Historic Matchup: Detroit Lions vs. Cleveland Browns in 1952

Let's forget about the modern day dynasties of the NFL and go back to a season when the Detroit Lions were facing the unstoppable Cleveland Browns.

Would this be the year where the underdogs would upset the champs?

Michigan's very own Randy Snow joins us to tell us about the history of the season and the Detroit Lions versus Cleveland Browns matchup.

That's all coming up with Randy in just a moment.

This is the Pigskin Daily History Dispatch, a podcast that covers the anniversaries of American football events throughout history.

Your host, Darren Hayes is podcasting from America's North Shore to bring you the memories of the gridiron one day at a time.

Hello my football friends.

This is Darren Hayes of pigskindispatch.com welcome once again to the Pig Pen, your portal to positive football history.

And boy, we are having a great time talking about these pre Super Bowl National Football League championship games and we are really getting down to the end here.

And we have our friend Randy Snow joining us from the world of football, Kalamazoo, and he's going to talk about his favorite team back again, the Detroit Lions.

The top of the heap.

Randy, welcome back to the Pig Pen.

Thanks Darren.

Thanks for inviting me back again.

I must, must have done something right last time.

So you brought me, you brought me back again.

Now Randy, you are always doing something right.

You know, you and your son Adam on the World of Football podcast that you have are bringing us so many different varieties of football, not just the, the mainstream national football League in college, but you're bringing us the Arena Leagues and everything else.

What do you, what do you guys have cooking going up there in Kalamazoo in the world of football?

Oh man.

What don't we have going?

We, we're doing a weekly arena football podcast recapping the games every week.

We've been, we've been traveling.

We, we did, you know, we came to Western New York and we saw you there with the Western New York chapter of the pfra.

So that was fun.

So yes, there's always something going on here with, at the World of Football.

Yeah, you had a great presentation on your, your neck hobby that you have and maybe you could just tell the audience a little bit about that and maybe see some of your findings.

Well, I, for years I've been traveling to the graves of football Players and coaches and owners.

And it's been very fascinating to see where these folks are buried, where their final resting place is.

It really makes the person real when you can go to their grave and be standing next to them and you read all about them in a book or you've watched a movie about them.

It's just, just fascinating.

It really, really makes them real.

Not just a story in a book or a magazine or whatever.

They are real once you're standing next to their final resting place.

And I've, I've been all over the place.

Several states around the Midwest haven't gotten out to California.

I think the farthest west was Arlington, Texas, but, you know, been over to the east coast and, and way up in the U.P.

of Michigan and, and down in Tennessee.

So been a lot of places.

I've seen a lot of graves.

And on my website, theworldofootball.com, you can read stories about all my grave visits to see pictures of me at the graves on the website under my articles.

All right, well, folks, make sure you check that out.

We'll put a link in the show, notes of the YouTube video and on the podcast so you can check out Randy's grave sites and check out the great podcast he has with Adam on World of Football.

But we're going to talk about some old school football tonight.

Some something is really near and dear to your heart.

The Detroit Lions in a championship season.

Then you compare that to today, where it's been 68 years as of recording this podcast with you, since Detroit won a championship back in 57.

So 17 years doesn't sound like that long a time.

But at the time 52, they had not been in a championship game for 17 years.

So this, this was something new for the fans even back then.

Everybody knows Buddy Parker, but Bo McMillan really deserves a lot of credit for building, you know, starting the foundation of that team.

And we'll talk about that more in a minute.

McMillan signed quarterback Bobby Lane, who was playing with the New York Bulldogs at the time.

So that's why I say Bo McMillan deserves a lot of credit for building the foundation to this 52 team.

In 48, McMillan drafted guard Les Binghaman, defensive back Don Dahl and quarterback Y.A.

tittle, who never played for the team, but he still is in the hall of fame.

In 49, he drafted halfback and defensive back Wally Triplett.

