The St. Louis Rams
are a professional American football team based in St. Louis, Missouri. They are currently members of the Western Division of the National Football Conference (NFC) in the National Football League (NFL). The team has won three NFL Championships, including one Super Bowl.
The Rams began playing in 1936 in Cleveland, Ohio. The NFL considers the franchise as a second incarnation of the previous Cleveland Rams team that was a charter member of the second American Football League. Although the NFL granted membership to the same owner, the NFL considers it a separate entity since only four of the players (William "Bud" Cooper, Harry "The Horse" Mattos, Stan Pincura, and Mike Sebastian) and none of the team's management joined the new NFL team. [1]
The team then became known as the Los Angeles Rams after the club moved to Los Angeles, California in 1946. Following the 1979 season, the Rams moved south to the suburbs in nearby Orange County, playing their home games at Anaheim Stadium in Anaheim for fifteen seasons (1980–94), keeping the Los Angeles name. The club moved east to St. Louis prior to the 1995 season.
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Franchise history
Cleveland Rams (1936–1945)
The
Cleveland Rams
were founded by attorney Homer Marshman in 1936. Their name, the
Rams, comes from the nickname of
Fordham University. Rams was selected to honor the hard work of the football players that came out of that university. They were part of the newly formed
American Football League and finished the 1936 regular season in second place with a 5–2–2 record, trailing only the 8–3 record of league champion
Boston Shamrocks.
The
following year the Rams joined the
National Football League and were assigned to the Western division to replace the
St. Louis Gunners, who had left the league after a three-game stint in the
1934 season. From the beginning, they were a team marked by frequent moves playing in three stadiums over several losing seasons.
In June 1941, the Rams were bought by
Dan Reeves and Fred Levy, Jr.; Reeves, the principal owner, was an heir to his family's grocery-chain business; when the company was purchased by
A&P, he used some of his inheritance to buy the team. in April 1943, Reeves bought out Levy (who later rejoined Reeves in the ownership of the Rams). The franchise suspended operations and sat out the
1943 season because of a shortage of players during
World War II and resumed playing in
1944.
[2] The
team finally achieved success in
1945, which proved to be their last season in Ohio. Quarterback
Bob Waterfield, a rookie from
UCLA, passed, ran, and place-kicked his way to the league's Most Valuable Player award and helped the Rams achieve a 9–1 record and winning their
first NFL Championship, a 15–14 home field victory over the
Washington Redskins on December 16. The margin of victory was a safety; Redskins great
Sammy Baugh's pass caromed off the goalpoast and bounded through his own end zone for two Ram points. The next year rules were changed that made this a mere incomplete pass.
[3]
Los Angeles Rams (1946–1994)
Reeves, already discouraged by small attendance and minimal fan interest, petitioned his fellow NFL owners to move his franchise to California. Chicago was then the league's western frontier, and the owners balked at such a radical move. Shortly they agreed, and so Reeves became the first major professional sports owner to bet on the potential of the West Coast, preceding the
Los Angeles Dodgers'
Walter O'Malley by a dozen years. The
Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, previously hosting only amateur athletics, had opened its gates to pro football for 1946, although there had been a team called the
Los Angeles Buccaneers in 1926, but they were a road-only team that simply featured players from California).
If Reeves had grand ambitions for his team in its new home they were not soon realized. The team could not duplicate its 1945 success and languished in the middle of the NFL's Western Conference. The Rams could not claim the full attention of local football fans; they shared a stadium--and a city--with two major college teams, the
USC Trojans and the
UCLA Bruins. The Rams' average home-game attendance for 1946, 1947, and 1948 was 41,000, 33,000, and 32,000 respectively, considerably less then their college counterparts. And the NFL itself, before the era of network television contracts and extensive marketing, had yet to achieve the popularity it enjoys today. And what interest did exist in the pro game was diluted by the rival
Los Angeles Dons of the new
All-America Football Conference.
In their first season in Los Angeles, the Rams made history by signing former
UCLA stars
Kenny Washington and
Woody Strode: the two backs were the first
African-American players in the NFL since 1933.
