The 1945 Cleveland Rams season was the team's eighth year with the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

and the ninth and final season in

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

. Led by the brother tandem of head coach Adam Walsh and general manager Chile Walsh, and helmed by future Hall of Fame quarterback

Bob Waterfield Robert Stanton Waterfield (July 26, 1920 – March 25, 1983) was an American professional football player and coach. He played quarterback for the UCLA Bruins and Cleveland/Los Angeles Rams and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame ...

, the Rams franchise finished 9–1 before winning its first

NFL Championship Throughout its history, the National Football League (NFL) and other rival American football leagues have used several different formats to determine their league champions, including a period of inter-league matchups to determine a true national c ...

by defeating the

Washington Redskins The Washington Commanders are a professional American football team based in the Washington metropolitan area. The Commanders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) N ...

, 15–14, at

Cleveland Stadium Cleveland Stadium, commonly known as Municipal Stadium, Lakefront Stadium or Cleveland Municipal Stadium, was a multi-purpose stadium located in Cleveland, Ohio. It was one of the early multi-purpose stadiums, built to accommodate both baseball an ...

. Other stars on the team included receiver

Jim Benton Jim K. Benton (born October 31, 1960) is an American illustrator and writer. Licensed properties he has created include Dear Dumb Diary, Dog of Glee, Franny K. Stein, Just Jimmy, Just Plain Mean, Sweetypuss, The Misters, Meany Doodles, Vampy Do ...

and back

Jim Gillette James "Jim" Gillette (born November 10, 1967) is an American singer, notable for being the frontman of glam metal band Nitro. Originally a member of the band Tuff, Gillette released a solo album in 1987 and then formed Nitro with guitarist Mi ...

, who gained more than 100 yards in the title game. One month after winning the NFL Championship, franchise owner

Dan Reeves Daniel Edward Reeves (January 19, 1944 – January 1, 2022) was an American football running back and coach in the National Football League (NFL). During his 38 years in the NFL, Reeves participated in nine Super Bowls, the third most for an ...

, who had sustained five years of heavy financial losses (even during the team's championship season) because of poor home crowds, realized he had no prospect of the Rams competing in Cleveland with the AAFC's Browns, who were to commence play the next year, and relocated the Rams to

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. The Rams' move to Los Angeles marked the first of only two occasions that a professional football champion has played the following season in another city.

Off season

NFL Draft

Schedule

Standings

Regular season

Week 2: vs. Chicago Cardinals

Week 3: vs. Chicago Bears

Week 4: at Green Bay Packers

''at East Stadium,

Green Bay, Wisconsin Green Bay is a city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The county seat of Brown County, it is at the head of Green Bay (known locally as "the bay of Green Bay"), a sub-basin of Lake Michigan, at the mouth of the Fox River. It is above sea lev ...

'' * Game attendance: 24,607 CLE – Benton 17 pass from Waterfield (kick failed)
GB – Comp 1 run (Hutson kick)
GB – Fritsch 3 run (Hutson kick)
CLE – Colella 6 pass from Waterfield (Waterfield kick)
CLE – Greenwood 1 run (Waterfield kick)
CLE – Colella 5 run (Waterfield kick)

Week 5: at Chicago Bears

''at

Wrigley Field Wrigley Field is a Major League Baseball (MLB) stadium on the North Side of Chicago, Illinois. It is the home of the Chicago Cubs, one of the city's two MLB franchises. It first opened in 1914 as Weeghman Park for Charles Weeghman's Chicago Wh ...

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

'' * Game attendance: 28,273 CLE – Greenwood 11 run (kick failed)
CLE – Colella 3 run (Waterfield kick)
CLE – Gehrke 10 run (Waterfield kick)
CHI – Margarita 1 run (Gudauskas kick)
CHI – Margarita 42 pass from Luckman (Gudauskas kick)
CHI – Gallameau 2 run (Gudauskas kick)
CLE – Greenwood 8 run (Waterfield kick)
CLE – Benton 21 pass from Waterfield (Waterfield kick)
CLE – Colella 18 pass from Reisz (Waterfield kick)

Week 6: at Philadelphia Eagles

Week 7: at New York Giants

Week 8: vs. Green Bay Packers

Week 9: at Chicago Cardinals

Week 10: at Detroit Lions

Week 11: vs. Boston Yanks

Post season

NFL Championship Game: vs. Washington Redskins

In the first quarter, the Redskins had the ball at their own 5-yard line. Dropping back into the

end zone The end zone is the scoring area on the field, according to gridiron-based codes of football. It is the area between the end line and goal line bounded by the sidelines. There are two end zones, each being on an opposite side of the field. ...

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

Sammy Baugh Samuel Adrian Baugh (March 17, 1914 – December 17, 2008) was an American professional football player and coach. During his college and professional careers, he most notably played quarterback, but also played as a safety and punter. He ...

threw, but the ball hit the goal post (which at the time was on the goal line instead of at the back of the end zone) and bounced back to the ground in the end zone. Under the rules at the time, this was ruled as a

safety Safety is the state of being "safe", the condition of being protected from harm or other danger. Safety can also refer to risk management, the control of recognized hazards in order to achieve an acceptable level of risk. Meanings There are ...

and thus gave the Rams a 2–0 lead. In the second quarter, Baugh suffered bruised ribs and was replaced by

Frank Filchock Frank Joseph Filchock (October 8, 1916 – June 20, 1994) was an American gridiron football player and coach. As a consequence of a famous scandal regarding the 1946 NFL Championship Game, he was suspended by the National Football League (NF ...

. Filchock threw a 38-yard

touchdown A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchdown by advancing the ball into the opponent's end zone. In Ameri ...

pass to

Steve Bagarus Stephen Michael Bagarus (September 19, 1919 – October 17, 1981) was an American football halfback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for the Washington Redskins and the Los Angeles Rams. He played college football College f ...

to give the Redskins a 7–2 lead. But the Rams scored just before halftime when rookie quarterback Bob Waterfield threw a 37-yard touchdown pass to Jim Benton. Waterfield's ensuing

extra point The conversion, try (American football, also known as a point(s) after touchdown, PAT, or (depending on the number of points) extra point/2-point conversion), or convert (Canadian football) occurs immediately after a touchdown during which the sc ...

was partially blocked, with the ball teetering on the crossbar, but it dropped over to give Cleveland a 9–7 lead. In the third quarter, the Rams increased their lead when Jim Gillette scored on a 44-yard touchdown reception, but this time the extra point was missed. The Redskins then came back to cut their deficit to 15–14 with

Bob Seymour Robert Arnold Seymour (June 13, 1916 – May 28, 1977) was an American football running back in the National Football League (NFL) for the Washington Redskins. He was drafted in the tenth round of the 1940 NFL Draft. Seymour also played in the All ...

's 8-yard touchdown catch from Filchock. In the fourth quarter, Washington kicker Joe Aguirre missed two field goals attempts, of 46 and 31 yards, that could have won the game.

Roster

Bold denotes player on the official NFL roster at the end of the 1945 season.

Awards and records

* Adam Walsh, Coach of the Year *

, League Most Valuable Player * Bob Waterfield, NFL leader, Touchdowns (14 – tied)Cavanaugh, Jack (2008). ''Giants Among Men''. New York: Random House. p. 57.

Footnotes

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:1945 Cleveland Rams Season

Cleveland Rams The Cleveland Rams were a professional American football team that played in Cleveland from 1936 to 1945. The Rams competed in the second American Football League (AFL) for the 1936 season and the National Football League (NFL) from 1937 to 194 ...

Cleveland Rams seasons National Football League championship seasons