Los Angeles Rams

The Los Angeles Rams have quite a history, and it dates all the way back 86 years since their first season in 1937. This includes a couple of moves to various parts of the country. The Rams have had plenty of ups and downs when it comes to success on the field. Let’s take a look and break down the history of the Los Angeles Rams.

With the long-standing history of the Rams, who actually started in Cleveland, moved to Los Angeles, then moved to St. Louis, before moving back to Los Angeles – the place they call him has changed 8 times in their franchise history.

The Rams started their first games at Cleveland Stadium in Ohio. They played the 1936-1937 seasons there and then again from 1939-1941. But meanwhile, the second half of the 1937 season and then 1942-1945 were over at League Park in Cleveland. Confused yet? Well, the 1938 season was played at Shaw Stadium in between the transfer from Cleveland Stadium to League Park.

The franchise then went to Los Angeles and started their time there. This was the first of two trips to Los Angeles. From 1946-1979, the Rams played their games at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. After playing there, they moved over to Anaheim Stadium for the 1989-1994 season.

That’s when the time in the Los Angeles area ended. The Rams came to St. Louis starting in the 1995 season and played their games at Busch Memorial Stadium. Busch was the home of the baseball-playing St. Louis Cardinals. That’s when Edwards Jones Dome came into play in St. Louis. The Rams spent 20 years at the Dome before the announcement of moving back to Los Angeles.

The first few seasons in Los Angeles were back at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Finally, SoFi Stadium was finished, and the Rams moved into their current home during the 2020 season.

SoFi Stadium is one of the most modern venues in all of professional sports. Since they opened the door, the location also became home to the Los Angeles Chargers. SoFi Stadium is also home to the Los Angeles Bowl, a College Football game held there every winter.

SoFi used nearly $6B to build the location. The naming rights went to a financial-based service based out of San Francisco. The deal is valued at $30M over 20 seasons. SoFi Stadium was the host of Super Bowl LVI in February of 2022. The Rams became the second team to play a Super Bowl in their home stadium. Despite being declared the road team, the Rams were the second team to make SoFi Stadium in the record book – for its main tenant winning the Super Bowl.

It’s interesting to see the story about the Rams and how they became the Rams. As we mentioned, the franchise actually started in Cleveland. So, any of the rumors about why they are the Rams because of the Southern California connection originally are untrue.

Damon Wetzel was the general manager at the time the franchise started. His favorite college team was the Fordham Rams. He wanted to stick with it for his own franchise team, and that’s what they went with. It’s remained that to this day. Fordham University is a Catholic University in the Bronx, NY.

The history of the franchise in Cleveland, Los Angeles, St. Louis, and then back to Los Angeles has won a total of 604 games. The Rams have won 26 postseason games. Jim Everett holds a bunch of the records at quarterback with 23,758 yards and 142 touchdowns.

Steven Jackson was an elite running back for the organization, with 10,138 yards and 56 touchdowns. Isaac Bruce was 58 receptions shy of 1,000 in his career and finished with 84 touchdowns.

Rams receiver Cooper Kupp is the only player ever to record 2,000 receiving yards in the 102 years of the league.

Steven Jackson was an elite running back that finished with 1500+ rushing yards and 750+ receiving yards in a season. Jackson went 11 straight seasons with 4 or more rushing touchdowns. He went 11 straight seasons with a touchdown or more in a season and finished with over 2,700 career rushing attempts without a single rush of more than 60+ yards.

The Rams organization has four League Championships in its history. The first two were before the 1970 merger of the AFL and NFL. Those championships came in the 1945 and 1951 seasons.

Since the Super Bowl era, the Rams have had two titles. Those came in 1999 and 2021. The Rams have been to the Super Bowl 3 other times, losing in 1979, 2001, and 2018. The Rams also won conference championships in the NFL National in 1950 and 1951 and NFL Western in 1955.

The Rams have won 18 divisional titles. The NFL Western in 1945 and 1949, the NFL Coastal in 1967 and 1969, and then 14 of them in the current – NFC West. The Rams won the division in 2017, 2018 and 2021.

The franchise has been to the postseason 31 times in history. The best stretch for the Rams came in the 1970s when they went every season from 1973-1980. The Rams also had a great run from 1999 to 2004, where they missed the postseason once.

Roman Gabriel is the leader in passing touchdowns all time for the Los Angeles Rams in franchise history. Gabriel threw for 22,223 yards and 154 touchdowns. Jim Everett is the leader in passing yards, with 23,758 and 142 touchdowns. Four other guys are in the franchise’s history with more than 100 passing touchdowns. Marc Bulger is third with 1122, Norm Van Brocklin 118, Jared Goff 107, and Kurt Warner 102.

When looking for quarterbacks that had postseason success or at least started in the postseason, there is a long list.

Dating back to 1945, when Bob Waterfield went four of his seasons and finished with a 2-2 record. Next, Norm Van Brocklin and then Roman Gabriel each got two starts and lost them both. John Hadi got his only season in 1973 and lost the game. James Harris was next with a 1-2 record. Ron Jaworski won his only start in 1975. Pat Haden then went three seasons and won 2 games. Vince Ferragamo went 3-3 before Jeff Kemp went 0-1 in 1984.

We move to 1985, where Dieter Brock got a chance and won one and lost one. Jim Everett was next, and he made five starts and won 2 of them. Kurt Warner has the most wins at quarterback for the franchise. Kurt went 5-2. Marc Bulger went 1-2, Jared Goff 2-3, and then Matthew Stafford in 2021 went 4-0.

There is a whole list of guys from the Rams franchise in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The list dates all the way back to 1968 when Elroy Crazy Legs Hirsch, an elite running back was inducted. There’s a long list of guys that are in the Rams Hall of Fame. Here is a current list of those that are in and listed as Rams as a primary team:

●Elroy Crazy Legs Hirsch – 1968
●Tom Fears – 1970
●Norm Van Brocklin – 1971
●Ollie Matson – 1972
●Deacon Jones – 1980
●Merlin Olsen – 1982
●Tom Mack – 1999
●Eric Dickerson – 1999
●Jack Youngblood – 2001
●Jackie Slater – 2001
●Marshall Faulk – 2011
●Les Richter – 2011
●Kevin Greene
●Orlando Pace – 2016
●Kurt Warner – 2017
●Isaac Bruce – 2020

A trio of nonplayers are also in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Dan Reeves was inducted in 1967 as an owner. George Allen was a coach from 1966-1970 and was inducted in 2002, and most recently, head coach Dick Vermeil was inducted in 2022.

Some common nicknames for the Rams include the Greatest Show on Turf. That’s what fans called the team during their offensive powerhouse days in St. Louis between 1999-2001. The MOB Squad are what their current fans are called, starting in 2015. And late in the 1960s and early 1970s, they were referred to as the Fearsome Foursome.

The Rams have a mascot named Rampage. He is a Ram that wears a Rams jersey with the #1 on it. He has been around the organization since 2010.