He's known for being the first African American who was drafted by a National Football League team and then played in a game.

They had drafted African Americans.

Well, I don't know if they did draft too many African Americans, but they might have.

And they didn't play on a team or they signed free agents who played on a team.

But he was the first to actually be drafted and play in an NFL game.

Those were a couple of big acquisitions for Detroit at the time.

He got end Dorn Dibble with a third round pick out of Michigan State and end Jim Duran with a fifth round pick and defensive back Jack Christensen with a six round pick.

Christensen is also in the hall of fame.

Defensive end and kicker Pat summerall with a fourth round pick and defensive back Jim David in the 22nd round.

All those guys played important parts in the 52 season, except for Pat Summerall.

He, he got hurt a couple games in and didn't play anymore and he was gone by the next season.

But he was drafted by Detroit, which a lot of people don't know.

Yeah, so listen, he's a definitely a famous name in football.

We maybe, yes, those of us watching football today maybe don't remember his playing days, but we definitely probably had some of his broadcasts when he was alive and with Us and did such a great job.

Yeah, he and John Madden were just an awesome broadcasting team.

They brought so much knowledge to the game.

They were just so much fun to watch and listen to.

All right, so let's talk about the 52 season.

Detroit finished with a 9 and 3 record.

They had seven home games and only five away games.

They were 6 and 1 at home and they were 3 and 2 on the road.

Also, they won all of their preseason games that season and that was six games back in those days for the preseason.

I remember those days.

They were still doing that into the, into the late 70s.

That's when I started watching games and they were still doing six preseason games and seven if you played in the hall of Fame game.

And I remember Detroit did that one year.

So anyway, half a season right there.

Yeah.

Really?

Yeah, by today's standards.

So the Lions started out with a couple of road games against the 49ers and the Rams.

And then they came back home and played the 49ers and the Rams.

So the first four games were against two different teams.

And they, they went, they went on a six game or a five game winning streak.

After that they, they played the Dallas Texans, which was a team that was only around for one season.

So after one miserable season in Detroit, they went and became the, the new Baltimore Colts.

And they, the Colts only had a 1 in 11 record that year.

On Thanksgiving Day, they beat the packers in the annual Thanksgiving Day game.

And then they finished off the season, regular season with wins over the Bears and the Texans again for that 9 and 3 record.

And they wound up being tied for the conference with the Los Angeles Rams, who were also nine and three at that time.

The home field for that playoff game was determined by a coin flip from Commissioner Bert Bell.

That's, that's how they decided who was going to be the home team for that playoff game.

There had only been five times when the NFL needed a playoff game to determine conference winners and due to ties.

1947, the Eagles beat the Steelers in the East.

So in the American Conference, it was the Browns over The Giants.

And in the National Conference it was the Rams beating the Bears.

And that's how you got that 51 championship game of the Browns and the Rams.

Yeah, it was a little bit of a preview of the future for NFL fans of having these multi playoff games on both sides.

So yeah, very, very interesting.

Yeah, so, so a playoff game wasn't that was kind of rare.

It wasn't that, that common back in those days.

So in that 52 playoff game, Lions fullback Pat Harder ran for a 12 yard touchdown in the first quarter and a four yard touchdown in the second quarter.

Harder also kicked both extra points giving Detroit a 14 to nothing lead.

And you'll, you'll appreciate this since you're also a member of the Pro Football Research association like I am.

Oh yeah.

Okay.

Let'S see.

The Rams answered those two touchdowns with a 14 yard pass from Norm Van Brocklin to Tom Fears.

Backup quarterback Bob Waterfield kicked the extra point and LA trailed 147 at halftime.

In, in the third quarter, Leon Hart caught a 24 yard touchdown pass from Doak Walker.

Harder kicks the kick, the extra point and added a 43 yard field goal giving Detroit a 24.

7 lead going into the fourth quarter.

