St. Louis Rams
The St. Louis Rams were a professional American football team of the National Football League (NFL). They played in St. Louis, Missouri from 1995 through the 2015 season, before moving back to Los Angeles, California, where the team had played from 1946 to 1994.
St. Louis Rams
Millennium blue, New Century gold, white
Ramster (1995)
Rampage (2010–2015)
Georgia Frontiere (1995–2008)
Chip Rosenbloom (2008–2010)
Lucia Rodriguez (2008–2010)
Stan Kroenke (2010–2015)
Stan Kroenke (1995–2010)
Chip Rosenbloom (2010–2015)
Steve Ortmayer (1995–1996)
Dick Vermeil (1997–1999)
Charley Armey (2000–2005)
Jay Zygmunt (2006–2008)
Billy Devaney (2009–2011)
Les Snead (2012–2015)
Rich Brooks (1995–1996)
Dick Vermeil (1997–1999)
Mike Martz (2000–2005)
Joe Vitt (2005)
Scott Linehan (2006–2008)
Jim Haslett (2008)
Steve Spagnuolo (2009–2011)
Jeff Fisher (2012–2015)
The arrival of the Rams, which originated in Cleveland before moving to Los Angeles, California in 1946, gave St. Louis, Missouri a professional football team for the first time since the St. Louis Cardinals left for Arizona in 1987.
The St. Louis Rams played their home games at what is now known as The Dome at America's Center in downtown St. Louis, Missouri, which the city had been building for a few years in the hopes of gaining an NFL team. Dubbed the Trans World Dome, the stadium was unready when the team arrived, so it temporarily shared Busch Memorial Stadium with the St. Louis Cardinals of Major League Baseball (MLB). The Rams played their first game in St. Louis on September 10, 1995, defeating the New Orleans Saints, 17–13. The Trans World Dome opened on November 12, 1995, when the Rams defeated the Carolina Panthers 28–17.
The franchise notched its first winning season and playoff appearance as a St. Louis, Missouri team in 1999, and went on to win its first and only championship in Super Bowl XXXIV. That season began a three-year run of success with The Greatest Show on Turf offense, which included a franchise-best 14–2 record in 2001 en route to a Super Bowl XXXVI appearance.
Following their 2002 Super Bowl defeat to the New England Patriots, the Rams struggled for their remaining years in St. Louis. By the time they moved back to Los Angeles, the Rams had gone 12 seasons without a winning record, and 11 seasons without qualifying for the postseason.
The St. Louis Rams played their last game in St. Louis, Missouri on December 17, 2015, defeating the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 31–23 in a home stadium that had been renamed the Edward Jones Dome. Their last game as a St. Louis–based franchise was on January 3, 2016, against the San Francisco 49ers at Levi's Stadium, which they lost 19–16. After the 2015 NFL season, the team returned to Los Angeles.
Early days[edit]
1936: Founding in the AFL[edit]
The Rams franchise, founded in 1936 by attorney/businessman Homer Marshman and player-coach Damon "Buzz" Wetzel, was named for the then-powerhouse Fordham Rams and because the name was short and would fit easily into a newspaper headline.[1]
Coached by Wetzel, and featuring future Hall-of-Fame coach Sid Gillman as a receiver, the team went 5–2–2 in its first season, finishing in second place, behind the Boston Shamrocks. The team might have hosted an AFL championship game at Cleveland's League Park; however, the Boston team canceled because its unpaid players refused to participate.[2] The Rams then moved from the poorly managed AFL to the National Football League on February 12, 1937.[2] Marshman and the other Rams stockholders paid $10,000 for an NFL franchise, then put up $55,000 to capitalize the new club, and Wetzel became general manager.[3]
1937–1943: Struggles[edit]
Under head coach Hugo Bezdek and with sole star Johnny Drake, the team's first-round draft pick, the Rams struggled in an era of little league parity to a 1–10 record in 1937 under heavy competition from the NFL's "big four": the Chicago Bears, Green Bay Packers, New York Giants, and the Washington Redskins. After the team dropped its first three games of 1938, Wetzel was fired, then Bezdek. Art Lewis became coach, and guided the team to four victories in its last eight games and a 4–7 record.
Future Hall-of-Famer Dutch Clark was named head coach for the 1939 season, and with Lewis as his assistant and with star back Parker Hall on the squad, the Rams improved to 5–5–1 in 1939 and 4–6–1 in 1940 before falling back to 2–9 in 1941, the year that Dan Reeves, a New Yorker with family wealth in the grocery business, acquired the team.
The Rams bounced back to 5–6 and a third-place finish in 1942, but in the heavy war year of 1943, when many NFL personnel, including Rams' majority owner Reeves, had been drafted into the military, they suspended play for one season.
1944: Rebound[edit]
The franchise began to rebound in 1944 under the direction of general manager Chile Walsh and head coach Aldo Donelli, the only man both to participate in a FIFA World Cup game and coach an NFL team. With servicemen beginning to return home, and with the makings of a championship team that included ends Jim Benton and Steve Pritko, backs Jim Gillette and Tommy Colella, and linemen Riley Matheson and Mike Scarry, the team improved to 4–6 in 1944, defeating the Bears in League Park and the Detroit Lions in Briggs Stadium.[4]