Attendance and revenue was small enough that Reeves' financial picture obliged him to take in new investors in 1947. They were Fred Levy (his original Cleveland partner), Harold and Edwin Pauley (the latter, a Los Angeles oil executive, is best known to sports fans as the chief benefactor of UCLA's basketball pavilion), and citrus rancher
Hal Seley. At the end of the decade Reeves revealed a penchant he would be known for the rest of his life as the Rams' owner—changing head coaches on short notice.
Adam Walsh, who had come from Cleveland, was replaced by
Bob Snyder in 1947; the following year Snyder gave way to one of the game's grand old men,
Clark Shaughnessy, who had had a long and varied coaching career.
After the 1949 season, the Dons folded along with the rest of the AAFC. A few AAFC franchises were admitted to the NFL. One of those franchises was the
San Francisco 49ers, which gave the NFL a second West Coast team.
In 1950, the Rams made it to the NFL Championship game. Ironically their opponents, the former AAFC power the
Cleveland Browns, were from the city the Rams left behind. The Browns won the championship game 30-28.
Historically, the Rams were the first to introduce the scout to professional football. The team hired Eddie Kotal in 1946 to travel the country, scouting potential draftees. He also represented the Rams at black colleges, which, at the time, were highly ignored by other teams; as a result,
Paul "Tank" Younger of
Grambling College was the first black player to be drafted in the traditional sense (other black players at the time were hired after the end of the war and were not drafted directly out of college), and this paid off well in the following seasons. Additionally, the Rams were also pioneers in football business strategy, marketing, and public relations. In 1947, the Rams hired Tex Schramm from the Austin American-Statesman newspaper to better develop their public relations and marketing tactics. Subsequently, the team realized an increase in sports coverage across different local newspapers with the former sports editor's help, which in the future would contribute to revenue at the gate.
[4]
Reeves died of
Hodgkin's Disease in 1971, and his surviving family soon completed an unusual arrangement that involved the Baltimore Colts and Chicago businessman
Robert Irsay. Irsay purchased the Rams and then traded the franchise for
Carroll Rosenbloom's Colts. According to some accounts Reeves had confided in Rosenbloom that, in the event of his passing, he felt the Rams should be in his hands. The Rams-for-Colts deal was crafted by Florida attorney (and later
Tampa Bay Buccaneers founding owner)
Hugh Culverhouse; Rosenbloom saved himself a considerable capital-gains tax by simply trading teams instead of selling the Colts (for a much greater value than his original purchase price) and buying the Ram franchise. Upon moving west the gregarious Rosenbloom embraced a much higher profile than Reeves had; he set up residence in the tony
Bel Air neighborhood of Los Angeles, cultivated friendships with entertainment personalities, and installed the Rams in the
Beverly Hilton hotel on pre-home game Saturday nights.
Rosenbloom brought Colts general manager Don Klosterman with him, and Klosterman's stewardship of the team's personnel paid off handsomely. Under coaches
Chuck Knox (1973–77) and
Ray Malavasi the Rams qualified for post-season play from 1973 to 1980, winning the NFC West title for seven consecutive seasons and gaining the
NFC Championship Game in 1974, 1975, 1976, 1978 and 1979. After the first four tries the team fell short of the Super Bowl that many had predicted for them, and the
1979 Rams certainly did not seem a likely title candidate. Under .500 and injury-ridden at mid-season, they cobbled together a 9–7 record, good enough for the playoffs. Led by quarterback
Vince Ferragamo, who took over the team late in the year, the Rams upended the
Dallas Cowboys and
Tampa Bay Buccaneers on the road and earned the right to contest the
Pittsburgh Steelers for the NFL Championship. In
Super Bowl XIV at Pasadena's
Rose Bowl, the underdog Rams led 19–17 with twelve minutes to play, but two late
Terry Bradshaw touchdown passes vaulted the Steelers to a successful title defense.
Carroll Rosenbloom, however, did not live to accompany his Rams on their first Super Bowl trip; on April 1, 1979, his body was found drowned in high surf near his
Golden Beach, Florida home. For three decades, some who knew Rosenbloom have questioned the exact circumstances of his death, but no evidence of foul play has ever been demonstrated.