In that fourth quarter, Rams player Dan Towler scored on a five yard run and Waterfield kicked the extra point.

The Rams halfback, Vitamin T.

Smith, and that is one of the greatest names ever in pro football, returned a punt 56 yards for a touchdown.

Waterfield again kicks the kick.

The PAT in LA trailed by just three points, 24, 21.

And then Bob Hunchy Hornschmeyer scored on a nine yard touchdown run for Detroit to end the scoring and send the Lions to the title game.

There were so many guys back in those days that had great names, you know, Dorn Dibble, Hunchy Hornschmeyer, Crazylegs Hirsch, Vitamin T Smith.

Today's players don't have those cool nicknames like they did back then.

And it's just so awesome to read those names and hear their stories.

So much fun.

Yeah.

And their nicknames are not, are so unique.

When you say Crazy Legs, there's only one guy that you think of as an NFL historian, you know, that's crazy like Hirsch or you know, I guess you could say the same.

Maybe in the 80s we had that with like the Refrigerator Perry and.

Sure.

Like that they're.

But not as common as they were back in the 40s and the 50s, right?

Yeah.

Yep.

All right.

So talking to some of the stats from that game against LA, Bobby Lane completed only nine of 22 passes and no touchdowns in that game.

And he also threw four interceptions, if you can believe that.

Pat Harder ran eight times for 72 yards and two touchdowns.

And he was the leading rusher for the Lions that day.

Now for the Rams, Norm van Broecklin was 15 of 19 passing for 166 yards and a touchdown.

Tom Fears ran seven times for 76 yards in the touchdown.

And Elroy Crazy legs Hirsch ran five times for 46 yards in the game.

Dick Night Train Lane was a rookie with the Rams that season, but he did not play in the playoff game against Detroit due to an injury that he sustained during the regular season.

Lane set an NFL record that year in Los Angeles with 14 interceptions, which is a record that still stands today.

That's incredible.

Watching the highlights of his, of all the interceptions, he, he just knew how to anticipate where the ball was going to be and he went and got it and he was just something else.

Everybody, you know, associates him with the Lions, but he started out with the Rams and there was a chance he would have played in a championship game against him had he, you know, gotten past this game.

But it didn't happen.

Yeah, how the, the turns of drama in the NFL, you can go back and look at little things like that, you know, these teams and, you know, playing players playing for teams in the championship and, you know, then reverting to that team and making their, their hay with that team.

His Night Train did with the Lions.

Exactly.

Yeah.

The Browns came in with an 8 and 4 record and it was their third straight NFL championship game for the Browns.

I mean, they, they had four others in the aafc, but this was the third straight that they were playing in the NFL.

Yeah, so seven straights and they were five and one losing just the year before to, to the Rams was the only, only loss in a championship game up until that point.

Yeah, that's pretty amazing.

And you look at these conference, you know, battles that are going on.

You know, you talked about conference with the Lions and the Rams battling it out.

Well, San Francisco and Green Bay were right behind them.

You know, they were only a couple games separating them.

And over in the American Conference, the Browns were challenged by the Eagles and the Giants, who Both finished at 75 game behind.

And you know, the Steelers were few games behind that but that really some competitive challenges in these divisional races.

Yeah, yeah, it's.

It was, I think it was a lot more competitive back then with, you know, they didn't have the salary cap they had to deal with and a lot of the things they got to deal with today.

So they were, they could basically get the best players if they really wanted them.

Yeah, but it's how exciting had to be when it goes right down to the last week and you know, you have to play and win your final games, which we don't get to see too often anymore in the NFL.

That's true.

Yeah.

Things are probably, you know, pretty much set by Thanksgiving sometimes for certain teams.

But yeah, it's exciting when, when the fans don't know right up to the last week of the season who's who's making the playoffs or who's going to be in that championship game.

You're right.

Yeah.

So they had like a decade, the city of Cleveland did, of championships in pro football.

