1946: 49ers Romp Over Miami in Hurricane-Delayed Home Opener

The Miami Seahawks of the new All-America Football Conference hosted their first home game on October 8, 1946 as they faced the San Francisco 49ers. The franchise was run by an ownership group headed by Harvey Hester and represented a first as a major pro football league team in the Deep South. The roster was liberally sprinkled with players from Southern colleges as a result, but many of them were marginal performers at best. Head Coach Jack Meagher’s squad was already 0-3, having played three road games that started with a 44-0 thrashing in Cleveland and included a loss to the 49ers in San Francisco. To make matters worse for the Seahawks, the home opening game had to be delayed due to a hurricane.

The 49ers were 2-2 coming into the game in Miami, having lost to the Chicago Rockets the previous week. Coached by Buck Shaw, who had been successful at the collegiate level, San Francisco operated with Frankie Albert (pictured above), a mobile lefthander, at quarterback. Ex-Chicago Bears FB Norm Standlee and HB Johnny Strzykalsi headed a deep backfield operating behind a good line, and end Alyn Beals was a productive receiver. 

There was a meagre crowd of 7621 in attendance at Burdine Stadium (aka the Orange Bowl) on a summery Tuesday evening. The 49ers drove to their first score following a fumble by Miami QB Marion Pugh at his own 38. Frankie Albert faded back to pass, couldn’t find a receiver, and instead ran 22 yards down the sideline. HB Len Eshmont powered over from the two for a touchdown a few plays later and Joe Vetrano added the extra point.

In the second quarter, San Francisco’s next scoring drive started off with a 62-yard run by HB Don Durdan to the Miami 12. Two plays later, QB Jesse Freitas threw to Alyn Beals for a 12-yard TD. Vetrano again tacked on the PAT and the visitors took a 14-0 lead into halftime.

Early in the third quarter, San Francisco DE Henry Norberg recovered a fumble by HB Monk Gafford at the Miami nine. However, on this occasion the Seahawks held on defense and the 49ers turned the ball over on downs at the two. The reprieve didn’t last long as Miami couldn’t gain much ground and punted, and Vetrano’s return gave San Francisco starting field position at the Seahawks’ 36. Four plays later, HB Earle Parsons ran off tackle for a 24-yard touchdown and, with Vetrano’s conversion, the 49ers led by 21-0.

The Seahawks finally got on the board in the fourth quarter. Gafford caught a pass from QB Jim Tarrant for a 56-yard gain to the San Francisco five and, after a play that lost yardage was followed by a penalty on the 49ers, Tarrant threw to end Prince Scott for a four-yard TD. Dick Erdlitz tacked on the extra point.

That was it for the home team as San Francisco poured it on in the remaining time. A pass interference penalty advanced the 49ers to the Miami eight and HB Pete Franceschi bulled over for a touchdown from there. The extra point attempt failed when a bad snap caused Vetrano to attempt a drop kick that was unsuccessful. Two plays later, a Tarrant fumble was recovered by tackle John Kuzman, and he returned it 72 yards for another TD. This time Vetrano converted and San Francisco came away with a comfortable 34-7 win.  

The 49ers led in total yards (284 to 151) and first downs (11 to 8). They were successful on 7 of 16 passes while the Seahawks completed 10 of 19. Miami turned the ball over five times, to one by the 49ers, and punted on seven occasions, while San Francisco had four.

“There’ll be some drastic changes made very soon,” said a grim team president Harvey Hester after the humiliating defeat. “Our organization will field a winner here if it’s the last thing I do.”

Despite Hester’s determination, and a win at Buffalo the next week, the Seahawks played poorly the rest of the way and finished with a 3-11 record and in the cellar of the comparatively weak Eastern Division of the AAFC. Coach Meagher was gone after six games and replaced by Hamp Pool. By the end, the league had to step in financially to keep the franchise afloat, and it was promptly expelled after the season, to be replaced by the Baltimore Colts.

The 49ers were far more successful, going 9-5 to end up second to the powerful Browns in the Western Division. They also enjoyed far more fan support and, like Cleveland, would long outlive the AAFC.