In the mid-1970s the Rams began unofficially petitioning the Los Angeles Coliseum's managing commission for an upgrading of the fifty-year old stadium that included the then-new innovation of "luxury boxes." The inquiries were politely rebuffed, save for a more fan-friendly reconfiguring of the Coliseum field in 1977. Eventually Rosenbloom was approached by Orange County Supervisor Ralph Clark to consider moving his team thirty miles to the southeast. Clark convinced Angels owner
Gene Autry to okay the enclosing and enlarging of Anaheim Stadium (since reconfigured as the baseball-only
Angel Stadium of Anaheim) to accommodate the Rams. Retractable football seating was installed that expanded capacity to 69,007. An agreement was reached in the summer of 1978; stadium construction was finished by 1980, and that season the Rams moved to
Anaheim from Los Angeles.
St. Louis Rams (1995–present)
Georgia Frontiere inherited the team. Georgia got her last name Frontiere when she later married the musician and Hollywood composer
Dominic Frontiere. Under the terms of the Rams' deal with Anaheim, they were to receive the rights to develop plots of land near the Stadium. When nothing came of these plans, and with attendance falling, Georgia Frontiere got permission to relocate the team. This permission was only granted after the building of the Arrowhead Pond, a multi-use sports arena for hockey and basketball now known as
Honda Center, in close proximity to Anaheim Stadium. The Rams agreed to let the Pond be built within miles of Anaheim Stadium with an 'out clause' to pay the City of Anaheim an amount of money in millions to release them from the lease. After an aborted move to
Baltimore, the Rams moved from Los Angeles to St. Louis in late 1994, initially playing at
Busch Memorial Stadium until the (
TWA) Trans World Dome (now the
Edward Jones Dome) was completed. The NFL owners originally rejected the move—until Frontiere agreed to share some of the
permanent seat license revenue she was to receive from St. Louis. That same year the then-
Los Angeles Raiders were threatening to relocate as well—and did, back to
Oakland.
The
1995 and
1996 seasons the Rams were under the direction of head coach Rich Brooks. Their most prolific player from their first two seasons was the fan-favorite
Isaac Bruce. Then in
1997,
Dick Vermeil was hired as the head coach. In 1997, the Rams traded up in the draft to select future All-Pro offensive tackle
Orlando Pace. The Rams were very well known for their high powered offense in
1999. Prior to the season, the Rams traded a second and a fourth round draft pick for future league MVP,
Marshall Faulk. The season started with
Trent Green injuring his leg in preseason that would sideline him for the entire season. Vermeil told the public that the Rams would "Rally around Kurt Warner, and play good football."
Kurt Warner, a QB that played for the
Iowa Barnstormers just a few years prior, synced up with
Marshall Faulk and Isaac Bruce to lead the Rams to one of the most historic Super Bowl offenses in history, posting at the time, an unheard of 526 points for the season.
Martz era
Following the
Rams win in
Super Bowl XXXIV against the
Tennessee Titans, Dick Vermeil retired and Vermeil's Offensive Coordinator
Mike Martz was hired. He managed to take the
Rams to the
Super Bowl, losing to the
New England Patriots. Mike Martz helped the Rams establish a pass-first identity that would post an NFL record amount of points forged over the course of 3 seasons (1999–2001). However, in the first round in the
2004 draft, the Rams chose
Oregon State running back
Steven Jackson as the 24th pick of the draft. Jackson has been one of the Rams' most successful running backs since the Rams' arrival in St. Louis. Martz was criticized by many as careless with game management and often feuding with several players as well as team president and general manager,
Jay Zygmunt. Although most of his players respected him and went on record saying they enjoyed him as a coach. In
2005, Mike Martz was ill and hospitalized for several games, allowing assistant head coach
Joe Vitt to coach the remainder of the season, although Martz was cleared later in the season, team president
John Shaw would not allow him to come back to coach the team, and was eventually terminated.