Yeah, yeah.

People think bad of Cleveland these days because they haven't been very good for a long time.

I think their last championship was what, 64 for the Browns and Jim Brown's rookie season.

But yeah, between the Cleveland Rams winning one and the Cleveland Browns winning multiple ones.

Cleveland has a rich history of having championship football teams in that town.

Yeah.

In this series we were talking about Cleveland, you know, like I said, almost 10 straight seasons here.

Yes.

For these championship games.

So Paul Brown has got mentioned quite a bit.

Yes, absolutely.

As, as he should.

Yeah, that most definitely.

And Otto Graham and the rest of the folks too.

So.

So tell us, tell us what goes on in this, this great championship game.

These two, you know, the stalwarts of football, you know, meeting very talented laden teams, hall of Famers all over the place.

Their coaches are, you know, exceptional on both sides.

These guys are pretty evenly matched.

Right.

So it's surprising that, that there was no scoring in the first quarter of this championship game.

The defense has showed that, hey, we can play football too.

And so it was nothing.

Nothing at the end of the first quarter.

But, but in the second quarter, the Lions took a seven to nothing lead thanks to a two yard run by Bobby Lane and a Pat Harder pat.

And that's how the first half ended.

7 Nothing.

In the third quarter, Doak Walker scored a 6 a 67 yard touchdown run, giving the Lions a 14 to nothing lead.

The Browns answered with a 7 yard run by fullback Harry Jegade.

I think I'm pronouncing that right.

To make the score 14 to 7 in the fourth quarter, the Browns were threatening to tie the game.

But a fourth down pass by Otto Graham was broken up by the Lions defense and Detroit took over on downs at their own 20 yard line.

The Lions added a 36 yard field goal by Pat Harder with just under six minutes remaining and Detroit led 17 7.

The Browns threatened late again in this game as Otto Graham completed a touchdown pass to Darrell Pete Brewster.

But a penalty negated the score and Detroit took over once again on their own 20 yard line.

The reason for the penalty was that the ball was tipped by halfback Ray Renfro of the Browns to Brewster in the end zone.

And at the time that was a penalty, if you can believe it or not.

Because they, the T formation was relatively new and that was one of the rules under the T formation was that two offensive receivers or players could not touch the ball on the same play.

So they ruled that that was a penalty and they, they took the score away from Cleveland and think about that.

The Immaculate Reception.

That was the argument for the Immaculate Reception, saying Frenchie Fuqua touched it before Franco Harris caught it and among other controversies on that play.

But, but yeah, I mean that was a big time rule for years and years in the National Football League, which we don't recognize it today, but yeah.

Yeah, it makes, makes no sense, but that's the way it was.

But after that, the Lions ran out the clock for that 177 win.

There were a number of hall of Famers in this, in this game I counted 14.

I might have missed one or two.

But there were six for Detroit and eight for Cleveland.

The Browns had Otto Graham, Luke Rosa, Marion Motley, Bill Willis, Lenford Max, Speedy, Frank Gatsky and rookie defensive back by the name of Don Shula.

People forget that he was a rookie on that Browns team.

Also that year for Detroit they had players like Dick Stanfeld, Jack Christensen, Bobby Lane, Doak Walker, Yale Larry and Lou Kriegmer on their hall of Fame roster these days.

And there could be more in the future, who knows for both of these teams.

Defensive back Don Dahl, I mentioned him being one of the draft picks in the 50s.

Interesting story about him.

And he was on hand to witness the Surrender of the Japanese to, to the United States on that ship in Tokyo Harbor.

I think you might have seen the, the footage of the Japanese ambassador coming in a tuxedo and a big top hat to sign the official surrender papers.

And all the, all the guys that were on assigned to the ship were just standing all over the decks watching this.

And Don Dahl who played in this game was one of those players that was there to actually see history being made.

So I just, I thought that was a really interesting fact.

