The Rams franchise started up in 1936 in Cleveland, and were actually part of the now defunct American Football League (not to be confused with the other “AFL” founded in 1960). In 1937, owner Homer Marshman moved the Rams to the NFL, for a $10,000 expansion fee. He actually named his Rams after the Fordham University football team, as they were one of the top college football programs of the time. He adopted their uniform colors and team nickname, so the very first Cleveland Rams uniforms were actually red and dark blue:
In 1938, the Rams switched to their modern blue and yellow color scheme:
In 1945, yellow became the primary color, and blue was used for the jersey lettering instead. In addition, a patch commemorating America’s war effort was added to the left sleeve:
In 1948, horns were added to the 1945 helmet, and the blue color was dropped from the shoulders:
The original design of the Rams horn was done by halfback Fred Gehrke, who was a fine arts major at University of Utah. He actually asked owner Dan Reeves for permission to paint the logo onto all the team member’s helmets. He was reportedly payed $1.oo per helmet to do so. This was the first helmet in NFL history to feature a graphic design.
In 1949 the Rams briefly made the switch to red and gold, with realistic-looking ridges added to the horns on the helmet. These uniforms look like they were inspired by the USC Trojans, and very well might have been because the Rams were playing in LA at this point:
The Rams brought back yellow and blue for the 1950 season, basically they added some stripes to their 1948 jersey:
The 1957 season saw the Rams switching their primary and secondary colors:
-The Guru