1946: Browns Dominate Miami in First AAFC Contest

There were 60,135 fans at Cleveland’s Municipal Stadium on September 6, 1946 to witness the debut of a new pro football league, the All-America Football Conference (AAFC). The size of the crowd was notable in itself, for it was the larger than any that had assembled to watch a regular season NFL game to date.

The AAFC had been organized by Arch Ward, sports editor of The Chicago Tribune, who had previously brought major league baseball’s All-Star Game and football’s College All-Star Game into being. The league was determined to be truly national in scope, with teams on the west coast (San Francisco and Los Angeles) and southeast (Miami) as well as the major centers of New York City and Chicago (the NFL’s Rams moved from Cleveland to Los Angeles in 1946 to extend the older league’s reach as well). By and large, the AAFC franchise owners were wealthier than their NFL counterparts and prepared to spend money in the competition for talent.

One of the new AAFC owners was Arthur “Mickey” McBride in Cleveland, who had made his money in real estate and taxi services. He hired Paul Brown (pictured above) as head coach and general manager, a smart public relations – as well as football – move. Brown was already a semi-legendary figure in Ohio football from his coaching stints at Massillon High School and Ohio State. He had most recently coached during World War II at the Great Lakes Naval Training Station and, everywhere he had been, he had produced winning teams. Likely in tribute, when a fan contest to name the new club was held, “Browns” was the winner.

Brown signed players that he was familiar with from his college and service coaching, including Otto Graham, who had been a single-wing tailback at Northwestern; end Mac Speedie, from Utah but who Brown knew from service football; and end Dante Lavelli and tackle/placekicker Lou Groza, from Ohio State. There were also Bill Willis, a guard from Ohio State, and 230-pound fullback Marion Motley, who was familiar to Brown from high school and service teams, who were not only talented players but the first two African-Americans in the AAFC (the NFL’s Rams broke that league’s color barrier in ’46 also).

All of those players were making their pro debuts in the opening game along with the new franchise and league. Other significant Browns players who had at least some prior pro experience included HB Edgar “Special Delivery” Jones, who briefly played for the Chicago Bears in 1945; tackle Lou Rymkus, formerly of the Washington Redskins; and Gaylon Smith, an all-purpose back who had spent four seasons with the Cleveland Rams.

The Browns’ opponents in the season-opening game were the Miami Seahawks, coached by Jack Meagher. They fell quickly behind in the first quarter as QB Cliff Lewis threw a 19-yard touchdown pass to Speedie for the first score in Browns history. Groza followed with a 22-yard field goal for a 10-0 lead at the end of the first quarter.

It was 27-0 by halftime as the Browns broke the game open in the second quarter. Otto Graham threw the first TD pass of his illustrious career, of 39 yards to Lavelli, HB Tom Colella ran for a 50-yard touchdown, and Groza booted another field goal, from 27 yards out.

The defense added two more touchdowns in the fourth quarter, as HB Don Greenwood scored on a three-yard fumble return and HB Ray Terrell intercepted a pass and ran 76 yards. In between, Groza kicked his third field goal, of 21 yards.

The final score was 44-0 and demonstrated both the dominance of the Browns and the weakness of the Seahawks. “I couldn’t believe we beat a pro team 44-0”, said Lavelli afterward.

Cleveland won its first seven games and didn’t allow another club to score in double figures until the seventh contest. After losing for the first time to the team that would be their chief nemesis in the AAFC, the San Francisco 49ers, the Browns lost once more to the Los Angeles Dons before completing the regular season with a 12-2 record. Finishing at the top of the Western Division, they went on to defeat the New York Yankees for the league title.

As outstanding as the Browns were, the Miami Seahawks proved to be the biggest failure of the AAFC’s first season. Two of the club’s games were postponed by hurricanes and the team never drew more than 9700 fans at home (they scheduled their games on Monday nights). The Seahawks weren’t helped by the fact that seven of their first eight games were played on the road and they were already 1-7 by that point. They finished at the bottom of the Eastern Division with a 3-11 tally.

Coach Meagher resigned after six games and was replaced by player/coach Hamp Pool. Owner Harvey Hester went broke and the other teams were forced to pay off the club’s debts at the end of the season. The franchise was expelled and replaced by the first incarnation of the Baltimore Colts for 1947.