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| Detroit Lions History The Detroit Lions is a now current professional American football team participating in the National Football League. The franchise itself began playing in 1929 as the Portsmouth Spartans. Originally, the team began by pulling players from non-operational professional and semi-professional teams in the tri-state area of Ohio, Kentucky, and West Virginia. The team saw immediate success when they beat the Ironton Tanks, which was a local professional team that frequently drew on NFL players for participation. The increased success of the team prompted residents to approve and fund the erection of Universal Stadium in 1930. Shortly after the completion of the stadium, the Portsmouth Spartans were offered memberships to the National Football League. During the inaugural season in the league the Spartans finished with a record of 5-6-3 against other NFL opponents. Although the initial success of the Spartans on the field was welcomed, the team still struggled with the monetary aspect of maintaining a professional organization. By 1934, the team was suffering from decreased revenues and the team was purchased by a group of investors. The lead investor of this group was a radio executive by the name of George Richards. The team was purchased and moved from Portsmouth to Detroit and the name was changed from the Spartans to the Lions. The rationale behind the name change was spurred by the idea that the lion was the king of the jungle and Richard planned on the Lions being the king of the NFL. During this first season as the Detroit Lions, the tradition of playing on Thanksgiving Day was born. With his connections in the radio network, Richards was able to schedule the Lions first Thanksgiving Day game. This is a tradition that has lived on to this day. The following year, 1935, the Detroit Lions won their first NFL championship with quarterback Dutch Clark under center. During the 1940s, the Detroit Lions saw very little success. During the ten year span, the team managed to win only 35 games including a winless season in 1942. During this winless season, the Lions only managed to score five touchdowns throughout the entire year and were never able to score more than one touchdown in a single game. The majority of the wins came 1944 and 1945, where the Lions went 6-3-1 and 7-3, respectively. There was a significant shift in success in the 1950s. During this decade the team saw its most success in the history of the franchise. The team managed to win league championships in 1952, 1953, and 1957. In all of these championship games the Lions defeated the Cleveland Browns. The Lions also managed to make it to the championship game in 1954 but were defeated by the Cleveland Browns. Much of the success the Lions had was due to the quarterback Bobby Layne. Towards the end of the 1958 season, Layne was injured and the Lions believed that he would never be the same quarterback again. With this belief in mind, the Lions traded Layne to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Upon being traded Layne claimed that the Lions would not win for 50 years. Since the time that Layne was traded, the Lions have yet to win another championship, thus deeming this “The Curse of Bobby Layne”. Since the 1950s, the Lions have seen very little success on the field. With this in mind, the Lions have had a number of notable players step on the field for them. The most prominent of these players was the running back Barry Sanders. In Sanders’ inaugural season, the running back missed the rushing title by ten yards. Since then Sanders has retired as the second most proficient running back in the game accumulating 15,269 yards for his career. Even with this dominant force in the backfield, the Lions have still never won a championship since the 1950s. With a promising class of new players at the helm in Detroit things are beginning to look up as the Lions have started the 2011 season 2-0 and are a force in the NFC North. |