of players and draft picks after a bitter contract dispute, shortly after the players' strike that year ended. Dickerson remains the Rams career rushing leader with 7,245 yards. After a 10-6 season in 1986, the Rams were booted from the playoffs by Washington. After one game of the 1987 season was lost to the players' strike, the NFL employed substitutes, most of which were given derogatory nicknames (in this case the Los Angeles Shams). After a 2-1 record, the Rams' regulars returned, but the team only went 6-9 and did not qualify for the postseason.
The Rams managed to return in 1988 with a 10-6 record, but then were defeated by Minnesota. Los Angeles won the first five games of 1989, including a sensational defeat of the defending champion 49ers. After eliminating the Eagles in the playoffs, they beat the Giants in overtime. In the NFC Championship, the Rams faced the 49ers again and were crushed 30-3. After that, the team crumbled to 5-11 in 1990, followed by a 3-13 season in 1991.
Despite this trade, the Rams remained contenders due to the arrival of the innovative offensive leadership of Ernie Zampese. Zampese brought the intricate timing routes he had used in making the San Diego Chargers a state-of-the-art offense. Under Zampese, the Rams rose steadily from 28th rated offense in 1986 to 3rd in 1990. The late 1980s Rams featured a gifted young QB in Jim Everett, a solid rushing attack and a fleet of talented WRs led by Henry Ellard. After an 11–5 record during the 1989 regular season, it was a team that seemed destined for greater things, until a 'phantom sack' in the 1989 NFC Championship derailed those ambitions. This occurred during a humiliating 30–3 defeat by division-rival San Francisco, when Everett collapsed to the turf untouched by San Francisco defenders.[23] From then on he was perceived to shy away from hits by Rams fans. As a result of this reputation, Southern California sports talk host, Jim Rome, would refer to Everett as "Chris Everett," referring to the female tennis player Chris Evert, on his radio and television show. During a live interview on Rome's ESPN2 show, Talk2, Everett challenged Rome to call him "Chris" to his face. When Rome responded by calling him "Chris," the seated Everett abruptly stood up, overturned a table, and pushed the startled host to the floor.[24] Everett then walked off the set.
The Rams never recovered from the humiliation. The first half of the 1990s featured losing records, no playoff appearances for the Rams and waning fan interest. The return of Chuck Knox as head coach, after Knox's successful stints as head coach of the Buffalo Bills and Seattle Seahawks, would not boost the Rams' fortunes. His run-oriented offense marked the end of the Zampese tenure in 1993. The strategy was for the offense to be steady, if unspectacular. Unfortunately for the Rams, Knox's offense was not only aesthetically unpleasing, but dull as well, especially by 1990s standards. The continued losing and uninspired play of the Rams further reduced the Rams fan base, which by 1994 had withered to the point where they were barely part of the Los Angeles sports landscape. The NFL black-out rule, which prevented the broadcast of home games that were not sold out, also worked against the Rams as their frequent non-sellouts denied the team a chance to be shown on local broadcast TV. One of the few bright spots during this time was Jerome Bettis, a bruising running back from Notre Dame. Bettis flourished in Knox' offense, running for 1,400 yards in each of his first two seasons.
As became increasingly common with sports franchises, the Rams began to blame much of their misfortune on their stadium situation. With Orange County mired in a deep recession resulting largely from defense sector layoffs, the Rams were unable to secure a new or improved stadium in the Los Angeles area, which ultimately cast their future in Southern California into doubt.
While the Rams dealt with stadium concerns in Los Angeles, efforts were underway to regain an NFL franchise in St. Louis to play in a new domed stadium slated to open in 1995. First, Anheuser-Busch scion Jim Orthwein tried, and ultimately failed, to move the New England Patriots to St. Louis. Then, despite being heavily favored along with Charlotte to win an expansion team, St. Louis lost to a group from Jacksonville, Florida. (So certain, in fact, did it appear that St. Louis would gain an expansion franchise, that the team had a name selected - the Stallions - and t-shirts with the team's logo were made available for sale, albeit very briefly, at a number of St. Louis area sports shops.) Despite these failures, it was proven to many that St. Louis was a market with a state-of-the-art football stadium on the way and a passionate and football-starved fan base ready to embrace a return of the NFL. As such, owner Georgia Frontiere early in 1995 committed to move the franchise to St. Louis, her hometown.
The move left many in the Los Angeles area embittered toward the NFL. That sentiment was best expressed by Fred Dryer, who at the time said "I hate these people [the Rams and their owner, Georgia Frontiere] for what they did, taking the Rams logo with them when they moved to St. Louis. That logo belonged to Southern California."
Due to a number of factors, the NFL has repeatedly failed in its efforts to return NFL football to Los Angeles. Following the 1995 season, the Seattle Seahawks announced that they would move the team to Southern California. However the NFL, which had taken control of the Los Angeles market, did not approve of the move and thus forced the Seahawks to move back to Seattle, after Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen came in with a financial bail out package. In the late 1990s a number of Los Angeles-based groups attempted to land the NFL's 32nd franchise; however Houston was awarded the franchise, largely because Houston had a solid commitment for a stadium (and was very aggressive in its attempts to obtain the franchise) while none of the Los Angeles-based groups had a solid stadium commitment (nor the aggressiveness of the Houston group). Despite the NFL's extensive effort to return the NFL to Los Angeles, in general the Los Angeles market has been ambivalent about the absence of the NFL. Currently the likeliest venue for a return to the NFL in Los Angeles is a refurbished Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
Just before moving to St. Louis the Rams fired Knox and hired Rich Brooks, longtime successful football coach at the University of Oregon, to replace him. The team played its first several games in St. Louis at Busch Stadium as work was finished on their new home, the Trans World Dome (now known as the Edward Jones Dome). Brooks jettisoned Knox' run-oriented scheme in favor of a powerful air attack. Bettis all but disappeared from the offense, rushing for only 634 yards. Despite this, the Rams started off well, getting off to a 5-1 start. However, a 44-10 thumping by the 49ers in the last game at Busch Stadium sent the team into a downward spiral, and they ultimately finished 7-9--still the closest they came to contention since 1989. The biggest highlight of the season was longtime offensive lineman Jackie Slater, in his 20th season, staying around just long enough to play his final NFL game as a Ram in St. Louis.
The next three years would largely be a repeat of the Rams' last five years in Los Angeles. After regressing to 6-10 in 1996, Brooks was replaced by Dick Vermeil. Vermeil had enjoyed success as the head coach of UCLA (where he won a Rose Bowl) and the Philadelphia Eagles, where he led the Eagles to Super Bowl XV. However, Vermeil left the Eagles after an unsuccessful 1982 season, claiming burnout, and proceeded to spend much of the next decade and a half as a college football commentator for ABC Sports.
Vermeil's first two seasons as Rams coach were as unsuccessful as many of the seasons that preceded it. Through the 1998 season this futility made the Rams through the decade of the 1990s the worst team, record-wise, in the NFL.
