@tour2ma said:

Has any player more apply filled a gigantic pair of shoes?

Mickey Mantle replacing Joe DiMaggio in center field for the Yankees is about all I can think of...

@calfoxwc said:

1950 here. "old farts" starts about 1949 and earlier..........lol

HEY! I resemble that remark! Let's just say the Browns & I share birth years.

Mike

@tour2ma said:

1952 born here so don't bet on it, but apologies at any rate... was not doubting your memory or implying we never played there... I just that I have no memory of it.

1950 here. "old farts" starts about 1949 and earlier..........lol

@calfoxwc said:

Leroy Kelley

Has any player more apply filled a gigantic pair of shoes?

@calfoxwc said:

well, I think I am a bit older, but it's true.

1952 born here so don't bet on it, but apologies at any rate... was not doubting your memory or implying we never played there... I just that I have no memory of it.

As for why Art would ever pay for a 2nd venue when he had Muni??? It certainly wasn't the "Indians" postseason appearances causing a facility conflict.

Maybe going to another part of NE Ohio might have drawn more than another downtown CLE preseason tilt and/or expanded the fanbase. But Art was not that deep of a thinker so maybe he simply got a piece of the parking action in Akron? We know he was cash strapped... even with the other owners gifting him the football double-headers gates.

@tour2ma said:

Dig that single bar "mask on Warfield...

Today that field would be considered damn near unplayable...

First game at ole Muni? First I remember is vs. WSH maybe around 1966??? I remember Sam Huff was with WSH, so had to have been '64 or later. The was nothing like the contrast of emerging from the dim bowels of that dingy, old beast and then seeing the sunlit field.

what a great description! except for me in 1970 it was at an evening Indians game. walking out from the old brick lined walls of the tunnel like ramp up towards a Blue sky and bright green field. 

@tour2ma said:

Don't remember any "home" games at the Rubber Bowl... but great purple haze memories of a couple concerts there...

However, I did work one pre-season at Muni as a vendor... included working one of the last Pro-Football Doubleheaders.

well, I think I am a bit older, but it's true. I just don't remember what year it was.

http://www.brownsdailydose.com/where-did-the-story-of-the-browns-really-begin/

" The Browns would go to play preseason games at the Rubber Bowl every year through 1973, the team being extremely cognizant of the need to promote itself in the next-biggest market in Northeast Ohio, and the contest 75 years ago is the one that drew the biggest crowd. "

"What would have happened had the Browns lost the game? We’ll never know. As it turned out, the Browns hardly ever dropped a game during their four-year run in the AAFC through 1949, going a staggering 52-4-3 (.907) in the regular season and playoffs combined, and 5-1-1 in exhibition play, including 4-0 at the Rubber Bowl.

And it all started that night at the Rubber Bowl exactly 75 years ago."

@calfoxwc said:

They won all four exhibition games at the Rubber Bowl.

Don't remember any "home" games at the Rubber Bowl... but great purple haze memories of a couple concerts there...

However, I did work one pre-season at Muni as a vendor... included working one of the last Pro-Football Doubleheaders.

I was really young. Used to study Leroy Kelley - I wanted to grow up and be a running back. It was a preseason game.

Probably in the late fifties. They won all four exhibition games at the Rubber Bowl.

Oh! the good old days my friends ! 

My indoctrination into Browns fandom was several years prior watching an infamous playoff loss against the Denver Broncos with my whole family in Van Wert, Oh. While they were all staunch Browns fans they didn’t favor going to many games, so l was in the thick of pubescence before finally attending a game.

My aunt had scored tickets so we headed up from Cincy to Cleveland to see the game, and of course it was against John Elway and the dreaded Denver Broncos. It has the distinction of being the last game Bernie Kosar ever started for the Browns. He got replaced mid-game and then released from the team shortly thereafter.

And we lost. I was very much a pro Bernie guy so the whole experience compounded my ire for Elway and the Broncos. To this day l generally root for them to lose just like l would the Steelers.

Browns lost to the Saints at Cleveland Stadium 16-14, Shottenheimer's first game as head coach, as Sam Rutigliano had been fired after the prior game. 

Today that field would be considered damn near unplayable...

First game at ole Muni? First I remember is vs. WSH maybe around 1966??? I remember Sam Huff was with WSH, so had to have been '64 or later. The was nothing like the contrast of emerging from the dim bowels of that dingy, old beast and then seeing the sunlit field.