The 1951 NFL season represents a pivotal chapter in the annals of American football, characterized by the emergence of formidable talents and fiercely contested matches. During this episode, we meticulously explore the significance of that season, particularly focusing on the thrilling championship game that culminated in the Los Angeles Rams securing their first title. We delve into the dynamics of the Rams' offense, marked by the prowess of legendary players and innovative strategies that set a new standard in the league. Additionally, we engage with expert Rich Smelter, who provides invaluable insights into the era and its iconic figures. Join us as we traverse the rich tapestry of football history, reflecting on the legacy of the 1951 Rams and their indelible impact on the sport.

Author and football historian Rich Shmelter joins us to uncover the facts about the 1951 season, the players, and the outstanding, record-breaking teams. Find out more on Rich's works here:

Our football history rewind series, which includes the great NFL Title game recaps interviews are found here:

Join us at the Pigskin Dispatch website and the Sports Jersey Dispatch to see even more Positive football news! Sign up to get daily football history headlines in your email inbox @ Email-subscriber

Don't forget to check out and subscribe to the Pigskin Dispatch YouTube channel for additional content and the regular Football History Minute Shorts.

Miss our football by the day of the year podcasts, well don't, because they can still be found at the Pigskin Dispatch website.

Join us as we take a deep dive in the glory of 51 and the close championship game that made it all so special with some teams you're going to be excited about and it's all coming up 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 his podcast broadcasting 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 welcome to our series on the pre super bowl championship games of the National Football League.

We are really smoking through these seasons and really having a great time with some great expert guys.

Guests from cities and people have wrote books about the teams that won the championships.

And that is the same we have for tonight we have Rich Smelter who has wrote a new numerous amount of books on Los Angeles sports and their championship seasons in all genres of sport and even in Hollywood.

Rich, welcome back to the Pig Penny.

Thanks so much Darren for having me on.

I so appreciate getting back in the pig pen with you and thanks for the expert label.

I appreciate it.

Hopefully I can live up to it.

Well, Rich, when you have written as much context and text and books, you know you have like a library of books on things that start with the word Los Angeles, especially with sports and movies.

You are definitely have the label and the moniker of expert in this case.

Thank you.

That's why I have the Hollywood hat on.

Yeah, very appropriate, very appropriately wore.

Right now I'm working on a project called Hollywood's Glamorous Patriot about Carol Landis, an actress that gave her all for the war effort.

She entertained the troops under enemy fire and she was bombed, she was shelled, she was shot at, you name it, caught malaria.

She gave, she gave it all for the, for the war effort.

And I thought it was a nice story to bring up and I have her family support on it and I can't wait for it to come out.

And also we're working on a documentary.

Darren and I are on it.

So it's going to be a twofold project.

So I'm very excited about it.

Probably the most excited I've been in for a project, if that's possible, because I get excited about them all.

Yeah, you're a very excitable guy, Rich.

So that's.

So we may have to strap them down during the middle of this, folks, but we have some help on the other end.

Well, the National Football League, they just merged with the aafc, the All America Football Conference a few years before that.

And the Cleveland Browns were the four time champions of that, that league and then they were brought into the National Football League.

And of course Elmer Layden, the commissioner at that time of the NFL said, oh, let's give them a football first, see what they can do.

Well, the Browns proved right out of the gate that they were amazing and they beat the two time defending NFL champion Philadelphia Eagles.

And they were, they were even by today's standards, they were, you know, they were, they were torch bearers for the offensive weaponry that we see nowadays.

But at that time, I mean, I couldn't imagine being a defensive coordinator and having to deal with this.

You know, they, they were, they would score basically a point a minute.

They were phenomenal at that, just scoring from anywhere on the field.

And they had two backfields, which we'll talk about, and two quarterbacks that wound up in the hall of Fame, two wide receivers that wound up in the hall of Fame, just absolutely amazing talent.

And they wound up.

No, no Hollywood script could have been written about that.