Linehan era
After the Rams fired Mike Martz,
Scott Linehan took control of an 8–8
team in
2006. In
2007, Linehan led the Rams to their worst record yet, 3–13. Following the 2007 season,
Georgia Frontiere died January 18, 2008 after a 28-year ownership commencing in 1979.
[5] Ownership of the team passed to her son
Dale "Chip" Rosenbloom and daughter Lucia Rodriguez.
[6] Chip Rosenbloom was named the new Rams majority owner.
[7] Linehan was already faced with scrutiny from several players in the locker room, including
Torry Holt and Steven Jackson. Linehan was then fired on September 29, 2008, after the team started the season 0–4.
Jim Haslett, Defensive Coordinator under Linehan, was interim head coach for the rest of the 2008 season.
John Shaw then resigned as president, and personnel chief
Billy Devaney was promoted to general manager on December 24, 2008, after the resignation of former president of football operations and general manager
Jay Zygmunt on December 22.
[8]
Spagnuolo era
On January 17, 2009,
Steve Spagnuolo, formerly the Defensive Coordinator of the
New York Giants, was named the new head coach of the franchise. Spagnuolo hired
Pat Shurmur and
Ken Flajole as his offensive and defensive coordinator respectively. In Spagnuolo's first offseason with the Rams, they offered Baltimore Raven center
Jason Brown a record contract to come play center for the Rams.
On May 31, 2009, the
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
reported that the majority owners Chip Rosenbloom and Lucia Rodriguez officially offered the Rams for sale. They have retained the services of
Goldman Sachs, a prominent investment banking firm, to help facilitate the sale of the Rams by evaluating bids and soliciting potential buyers.
[9] The sale price is unknown, but
Forbes
magazine's most recent estimate listed the Rams' value at $929 million.
[10] Current
St. Louis Blues owner
Dave Checketts is heading a group seeking to buy the Rams and keep the team in St. Louis.
[11] s of {{MONTHNAME 2009
[],
Edward P. Roski, whose plan to build the 600-acre, 75,000-seat
Los Angeles Stadium has cleared nearly all hurdles, says he has no interest in buying the Rams.
[12]
Season-by-season records
Logo and uniforms
The Rams became the second professional American football team to have a logo on their helmets, following a trend established in 1933 by the Philadelphia Eagles (Frankford Yellow Jackets prior to 1933). Ever since
halfback Fred Gehrke, who worked as a commercial artist in off-seasons, painted
ram horns on the team's leather helmets in 1948, the logo has been the club's trademark.
When the team debuted in 1937, the Rams' colors were red and black, featuring red helmets and black uniforms with red shoulders and sleeves. One year later they would switch their team colors to yellow and blue, with yellow helmets, white pants and blue uniforms. By the mid-1940s the Rams had adopted yellow-gold jerseys (with blue
serif numerals, yellow-gold helmets and white pants. The uniforms were unchanged as the team moved to Los Angeles. The helmets were blue in 1947. When Gehrke introduced the horns, they were painted yellow-gold on blue helmets. In 1949 the team adopted plastic helmets, and the Rams' horns were rendered by the
Riddell company of
Des Plaines, Illinois, which baked a painted design into the helmet at its factory. Also in 1949 the serif jersey numerals gave way to more standard block numbers. Wider, bolder horns joined at the helmet center front and curving around the earhole appeared in 1950; this design was somewhat tapered in 1954–1955. Also in 1950 a blue-gold-blue tri-stripe appeared on the pants and "
Northwestern University-style" blue stripes were added to jersey sleeves. A white border was added to the blue jersey numerals in 1953. So-called "TV numbers" were added on jersey sleeves in 1956. In accordance with a 1957 NFL rule dictating that the home team wear dark, primary-colored jerseys and the road team light shirts, the Rams hurriedly readied for the regular season new royal-blue home jerseys with golden striping and golden front and back numerals with a white border. The white border was removed in 1958. The Rams continued to wear their golden jerseys for 1957 road games, but the following year adopted a white jersey with blue numerals and stripes. In 1962–63 the team's road white jersey featured a
UCLA-style blue-gold-blue crescent shoulder tri-stripe.
