The Dawg Pound has essentially lost its advantage in Cleveland. How did this happen and what do the Browns need to do to get it back? Cleveland received their team's name “the Browns” from the man who started the franchise from Day One: Paul Brown. The franchise was a member of the eight-team All-America Football Conference, an NFL rival league from 1946-1949. Before the team had its first game, there was a name-the-team contest. The winner was “Panthers.” But a man named George T. Jones contacted the new Cleveland franchise and told them he owned the rights to the name “Cleveland Panthers” from a team he once owned in 1927 and wanted to be paid a large sum in order to relinquish the rights. Soon thereafter, the Browns were chosen. Perhaps Browns refer to some sort of hunting dogs, like Bluetick Hounds?

So, when the new Browns came back into the NFL fold in 1999, the Dawg Pound was designed into the fabric of the new arena. The universal chant that almost every sports team in America uses (that does not display an American Indian tribe) goes something like, “Here we go (insert team name), here we go!” But in the Dawg Pound, the chant is slanted to “Here we go Brownies, here we go! Woof! Woof!” In old Cleveland Municipal Stadium, any Browns player who intercepted the ball for a touchdown would run up that short grass mound to the Pound and be welcomed by the throngs of fans usually met with beer thrown on them, which was meant as part of the celebration and was never considered disrespectful. Items such as bones, batteries, various dog treats and such were reserved for the offense, and of course - the other teams.

You would think that a name as timeless as “The Dawg Pound” would be derived from some corrections institution. Perhaps a player who was released from some dangerous prison and was a member of a gang here. And when this former con-now player would hit someone pretty dang hard, folks would say, In 1985, the defensive backfield featured Hanford Dixon, Al Gross, Frank Minnifield and Felix Wright, plus a stellar linebacker crew of Tom Cousineau, Eddie Johnson and Chip Banks. The defensive front had Bob Golic, Carl Hairston and Reggie Camp. During practices, the entire defense had a problem with getting into the backfield to disrupt the passing game as rookie quarterback Bernie Kosar was picking them apart each day. Minnifield and Dixon came up with a game to challenge play during those training camp practices in an attempt to encourage the defense to get to Kosar and stop the deluge of pass completions and then having to read about it in the next day’s paper.

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