Even Better.

And it came down to a field goal in the last few seconds, and Lou Gro from Cleveland kick the winning field goal to beat Los Angeles 30 to 28.

So on the plane ride home, naturally, it's a long plane ride from Cleveland to Los Angeles, and it took a lot of time for these guys to, you know, really ponder what happened.

And they were so good, so powerful, but they were considered always the bridesmaids, never the brides.

You know, the Hollywood heroes, the flash and dash guys, you know, they hung out with celebrities and all, and they just.

They just couldn't win the big one.

And that was the label on them.

And it started to even affect the head coach, Joe Steidahar's health.

And Joe Steidahar, you know, a phenomenal talent for the Chicago Bears back in the later 30s, early 40s.

He developed all this offensive weaponry that the Rams wound up having.

So they had every doubt to be.

There was no doubt that they could have been world champions any one of those three years, but they just couldn't get over that hump.

So he had a lot of negative press that affected Joe Star's health.

He had ulcers.

He was just.

He.

He looked like he was about 20 years older than he was, and it was just eating away at him.

All.

These guys were all reaching their peaks, and it was.

It was basically 51 or bust.

Yeah, I mean, you have talked a lot.

What you just said a lot about.

You know, we talked about the Cleveland Rams winning it.

You know, we had Joe Squires on to talk about that championship.

Well, you also, you know, when.

So when they left, the Rams went to la.

You know, Cleveland Browns and aafc.

And now they're in the championship game again, and the former Cleveland team is playing them again.

So Cleveland is really the center of NFL championships and pro football championships here for the last almost, you know, half a day, decade.

And you know, so those are some, definitely some names we're familiar with.

So why don't you tell us a little bit about the game itself and what was going on and, and how, how this game was played out.

The Los Angeles Rams wound up being 8 and 4 despite this incredible offensive juggernaut, and I use that word juggernaut often with them because I mean, they were such a potent offense and they wound up being 8 and 4.

So they came into this game kind of as underdogs, even though that they were playing in the Los Angeles Coliseum.

And the Cleveland Browns had absolutely no reason not to think that they could win it.

And it was a real slug fest.

And it wound up being a 73 yard pass at the end of the game from Norm Van Brocklin, who was basically inside of our doghouse for a while.

And he was very, very fiery quarterback, very passionate about things, and he didn't hold back any of how he felt.

So.

And Bob Waterfield was the complete opposite of that.

Bob Waterfield was a quiet leader where, you know, he would, he was basically a little more laid back.

Plus he was married to Jane Russell, the sex sexy Hollywood star.

So that probably melted him out a little bit too, but that's beside the point.

But all of a sudden, you know, Stehar knew that he needed Van Brocklin, who had a very, very strong passing arm into the game.

Tom Fears, hall of Fame wide receiver, went out for a pass, 73 yard pass for the end of the game.

And the Rams wound up prevailing in that, in that, that game due to that, that touchdown.

But the Rams had, they gave everything that they had against the Cleveland Browns.

I mean, the Rams had two offensive backfields.

Can you imagine that?

Two full offensive backfields.

You had the bull elephant backfield of Deacon Dan Towler, Paul Tank Younger and Dick Horner, the only guy without the nickname on there.

And These guys were 6 to 230 pounds.

They were big, fast, and they would just pound and pound and pound in opposition.

Okay, so can you Imagine that amount of tonnage coming at you.

Repeatedly, repeatedly, repeatedly.

And a lot of these guys just, just, you know, they, they were just getting beaten by this.

So the Rams would just beat you down a little bit and then they would bring in this one, this one group called the Ponies.

And you had Glenn Davis and a couple of these other guys that were just fast, very, very fast.

Fast.

Vitamin T.

Smith and I can't pronounce his name.

Please forgive me.

Calamar.

Calamir.

I'm so sorry, I can't pronounce.

I had always had a tough time pronouncing his name.