It's got nothing to do with the game, but I just thought that was extremely interesting fact that he was there to, to be a first hand witness to history like that.

And I talked about ya Tittle being drafted by the, the Lions, never played for the team.

He, he signed with the Browns of the AAFC instead and, and he was traded to the AAFC's Baltimore Colts and played for the Colts from 48 to 50.

But he's more famous known for the million dollar backfield in San Francisco and for playing with the New York Giants.

But again he was drafted by Detroit and you know what, if they had had him, would they have gotten Bobby Lane?

You know, if he'd worked out the way he, he did eventually we may not have gotten Bobby Lane.

So it would have been a different Detroit Lions team at that time.

Yeah, that's, that's an interesting point.

And think about what would have happened to the rest of the NFL, you know, the 49ers and the Giants.

If, if ya, you know, is a lion, maybe he's a lion for life and they never let him go.

And, and where does Lane go from there, you know.

Yeah, yeah, really.

Also in the 52 draft they picked up Pat Summerall.

Like I said, he was injured in the second game of the 52 season while returning a punt versus the Rams ironically.

And he did not play the rest of the season and he was sent to the Chicago Cardinals the following season.

So that was his two games for Detroit and Pat Summer.

All was history in Detroit.

Yeah.

Let me just lay out a reminder for the listeners because you know you're hearing like some are always talking about being a punter and then you're saying he's getting hurts by punt.

We have to remember that the substitution rules were a little bit different than you are now.

It wasn't free substitution like we have now.

I believe back in that era of college and pro football you had to change.

Was it every quarter or half you could, if you left, if you were substituted for during a half, you couldn't return until the second half, I believe is how it was.

So you had to have your.

Like you talked about Pat Harder running for a touchdown and kicking extra point.

Well, you couldn't even bring your kicker on.

You know, you couldn't have special teams players.

It was whatever 11 were on the field, played offense, defense, special teams, the whole ball of wax until they were subbed for.

So yeah, interesting point.

And Pat Summerall also played defensive end.

A lot of these guys played both sides of the ball.

So he not only was a kicker and a kick returner, but he played defensive end too.

So they did it all back then.

Real, real ironman football back in those days.

Yeah, most definitely.

We had the opportunity last summer to talk to Dick LeBeau, your famous lion who didn't play on this team.

But you know, Dick was telling us he at Ohio State under Woody Hayes, scored Ohio State's first two point conversion as a running back.

You know, we always think about Dick LeBeau as a great defensive coordinator and a great defensive back, you know.

Right.

The Lions and playing with, you know, Larry and, and Night Train Lane and what a defensive backfield that was.

But just some interesting points.

These, these guys were studs and played truly 60 minutes and really, really legends of the game.

I don't think anybody could compare to him in today's game what these guys had to do.

And they played for a fraction of the money that the guys are making today who only play one position.

You know, like you're the long snapper on the team, so you come in just to, to long snap on punts and field goals and whatnot.

Yeah.

And they're making more than these guys ever did back then.

So you got to tip your hat to the, the old time football players in the NFL and in college.

Yeah, they really set the stage so these guys today could be millionaires that they would never were.

Yeah.

So let's talk about a few stats from this 52 championship game.

Get this.

Bobby Lane was 7 of 9 passing for 68 yards and did not throw a touchdown pass.

He also ran nine times for 47 yards and did score a rushing touchdown.

But yeah, everybody thinks that, you know, oh, it was just Lane swinging, slinging the ball back and forth and scoring all kinds of touchdowns.

That was not the case in this game.

Doak Walker ran the ball 10 times for 97 yards and also had a rushing touchdown.

Conversely, otto Graham was 20 of 35 passing in this game for 191 yards but no touchdowns.

He did have an interception and he ran seven times for 23 yards.

Harry Shigade ran 15 times for 104 yards and a touchdown.

Marion Motley, who you would think would have a big day, he only ran the ball six times, but he ran for 74 yards, no touchdowns.

