DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum Mike Holmgren is Bringing Back Tradition and History to the Cleveland Brown

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

ClevelandBrowns.com
By Daniel Wolf
Senior Writer

The Cleveland Browns are a franchise with a tremendous amount of tradition, and president Mike Holmgren has been bringing it back to the Lake Erie shore.

After arriving in Cleveland at the end of 2009, Holmgren was the new face of owner Randy Lerner's NFL team. Rich in knowledge and football experience, Holmgren wanted to bring the Browns' past to the present.

Holmgren has not taken baby steps in order to show the franchise's rich history in the short amount of time he has been in Cleveland.

"I wouldn't say baby steps," said Neal Gulkis, vice president of media relations for the Browns via phone call. "Look at all Coach Holmgren has accomplished last year and already this year."

In his first full year as team president, Holmgren made leaps and bounds in bringing the past to the present by adding the Ring of Honor, Heritage Hall and the Legends Program.

The Ring of Honor was introduced at Cleveland Brown Stadium during their home opener last season. Sixteen inaugural members were inducted including: Paul Brown, Jim Brown, Otto Graham, Ozzie Newsome and Paul Warfield to name a few.

Heritage Hall is a program which has the Browns partnering up with the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and is a 4,600 square-foot exhibition space which is dedicated to the Browns' historic past. Browns players who are in the Hall of Fame have had their busts on display at the exhibit, along with memorabilia and much more.


The Ring of Honor at Cleveland Browns Stadium
(Photo by Daniel Wolf)
The Legends Program started in 2001, and was brought back by Holmgren last year too. It is best described as "[honoring] the men who have contributed to the success of the Cleveland Browns organization."

In 2011, Holmgren is continuing his commitment to the Browns' history and tradition.

"The team is honoring Paul Brown, and his team's, by bringing back the white-on-white uniforms for all home games this season," said Gulkis.

Fans have seen the Browns wear their brown jerseys with white pants in seasons past, but they are going with the old-school look this year.

"We listen to our fans and they wanted white-on-white at home," said Gulkis.

The fans have also been talking about wanting to bring back the numbered helmets—from a few seasons back—and possibly orange pants too.

"There is a process with the league, in order to bring throwbacks onto the football field," said Gulkis. "This is not something where we can decide we want to wear a throwback and we can on game days. The league has to approve it first."

Numbered helmets and orange pants are not in the cards for the Browns this season, but seeing as how Holmgren is listening to the fans and brought back the white-on-white look at home, there is no reason either or both cannot be seen in the coming seasons.

The Browns appear to be a team on the rise and Holmgren is not only trying to help build a winning team in Cleveland, but he is also in tune with the team's history and the fans.

The future looks bright for the Browns, while the past will not be forgotten while Holmgren is in office.

web page

No numbered helmets, please. I'd prefer no orange pants, either. White pants. Brown or white jerseys. No gray facemask either.

Gimme a white helmet day!!!

Actually, just win and wear whatever . . .

I could go with either of the options, the orange pants and brown jerseys were cool, the numbered helmets or the white helmets. All would be actual throwbacks, unlike the blaze orange jerseys which I never cared for. Of course as a person who thought Maryland looked good, some might question my taste in uniforms.

I kind of liked the orange pants with the white jersey's but absolutely hate the orange jerseys.

And no numbers on the helmets.

The helmets with the numbers are CLASSIC!!! I love those things..

I don't care for the orange pants though.

I'd rather do Brown on Brown again.. or keep it how it is.. The gray facemasks need to stay as well.

Agreed.
Bring back the numbers on the helmets, get rid of the orange pants.

White-on-white (w/ Orange Helmets) - nice clean look.

Brown jersey w/ Orange pants - I like it. It has a bold look to it but it is not as overstated as having the orange on top (jersey).

White Helmets - only if they have numbers. since it's cheating anyway (the only time the Browns official helmet was white was when they were leather), then I say go for the full throwback look with the numbers and a single orange stripe down the middle (think Bama helmets w/ a Browns twist).

Brown pants - I am a big fan of having brown pants as part of the collection if they actually design them correctly. Having 'full brown' pants is ridiculous and looks terrible. Having brown pants with orange-white-orange piping down either side of them looks clean, and lends itself well to the white jersey. If they insist on having the orange jersey, this is the best fitting combination for it as well.

I just want the winning tradition back. I don't care what the unis look like. If the players wear pink chiffon tutus and win the Superbowl, I'll be happy!

Quote:

---

Everyone says that ..... but would you really be happy if the team showed up in pink chiffon tutus on week one?

---

I'm a little worried that you know what a "chiffon TuTu" is

i LOVED the Brown with Orange...thats what they should wear at home, and go White on White on the road...and twice at home

Quote:

---

the only time the Browns official helmet was white was when they were leather

---

I could have sworn the first non-leather helmets the team wore were white. I'll have to look it up!

Quote:

---

I'll have to look it up!

---

When Cleveland just began, they wore leather helmets. The first Cleveland Browns helmet was white, and was permanently changed to orange in 1952. During the 1950-51 seasons the Browns wore orange painted helmets at night.

http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/fall05/brownlee/browns.html

Still not clear when the helmet stopped being leather.

Here's an interesting link to the story of the "almost" helmet logo of the 1960's

http://www.fans247.com/showthread.php?50884-Cool-read-abour-our-quot-ALMOST-quot-helmet-logo..

Thanks, No Logo. I've been looking at some of these sites as well. It's pretty cool stuff. I never realized that they actually painted the leather helmets. I guess that's why I was confused. In some of the black and white photos, it's really hard to tell that they're leather.

Speaking of the older uniforms, does anyone remember the preseason of 1984 when the brown jerseys had orange numbers on them? If I remember correctly (only 12 at the time), they were hard to see from the press box, so they were changed to white with an orange outline. I really liked the look of the 1984 unis - both home and away.

Here are the 1984 uniforms. Still my favorite other than the original

http://img805.imageshack.us/img805/5134/1984clevelandbrownsb.png

I would love the pre-season 1984 uniforms, with a thicker white outline around the orange numbers.

After thinking about it a little..... I couldn't care less about all of this. It's just marketing junk.

We've HAD tradition and history.... we NEED a FUTURE.

White on White, Orange on Orange, Brown on Brown.... who cares!?!!! Win convincingly enough, often enough and ANY uniform will look good enough.

Quote:

---

I would love the pre-season 1984 uniforms, with a thicker white outline around the orange numbers.

---

That would look sharp!

I say we pick whatever "look" we darn well please and then we MAKE THAT the "look" of a winning franchise!

Good sense and logic, with no games, from the FO, which is in synch with the coach and co-ordinators, is a good first step. The foundation is laid.

no problem. i wish the Browns main site would embrace our uniform history, but, alas, they do not seem to care. therefore, it is hard to get a definitive answer on some of these issues.

as long as we don't try to mimic the Ohio State Flag by having triangular cutoff jerseys w/ bike-style elongated helmets, I think we will be just fine with our classic looks