In 1964, concurrent with a major remodeling of the team's Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum home, the colors were changed to a simpler blue and white. The new helmet horns were white, wider, and separated at the helmet center front. The blue jersey had white numerals with two white sleeve stripes. The white jersey featured blue numerals and a wide blue crescent shoulder stripe. A 1964 league rule allowed teams to wear white jerseys for home games and the Rams were among several teams to do so (the
Dallas Cowboys, who introduced their new blue-white-silverblue uniform that season, have worn white at home ever since). The pants were white with a thick blue stripe. In 1970, in keeping with the standards of the fully-merged NFL and AFL, names appeared on the jersey backs for the first time. The sleeve "TV numbers," quite large compared to those of other teams, were made smaller in 1965. From 1964 to early 1972 the Rams wore white jerseys for every home league game and exhibition; it was a tradition that continued under coaches
Harland Svare,
George Allen, and
Tommy Prothro. But new owner Carroll Rosenbloom did not particularly like the Rams' uniforms, so in pursuit of a new look the team wore its seldom-used blue jerseys for its last five home games in 1972. During that season Rosenbloom's Rams also announced an intention to revive the old blue-and gold colors for 1973, and even asked fans to send in design ideas.
The colors returned to yellow-gold and blue in 1973. The new uniform design consisted of yellow- gold pants and curling rams horns on the sleeves – yellow gold horns curving from the shoulders to the arms on the blue jerseys, which featured golden numerals (a white border around the numerals, similar to the 1957 style, appeared for two exhibitions and was then removed). Players' names were in contrasting white. The white jersey had similarly-shaped blue horns, blue numerals and names. The white jerseys also had yellow gold sleeves. The gold pants included a blue-white-blue tri-stripe, which was gradually widened through the 1970s and early 1980s. The blue socks initially featured two thin golden stripes, but these were rarely visible. From 1973-1978 the Rams were the only team to wear white cleats on the road and black cleats at home. The new golden helmet horns were of identical shape, but for the first time the horn was not factory-painted but instead a decal applied to the helmet. The decal was cut in sections and affixed to accommodate spaces for face-mask and chin-strap attachments, and so the horn curved farther around the earhole. Jersey numerals were made thicker and blunter in 1975. Standard gray face masks became dark blue in 1981. The Rams primarily wore blue at home with this combination, but would wear white on occasion at home, notably for games against the
Dallas Cowboys (who usually do not wear their blue jerseys due to the popular notion that the Cowboys' blue jerseys are
jinxed) and selected AFC teams. The team wore its white jerseys for most of its 1978 home dates, including its post-season games with the
Minnesota Vikings and Cowboys. The Rams wore white exclusively in the strike-shortened
1982 season, and did so on selected occasions throughout their fifteen seasons in Anaheim.
The team's colors were changed from yellow gold and blue to New Century Gold (metallic gold) and Millennium (navy) blue in 2000 following the Super Bowl win. A new logo of a ram's head was added to the sleeves and gold stripes were added to the sides of the jerseys. The new gold pants no longer featured any stripes. Blue pants and White pants with a small gold stripe (similar to the Denver Broncos) were also an option with the Rams only electing to wear the white set in a pre-season game in San Diego in 2001. The helmet design essentially remains the same as it was in 1948, except for updates to the coloring, navy blue field with gold horns. The 2000 rams'-horn design features a slightly wider separation at the helmet's center. Both home and away jerseys had a gold stripe that ran down each side, but that only lasted for the
2000 and
2001 seasons.
In 2003, the Rams wore blue pants with their white jerseys for a pair of early-season games, but after losses to the
New York Giants and
Seattle Seahawks, the Rams reverted to gold pants with their white jerseys. In 2005, The Rams wore the blue pants again at home against Arizona and on the road against Dallas. In 2007, the Rams wore all possible combinations of their uniforms. They wore the Blue Tops and Gold Pants at home against Carolina, San Francisco, Cleveland, Seattle, and on the road against Dallas. They wore the Blue Tops and Blue Pants at home against Arizona, Atlanta, and Pittsburgh on Marshall Faulk night. They wore the Blue Tops and White Pants on the road in Tampa Bay and at home against Green Bay. They wore White Tops and Gold Pants at New Orleans and San Francisco. They wore White Tops and White Pants at Seattle and Arizona. And they wore White Tops and Blue Pants at Baltimore and Cincinnati. In 2008, the Rams went away with the gold pants. The gold pants were used for only one regular season game at Seattle. The blue jerseys with white pants and white jerseys with blue pants combination were used most of the time.
