June 4

In this episode we discuss the founding anniversaries for teams in Cleveland, Seattle and San Francisco as well as a memorable football birthdays.  We will provide you with a little bit of football nostalgia. This daily football history segment features the Great events, Franchise formation anniversaries as well as the birthdays of notable Hall of Fame players, coaches or anyone else in our great game and many more  Legendary stories of the Gridiron.

The picture in the banner above is from the US Library of Congress' collection and was contributed by photographer Carol M. Highsmith on May 15, 2018 and is titled "Aerial view of Seattle, Washington, with a focus on its two large professional sports stadiums: CenturyLink Field, left, home of the Seattle Seahawks NFL football team and Seattle Sounders FC soccer team; and, to its right, the Seattle Mariners' MLB baseball stadium ."

June 4, 1875- Harvard faced Tufts University in the first game between two American colleges played under rules similar to the May 1874 McGill/Harvard contests. The rules included each side fielding 11 men at any given time, the ball was advanced by kicking or carrying it, and tackles of the ball carrier stopped play. Surprisingly the game was won by the upstart Tufts squad.

June 4, 1944- Cleveland Browns franchise forms in the All-America Football Conference when local Cleveland businessman Arthur B. McBride aquired the franchise in the new league. When the AAFC dissolved in 1949 the franchise joined the NFL. McBride and his partners sold the Browns to another group of North Eastern Ohio investors in 1953 for a price that was unheard of at the time $600,000! Eight years after that another franchise sale took place and Art Modell took controlling shares of the Browns. In 1995 Modell moved the franchise to Baltimore under the Ravens mascot name. The Browns were re-formed as a new franchise retaining their old historical records, team colors and mascot in 1999.

June 4, 1944- San Francisco 49ers franchise forms in the All-America Football Conference. The team of was one of the three former AAFC teams that merged into the NFL in 1950. Want more 49ers history? Join us on the Pigskin Dispatch Landing Page of the San Francisco 49ers, for more.

June 4, 1974- Seattle Seahawks franchise forms after almost 20 years of planning, plotting and applying. Finally on this date in 1974 the NFL granted access into the league and the Pacific Northwest gained foot hold in professional football as an expansion team. 

If you want to be able to be able to read through some old articles like The Chicago Tribune, you need to check out Newspapers.com. At Newspapers.com, you can get access to over 640 million pages’ worth of news from the US, Canada, England, Scotland, Ireland and more dating back from 1798 to yesterday.  Get a free one week subscription to Newspapers.com by visiting SportsHistoryNetwork.com/newspapers. And with a paid subscription, you’ll also be helping to support the production of this and other Sports History Network shows. 

June 4, 1891 - Lexington, Georgia - The fine halfback from the University of Georgia from the seasons of 1910 to 1913, Bob McWhorter was born.  McWhorter’s collegiate football records are celebrated in the College Football Hall of Fame after his induction in 1954.

We have more onthis legendary athlete by clicking on his name above.