So that's.

The stats don't lie.

I mean, I think Cleveland just had a bad.

A bad day against Detroit.

I'm not taking anything away from Detroit, but, you know, Bobby Lane didn't have a great day, but Otto Graham did, and it.

It turned out to be a great Lions victory, one of many in that decade for Detroit.

Yeah, if you almost listen to that stat line, you would think it was 17, 7 the opposite way, but Detroit coming off and winning it.

But just think about the.

How good the defenses were on both sides of that to have these.

You know, when you're talking about these hall of Famers, you know, yeah, they.

They played both ways, like we said, but most of these guys, when you're thinking about Bobby Lane, you think about him as a quarterback.

Otto Graham, you think as a quarterback, you don't think about their defensive skills.

But these guys still had to go out and ball out, as well as Miriam Motley.

And, you know, the other.

The others that we mentioned, most of those were guys that we think of as offensive greats in the game of football.

Right?

Yeah.

Very different time back then.

I really wish sometimes that I could go back in time and watch some of these games.

I mean, I watched highlights of this game and many other games on YouTube, but it's just not the same as being there in the stadium on a cold Detroit or Cleveland day, watching these guys slip around in the mud and do it all, do it all on the field.

It was an awesome time to be a football fan in.

In Detroit and in Cleveland.

Well, the.

Yeah, they met four times in championship games, and this was just the first of four for these two teams.

Yeah, well.

Well, Randy, that is a.

A great explanation of 52 season and, you know, spelling out who these great legends of the game were on both sides and telling us about the playoff and the championship game.

And you guys, you know, like we said earlier, you and Adam do a Lot of this in the world of football.

And one interesting aspect that I, I love watching in your is when you do your, your little tidbits on history, you have the little short segment you have, you know, near the end of your programs and those are awesome.

Maybe you could tell folks a little bit about that.

Well, we do have, we, we used to do.

I called it a two minute history lesson.

Just a quick little story.

And one of them was about Don Dahl.

But we, we don't actually do them during our podcast anymore since we've gone to YouTube.

We now do those as a, as a history lesson on YouTube.

And in fact I, when I was researching this, I found that story about Don Dahl and I said, I've got to put that on YouTube.

So I'm going to be making a YouTube video out of that.

We'll show some footage of Don Dahl.

We'll show some footage of the surrender on the, on the USS Missouri.

So, yeah, and I'm going back and I'm, I'm taking a lot of the old quick history lessons that we used to do and we're transferring those onto YouTube videos.

So that's one of the prep, one of the many projects we've got going here.

Oh, that is an awesome thing to do because the nice thing about YouTube is how they came up with those YouTube shorts so you could get those short little quick hitters of history.

Because our modern people here today, you know, us included, are, we are have short attention spans.

We have the goldfish attention span.

So, yep, sometimes those are what works a lot better than watching a longer program.

Sure, that's a whole other story for another day.

But Darren, I want to thank you for inviting me to do this.

I didn't know a whole lot about the 52 game and when you asked me to do this and the 35 championship game, I, I had to really research it because I, I knew some things, but not a whole lot.

But thanks to you, I really dove into it and I got a lot of facts and learned a lot.

And so I want to thank you for that, for forcing me to, to do the research and come on your show and present.

Yeah, I really had to twist your arm.

Well, as soon as you said the Detroit Lions, I'm like, okay, I can make this happen.

Now what do I need to do?

Yeah, I need to do a lot of research and watch some YouTube and I've, I've got many books on the Detroit Lions, so that was a big help to talking about the different championship games.

So I've got it here in my research library.

But still, I appreciate you asking me to do it.

All right, well, Randy, we will catch you next Monday and talking about this championship of 53 again with the Lions and the Browns.

Okay, some of the same players, but a different story.

That's all the football history we have today, folks.

Join us back tomorrow for more of your football history.

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