Fans of the Detroit Lions have recently witnessed one of the greatest turnarounds in team history, considering that the team finished with a 3-13 record in 2021. This past season they won 12 games in the regular season and were just 30 minutes away from reaching the Super Bowl.
The unbelievable drafts of recent seasons, and the trade for quarterback Jared Goff conducted by Lions general manager Brad Holmes, are largely responsible for the team’s remarkable success.
Consider that the following outstanding players: Penei Sewell, Alim McNeill, Amon St. Brown, Aiden Hutchinson, Sam LaPorta, Brian Branch, Jack Campbell, Jahmyr Gibbs, all became starters in their rookie seasons. Several others, including Derrick Barnes and Jameson Williams, have played significant roles.
The shift toward success for the Lions the last 36 months or so is remarkable. However, the moves that were made following the end of the Lions’ 1949 season literally saved the franchise.
From 1940 through 1949 the Lions compiled a record of 35-71-4, had only two winning seasons and won only 10 games in the last four years of the decade. With a seating capacity of 52,000 at Briggs Stadium, the average attendance in 1949 was just 19,000 fans.
On January 25, 1950, the Detroit Free Press headline read: “No Profit, No Lions.” It was reported that the team was in the red the last two years. Team president Edwin J. Anderson told stockholders: “If Detroit fans do not support the type of team and the kind of football we will get them in 1950, then we are through.”
But then key transactions took place that sent the Lions on an upward trajectory that saved the franchise and established the glory years of Detroit football. The team won four league conference titles and three world championships, in 1952, 1953, and 1957.
Five days before Anderson’s gloomy pronouncement, the Lions drafted 1949 Heisman trophy winner and two-way All-American end Leon Hart as their first pick in the 1950 draft. In the second-round, Detroit selected future Hall of Fame lineman Lou Creekmur. The next day, the Lions acquired the 1948 Heisman Trophy winner: running back Doak Walker from Southern Methodist University.
Walker had been drafted after his junior season in 1948 by the Boston Yanks but played his Senior year. He was also drafted by the Cleveland Browns in the competing American Football Conference. Detroit traded their 1949 pick John Rauch (who had been selected #2 overall) to Boston for Walker. NFL commissioner Bert Bell then forced the Browns and Lions to work out a resolution, so Detroit traded their second round draft choice to the Browns for the rights to Walker.
The same day Walker was acquired, the Lions hired Buddy Parker, an assistant with the Chicago Cardinals, to coach the backfield. Later, Parker replaced Lion head coach Bo McMillin.
In April, Detroit acquired quarterback Bobby Layne from the New York Bulldogs for receiver Bob Mann. Layne was Doak Walker’s high school teammate in Dallas: the same high school later attended by Matthew Stafford.
For the 1950 season, the Lions finished in fourth place with a 6-6 record winning two more games in 1949 and with their exciting acquisitions excited Lion fans began a pilgrimage to Briggs Stadium.
The Lions became one of the top scoring offenses during the season as Layne led the NFL with 2,323 passing yards and Walker led the league with 128 points on five rushing touchdowns, six receiving touchdowns, 38 extra points, and eight field goals. His 128 points in 1950 was the second highest single-season total in NFL history at the time.
The Lions, led by General Manager Nick Kerbaway, continued with another successful off season when they drafted five outstanding rookies who became instant starters: ends Dorne Dibble and Jim Doran; LaVern Torgeson; and future Hall of Famers Dick Stanfel and Jack Christiansen.
In 1951 the team finished in second place with a record of 7-4-1, but a loss in San Francisco in the last game cost them the conference title. (Sound familiar?)
In the 1952 draft, Kerbaway selected another exceptional rookie class when he drafted defensive back, punter, and future Hall of Famer Yale Lary, Jim David, Gil Mains, and Stan Campbell.
The ‘52 Lions finished with a 9-3 record, going on to win their second world championship when they defeated the Browns in Cleveland, 17-7.
In the 1953 draft, Kerbaway hit the motherlode again when he drafted future Hall of Fame middle linebacker Joe Schmidt in the 7th round, as well as fellow starters, lineman Harley Sewell, center Charlie Ane, and running back Lew Carpenter. The Lions finished in first place with a 10-2 record and won a second consecutive world championship against the Browns. The title game was a thrilling 17-16 last minute victory at Briggs Stadium.
The next year, Layne became the first NFL player to be featured on the cover of Time magazine, in November. Detroit went on to win a third consecutive conference title, but were slaughtered in the NFL Championship game when the Browns defeated the Lions 56-10.
In 1957, the Lions won their last world championship before starting decades of futility. Buddy Parker had shocked the football world when on August 12, 1957, two days before the exhibition opener he quit the Lions at the “Meet the Lions” banquet at the Statler Hotel. George Wilson took over as head coach as the Lions went on to exact revenge on the Browns by defeating Cleveland 59-14 at Briggs Stadium, just seven years after Detroit nearly lost its football team.