Please forgive me, the family of him.

But these guys were just incredible backs.

And so then once, once the bull elephants pounded them, then the Ponies were able to, you know, just run amok on these guys.

These guys had 9.9 speed in the 100 yard dash.

And then when that didn't do it, then you could throw to your hall of Famer Elroy Crazy Legs Hirsch on the one side and Tom Fears on the other.

I mean he was, you know, phenomenal receiver and he went, Norm Van Brocklin went to Tom Fears on a long touchdown pass and that offense just totally pounded down the Browns and the Rams wound up winning the championship.

Yeah, that's, I mean, amazing things people that you're talking about there.

They won the championship.

You know, it tells you how talented they were.

And they didn't have Van Brocklin either at that point, but they did have.

Waterfield was a rookie at that point.

So they, that's just amazing how they fared there.

And the other thing is probably about a month ago I did a study, I did an infographic on Pigskin Dispatch that's still up on our front page that tells about the most potent offenses in NFL history.

You know, of course they played less games then, but that's what I based it on.

If they played a 17 game season, I based on 17, they played 12 games.

I based on their 12 games.

So that's amazing.

Back then when you have running offenses, basically, you know, it's not as past proficient as it is today.

Based on the rules, you know, DBs could torture receivers all the way down the field and you know, mug them and steal their wallets and everything else and you know, nowadays they can't touch them.

But that's amazing that that offense.

And it's a true testament to the players that you just talked about.

Both those quarterbacks, both those stud receivers that they had and those six very talented running backs as a definitely very potent.

And you can't forget about the offensive line making everything work and giving them some time and holes to run through.

You know, the thing that, the thing that amazes me, Darren, is where you had could The Rams of 51 been as potent in Cleveland?

If they would have stayed in Cleveland with that whole offense that they had, would they have been as potent there?

But that day it was a downpour and that was perfect for the Eagles, you know, offense to grind it out with Steve Van, Steve Van Buren.

But that game, it took away from the passing attack that the Rams had.

Now the weather on the east coast, you know, you have snow, you have rain quite often around during the football season where the Rams were out on the west coast where there was sunshiny, 73 degrees is the average.

You know, everything is beautiful.

Dry field.

So it was a fast track.

So you were able to really experience that.

Again, that's not taking away from that talent because, you know, Elroy Hirsch played in Wisconsin.

You know, some of these guys played in areas that weren't all perfect and they were still able to execute like that.

You know, Glenn Davis, you know, at West Point, it was.

Got cold there too.

But the west coast really, really helped him with that fast dry track out there for probably, you figure 90% of the time that they played out there.

Yeah, it's really interesting and that still holds true today.

Teams that are our dome teams, you know, they didn't have dome teams back then, but the dome teams, you know, used to playing in a controlled atmosphere and there's no elements, everything's dry and perfect, or teams in, you know, Southern Florida or Southern California playing in beautiful weather.

But we just saw that a couple years ago when the Miami Dolphins, who had an exceptional season and their offense was, you know, blowing numbers that are very comparative to some of these numbers we just talked about.

With the Rams, they go into Kansas city and it's 5 degrees in a wind chill, you know, 15 below.

They couldn't touch the ball, keep their hands on the ball, catch, throw, anything, block.

They didn't want to be there because they were so used to that being in that perfect condition.

So a lot of times that'll hurt you.

And these teams that are mudders and cold weather and you know, thick skinned sometimes will fare better in that bad weather because they're used to the inclemency and the smart coaches will practice out in it when they, they do that.

So definitely weather's always been a factor.

It's amazing how it still is today, even with all the modern technology and forecasts and everything else that the NFL players have.

How true.

You know, I mean, that's what makes the 51 team so, so amazing is, you know, you didn't have the same kind of training that you had back, you know, that you do nowadays.

Could you imagine taking that team and putting them up against one of the top defenses?

