Los Angeles Rams vs Cleveland Browns NFL Division Championship game. (Getty Images)
The Rams finished with an 8-5 record in the 1951 regular season, winning the National Conference. Advancing to the NFL championship game, they defeated the mighty Cleveland Browns 24-17, giving the state of California its first major pro sports championship and the Rams only NFL title during their entire run in Los Angeles. By scoring 391 points during the regular season, they were the best overall offense in the league that year, and actually were the second most potent offense in the NFL during the entire decade of the 1950’s, bested only by the powerful 1950 Rams squad which averaged 38.8 points per game, a record which still stands today.
Both the 1950 and 1951 Rams featured a platoon of 2 star quarterbacks, namely Bob Waterfield and Norm “The Duchman” Van Brocklin. On opening night of the 1951 season, Van Brocklin threw for a record 554 passing yards completing 27 of 41 passes and 5 touchdowns. The 554 passing yards is a record that still stands, notwithstanding the drastic increase in yards gained through the air and rules changes favoring the passing offense in the NFL in general.
Headlines from a later 1952 newspaper story featuring the Los Angles Rams “tandem QB”