Since moving to St. Louis, the Rams have always worn blue at home. Like most other teams playing in a dome, the Rams do not need to wear white to gain an advantage with the heat despite its midwestern geographic location. The Rams wore their white jerseys with their blue pants in St. Louis against the
Dallas Cowboys forcing the Cowboys to wear their unlucky blue uniforms on October 19, 2008, winning 34-14.
[13]
The NFL has approved the use of throwback uniforms for the club during the 2009 season to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the 1999 World Championship Team. The Rams will wear the throwback uniforms for two home games in 2009 - October 11 against the Minnesota Vikings and December 20 against the Houston Texans. In 1994, the team's last season in Southern California, the Rams wore jerseys and pants replicating those of their 1951 championship season for their September games with the
San Francisco 49ers and
Kansas City Chiefs.
[14]
Players of note
Current roster
|
Quarterbacks
- 13 Brock Berlin
- 10 Marc Bulger
- 12 Trent Green
Running Backs
- 33 Kenneth Darby
- 39 Steven Jackson
- 22 Travis Minor
- 30 Antonio Pittman
Wide Receivers
- 17 Donnie Avery
- 14 Keenan Burton
- 81 Torry Holt
- 89 Dane Looker PR
Tight Ends
- 87 Anthony Becht
- 46 Daniel Fells FB
- 88 Joe Klopfenstein FB
|
| Offensive Linemen
- 70 Alex Barron T
- 63 Jacob Bell G
- 69 Anthony Davis T
- 73 Adam Goldberg T/G
- 79 John Greco
T/G
- 68 Richie Incognito G
- 76 Orlando Pace T
- 65 Brett Romberg C/G
- 67 Roy Schuening
G
- 61 Cory Withrow C
Defensive Linemen
- 94 Victor Adeyanju DE
- -- Antwon Burton DT
- 90 Adam Carriker DT
- 97 La'Roi Glover DT
- 96 James Hall DE
- 91 Leonard Little DE
- 72 Chris Long
DE
- 92 Eric Moore DE
- 95 Clifton Ryan DT
|
| Linebackers
- 57 Chris Chamberlain
OLB
- 53 Quinton Culberson OLB
- 52 Chris Draft OLB/ILB
- 59 Larry Grant
OLB
- 50 Pisa Tinoisamoa OLB
- 58 David Vobora
ILB
- 51 Will Witherspoon ILB
Defensive Backs
- 21 Oshiomogho Atogwe FS
- 24 Ron Bartell CB/FS
- 41 Eric Bassey FS
- 34 Fakhir Brown CB
- 36 Quincy Butler CB
- 25 Corey Chavous SS
- 31 Jason Craft CB
- 35 Todd Johnson SS
- 42 David Roach
S
- 20 Jonathan Wade CB
Special Teams
- 3 Josh Brown K
- 5 Donnie Jones P
- 45 Chris Massey LS
|
| Reserve Lists
- 83 Drew Bennett WR (IR)
- 77 Brandon Gorin OT (IR)
- 82 Dante Hall WR (IR)
- 26 Tye Hill CB (IR)
- 32 Justin King
CB (IR)
- 60 Nick Leckey C (IR)
- 23 Brian Leonard FB/RB (IR)
- 27 Ricky Manning, Jr. CB (IR)
- 84 Randy McMichael TE (IR)
- 71 Rob Petitti OT (IR)
- 66 Mark Setterstrom G (IR)
- 19 Derek Stanley WR (IR)
- 55 Gary Stills ILB (IR)
- 99 Claude Wroten DT (Susp.)