Now will you give them the training, the nutrition, everything that they have, you know, because a lot of times these guys would come into training camp, you know, 20 pounds, 25 pounds overweight, and they would just sweat it out there, you know, and I mean, they would come in, if you wanted to be a lineman, you would just eat and drink beer all the time and you wind up with this big bear belly come out there.

But you know, so I mean, if you had the specialists like you do now where, you know, where the kicker wasn't a, wasn't a guard or attacker with a big belly and he was straight on kicker and you were able to give them all the tools that they had that they have now.

I would say the 51 Rams would, would probably be one of the most, they would be one of the most potent teams around, I mean, equal to, I'd say even the 84 dolphins who didn't win the Super Bowl.

But you know, that that offense where you were talking about the Dolphins a few moments ago with Marino, I mean, throwing for, you know, you know, all that yardage and everything at that time, and there, there was, they reminded me a lot of the 51 Rams.

So you know, and that was 40 years ago.

So, I mean, you progress them a little bit more.

I mean, I, I don't, I don't see how a defense, a defense, again, coordinator nowadays would probably have wind up getting gray hair trying to deal with the 51 Rams.

Yeah, most definitely.

They were definitely talent laden and played well as a team.

And that's amazing because you know the old saying.

I think John Madden first said, if you have two quarterbacks, you have zero quarterbacks.

Or go something along those lines.

Well, the, definitely the, the early 50s Rams disprove that theory because they had two quarterbacks, you know, that were playing, you know, every other series.

I think at some points in games, in and out of the games and had some great continuity out of offense.

I never really lost a beat.

Even though two different styles of quarterbacks, like you alluded to earlier, two different.

Personalities, you know, one would, would be, you know, a quiet leader where Van Brocklin would be kicking you in the, in the huddle and yelling at you and everything like that.

But he was effective, you know, and I believe, if I'm not mistaken, I believe Joe Steidehar usually started off with Waterfield at quarterback and then would, you know, decide to bring in Van Brocklin after the bull elephants would pound him, pound away at the defense or the pony, pony backfield.

And again, I apologize for not, not pronouncing that gentleman's name right.

I'm so sorry, Tommy.

I don't.

I.

Tommy Calamar.

Calamir or something like that.

I believe his name was.

Yeah, you're close enough.

I think, I think it was Calamir.

But yeah, so we'll go, we'll go with that.

And we have, we'll, we'll take so.

Much for the expert, so much for the expert label.

But.

But yeah, that'd be very interesting.

And you did a great job of telling us about that and the talented roster that they had.

No, and no wonder.

I mean, the Browns were no slouch like you said they were, and that was like their sixth or seventh championship game in a row that they had played in, if you count back their AFC days, which now the NFL does count.

So that's, we can talk about it with a lot more relevance, us as historians, without getting knocked down.

Well, they weren't in the NFL.

Well, you know, AFC was pretty good because if they can come in and win a championship, first year in the NFL and, you know, like you said, the first game of regular season, destroying The NFL champions Eagles at the time, that's pretty talented.

So.

So they were definitely worth being, you know, the Rams and the.

In the Browns being in those championship games.

First two years of the Browns being in the league, great matchups.

I think, honestly, Darren, I believe that, you know, if.

If the Rams would have played anybody else in that championship game, whether it be the Giants or Philadelphia, whoever else was in that, it was when the.

In the Eastern Conference with the Cleveland Browns, I.

Or at that time it was called the American Conference in the National Conference, they were divided up into that.

But I believe that.

And it was a different.

It was a different than the American Football Conference or the National Football Conference.

They were divided up and they were the Eastern Western Division and then they became the American Conference and the National Conference for a couple years in the early 50s.

But I truly believe that it made it sweeter to beat the Cleveland Browns.

I truly believe in their hearts again, I can't speak for them, but I truly believe in their hearts that they probably wanted to play the Cleveland Browns in that 51 title game to redeem themselves.

You know, you lose that game in the last couple seconds the year before in Cleveland and that that was a bitter pill.