Practice Squad
- 98 C. J. Ah You DE
- -- Travis Brown
WR
- 11 Matt Caddell
WR
- 75 Jason Capizzi OT
- -- Joel Filani WR
- 18 Nate Jones
WR
- 71 Clint Oldenburg OT
- 37 Sébastien Sejean S Int'l
- 93 Willie Williams
DT
Rookies in italics
updated 2008-12-19
•
53 Active, 14 Inactive, 9 PS
? More rosters
|
Pro Football Hall of Famers
Former Rams in the Pro Football Hall of Fame include
Joe Namath (12),
Ollie Matson (33),
Andy Robustelli (81),
Dick "Night Train" Lane (also 81), coach
Earl "Dutch" Clark, and general manager
Tex Schramm. GM and later NFL
Commissioner Pete Rozelle and coach
Sid Gillman are also members of the Hall of Fame, but were elected on the basis of their performances with other teams or (in the case of Rozelle) NFL administration.
Dick Vermeil has become the first and still only St. Louis Rams figure inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame. Cardinals inducted into it include Dierdorf, Smith, Wilson,
Conrad Dobler,
Jim Hart and coach
Jim Hanifan.
Cleveland/Los Angeles/St. Louis Rams Hall of Famers
|
No.
| Player
| Class
| Position(s)
| Years Played
|
--
| George Allen
| 2002
| Coach
| 1966-1970
|
76
| Bob Brown
| 2004
| OT
| 1969-1970
|
29
| Eric Dickerson
| 1999
| RB
| 1983-1987
|
55
| Tom Fears
| 1970
| End
| 1948-1956
|
40
| Elroy "Crazy Legs" Hirsch
| 1968
| RB, WR
| 1949-1957
|
75
| Deacon Jones
| 1980
| DE
| 1961-1971
|
65
| Tom Mack
| 1999
| G
| 1966-1978
|
74
| Merlin Olsen
| 1982
| DT
| 1962-1976
|
--
| Dan Reeves
| 1967
| Owner
| 1941-1971
|
78
| Jackie Slater
| 2001
| OT
| 1976-1995
|
25
| Norm Van Brocklin
| 1971
| QB, P
| 1949-1957
|
7
| Bob Waterfield
| 1965
| QB, DB, K, P
| 1945-1952
|
85
| Jack Youngblood
| 2001
| DE
| 1971-1984
|
St. Louis Football Ring Of Fame
Former St.Louis football Cardinals and former Rams are included in the Ring Of Fame in the Edward Jones Dome. All players are hall of famers, but there are a few exceptions for team executives and coaches.
Former Rams
- 7
Bob Waterfield 1945-1952
- 25
Norm Van Brocklin 1949-1957
- 29
Eric Dickerson 1983-1987
- 55
Tom Fears 1948-1956
- 40
Elroy "Crazylegs" Hirsch 1949-1957
- 75
David Deacon Jones 1961-1971
- 65
Tom Mack 1966-1978
- 74
Merlin Olsen 1962-1976
- 78
Jackie Slater 1976-1995
- 84
Jack Snow Broadcaster
- 85
Jack Youngblood 1971-1984
Former Football Cardinals
- 8
Larry Wilson 1960-1972
- 72
Dan Dierdorf 1971-1983
- 81
Jackie Smith 1963-1977
- 22
Roger Wehrli 1969-1982
Former Team Executives and Coaches
- Head Coach
Dick Vermeil 1997-1999
- Owner
Carroll Rosenbloom 1972-1979
- Owner
Dan Reeves 1941-1971
- Owner
Georgia Frontiere 1979-2007
Retired numbers
Numbers that have been retired by the Rams.
- 7
Bob Waterfield
- 28
Marshall Faulk
- 29
Eric Dickerson
- 74
Merlin Olsen
- 75
David Deacon Jones*
- 78
Jackie Slater
- 85
Jack Youngblood
- David Deacon Jones number 75 to be retired during the 2009 season.