So I think playing the Cleveland Browns, beating them for the first time, that the Browns lost in five straight championship games, whether it's the AAFC or their first NFL championship, made it even more sweeter for them.

And it had to make NFL purists at the time a lot happier too, after taking a shellacking year one of the AFC merging their three teams in the National Football League.

So Rich, nice job on telling us that history of that maybe you could go into a little bit on.

You have some football projects going.

You told us about your Carol Landis project.

Why don't you tell us about some football books you have out there?

Well, I'm working on.

I did a series.

I'm sorry, Los Angeles Raiders versus the Washington Redskins.

It's a.

It's all geared towards Super Bowl 18 and when the.

When the Raiders just annihilated the Redskins.

But it tells the story about.

About the games and the buildup to.

To the whole super bowl experience.

And it covers everything, how the team was built and all.

And that's how I wanted to set up this.

This series.

That is that's geared toward the whole Cleveland Brown season where I took it from the training camp all the way through this championship game.

And I want people to see this series is designed basically not for, for teams that were, you know, the Golden Boys coming in, but some of these teams that came out of nowhere to win.

And I have a list of the teams that I'm working on, and I'm actually, actually doing one on the 83 Raiders now and the 48 Eagles, and just some teams that, you know, weren't supposed to maybe do what a lot of people thought.

And there were a lot of animosity, like with, with everything, you know, you know, you're dealing with human beings.

You had human experiences.

And these guys, a lot of times they had something stacked against them and they all rose up to be champions.

And I have a series in the back on how the team was built.

51 Rams, everybody's gone.

But you always keep them forever young.

So this, the books in the series will always stay relevant.

You know, you would say, well, okay, he's got this.

Three people passed away and now somebody else.

You know, it keeps it relevant, keeps them forever young.

And you can always read this and everybody always still emerges a champ, champion at the end.

I'm doing some on basketball.

The 81 Celtics, the 80 Lakers, and a few other teams that I, I'd like to do some, some, The Knicks from 73, just some teams that were stacked against it.

They're, they're not long books.

They're on about 100 pages, but they tell the story of, of the season and it moves in a fast paced way.

And so I'm enjoying those that I kind of work on when I can.

Carol Landis is my main focus.

And I'm trying to finish up a book on Ben Benjamin, Bugsy Siegel's time in Los Angeles called Hollywood Mob Star.

And I'm finishing up on that now, so that should be released pretty soon.

Well, we're gonna have to have your, your wife take away the toothpicks that are holding your eyelids open to stay up all this time and in work.

And so you get to get a little bit of rest.

But boy, we are so excited that you have all this great stuff coming out here.

And folks, you know, check out Rich's books.

We'll send you links to go to find his author's page on Amazon and some other places.

And hint, hint, probably in a few weeks from now, 13 episodes of this NFL championship series, we will love to have Rich on again to talk about that.

Brace yourself everyone.

I'm coming back.

Yes.

So get your homework and get that book read on the 64 Browns before Rich comes on here and it'll get to hear it right from the the author's mouth, which is an exciting thing to do.

Darren, thank you so much for having me.

Anytime you need me, I'm here and I just love doing it.

So you know I love to jump in the pig pen anytime with you.

And thank you everyone for listening.

Appreciate it.

Hope you enjoy the projects that I have out.

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

Join us back tomorrow for more of your football history.

We invite you to check out our website, pigskindispatch.com not only to see the daily football history, but to experience positive football with our many articles on the good people of the game as well as our own football comic strip clete Marx Comics.

Pigskindispatch.com is also on social media outlets, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and don't forget the BigSkin Dispatch YouTube channel to get all of your positive football news and history.

Special thanks to the talents of Mike and Gene Monroe, as well as Jason Neff for letting us use their music during our podcast.

This podcast is part of the Sports History Network, your headquarters for the yesteryear of your favorite sport.

You can learn more@sportshistorynetwork.com.