Coaches of note
Head coaches
Current staff
|
|
| Front Office
- Owner/Chairman - Chip Rosenbloom
- Owner/Vice Chairman - Stan Kroenke
- President - John Shaw
- President of Football Operations/General Manager - Jay Zygmunt
- Executive Vice President of Player Personnel - Billy Devaney
- Vice President of Player Personnel - Tony Softli
- Director of Player Personnel - Lawrence McCutcheon
Head Coaches
- Head Coach - Jim Haslett
- Assistant Head Coach/Running Backs - Art Valero
Offensive Coaches
- Offensive Coordinator - Al Saunders
- Quarterbacks - Terry Shea
- Wide Receivers - Henry Ellard
- Tight Ends - Jim Chaney
- Offensive Line - Steve Loney
- Assistant Offensive Line - Jeff Horton
- Offensive Quality Control/Assistant Special Teams - Keith Murphy
- Assistant Wide Receivers/Offensive Assistant - Bob Saunders
|
|
| Defensive Coaches
- Defensive Coordinator - Rick Venturi
- Defensive Line - Brian Baker
- Linebackers - Mike Cox
- Secondary - Ron Milus
- Assistant Secondary - Todd Downing
Special Teams Coaches
- Special Teams - Al Roberts
Strength and Conditioning
- Strength and Conditioning - Dana LeDuc
- Assistant Strength and Conditioning - Chuck Faucette
?
? More NFL staffs
|
Radio and television
The Rams were the first NFL team to televise their home games; in a sponsorship arrangement with
Admiral television, all home games of the
1950 NFL season were shown locally. The Rams also televised games in the early 1950s. The
1951 NFL Championship Game was the first championship game televised coast-to-coast (via the
DuMont Network). During the team's years in Los Angeles all games were broadcast on
KMPC radio (710 AM); play-by-play announcers were Bob Kelley (who accompanied the team from Cleveland and worked until his death in 1965),
Dick Enberg (1966–77), Al Wisk (1978–79), Bob Starr (1980–89), Eddie Doucette (1990), Paul Olden (1991–93), and Steve Physioc (1994). Analysts included
Gil Stratton, Steve Bailey,
Don Drysdale (1975),
Dick Bass (1977–86),
Jack Youngblood (1987–91), and
Jack Snow with David
Deacon Jones (1993–94).
Starting in 2009, the Rams' new flagship radio station is 101.1 FM
WXOS, a new sports station in St. Louis with ESPN Radio Affiliation.
Steve Savard, will remain the play-by-play man with
D'Marco Farr replacing
Jim Hanifan in the color spot. From 2000–08
KLOU FM 103.3 was the Rams' flagship station with Steve Savard as the
play-by-play announcer. Until October 2005, Jack Snow had been the
color analyst since 1993, dating back to the team's days in the Los Angeles area. Snow left the booth after suffering an illness and died in January 2006. Former Rams offensive line coach and former St. Louis Cardinals head coach
Jim Hanifan joined the
KLOU as the color analyst the year after Jack Snow's departure. Previously before the Rams moved to
KLOU, from 1995–99 the Rams games were broadcast on KSD 93.7 FM. On Television, games are either broadcast on
Fox,
CBS,
ESPN,or
NFL Network. Preseason games not shown on a national broadcast network are seen on
KTVI, Channel 2, and are also seen in L.A. on
KCOP, "MyNetworkTV channel 13."
See also
- The Greatest Show on Turf
References
- ALL THOSE A.F.L.'S: N.F.L. COMPETITORS, 1935-41
- St. Louis Rams History: Chronology
- NFL History, 1945. ''Official Site of the NFL''. Retrieved 13 September 2006
- Michael MacCambridge, "America's Game: The Epic Story of How Pro Football Captured a Nation", pp.56-60, ISBN 0375725067
- MSNBC.com Sports "Former Rams owner Frontiere dies." Retrieved on 20 January 2008.
- [1] "Future ownership of Rams in doubt." Retrieved 20 January 2008.
- Core must carry Rams through season of change
- Shaw steps down, Devaney is promoted by St. Louis Rams
- St. Louis Rams soon will be put up for sale
- NFL Team Valuations: #23 St Louis Rams
- St. Louis Blues' Dave Checketts is a contender
- Developers of Industry NFL stadium say they're not interested in buying the Rams.
- Romo-less Cowboys lose to Rams
- Rams will wear 1999 'throwbacks' in '09