What Team Did the Ravens Play For Before Moving to Baltimore?

The Baltimore Ravens relocated from Cleveland in 1996, where they played as the Cleveland Browns from 1946 to 1995. The franchise's move followed a relocation dispute: Cleveland owner Art Modell announced the team's departure in 1995, triggering a lawsuit that eventually required the NFL to grant Cleveland a replacement expansion franchise by 1999. Baltimore's new team adopted the Ravens name in 1996, and the city's first season at Memorial Stadium drew an average home attendance of 71,657 fans, the highest in the league that year.

The Cleveland Browns Era (1946–1995)

The original Browns joined the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) in 1946 under coach Paul Brown, whose name became the franchise's identity. They won the AAFC championship in 1946, 1947, and 1948 before the AAFC merged with the NFL in 1950. In the NFL, Cleveland won four league championships: 1950, 1954, 1955, and 1964. The Browns made 14 consecutive playoff appearances from 1947 to 1960, an NFL record that stood for decades.

The team's most famous era came during the 1960s with quarterback Jim Brown (no relation to coach Paul Brown), widely considered the greatest running back in league history. Jim Brown rushed for 12,312 yards over nine seasons in Cleveland, averaging 104.3 yards per game. He won the NFL MVP award three times while with the Browns. The team's 1964 championship, their last in Cleveland, featured a defense that allowed only 10 total touchdowns across the entire season.

By the 1970s and 1980s, the Browns remained competitive but did not win another championship. Quarterback Bernie Kosar led the team to the AFC Championship Game three consecutive years (1986–1988), losing each time to the Denver Broncos. The 1995 season, Cleveland's final year as the Browns, produced a 5-11 record, signaling organizational decline that preceded the relocation announcement.

The 1995 Relocation and Its Context

Art Modell's decision to move the team to Baltimore stemmed from disputes over Municipal Stadium renovation funding. Cleveland had not upgraded the facility since 1960, and the city declined to finance a modern stadium. Baltimore, by contrast, offered Modell a new 69,000-seat facility (later named M&T Bank Stadium, which opened in 1998) with $200 million in public funding and favorable lease terms. The move became official on November 6, 1995, shocking the Cleveland fanbase and prompting immediate legal action.

Modell's relocation triggered the first major franchise departure in NFL history since the 1984 move of the Los Angeles Raiders to Oakland. Federal Judge Thomas Lambros issued an injunction in December 1995 attempting to block the move, but the NFL's authority over franchise relocation ultimately prevailed. The legal settlement required the league to award Cleveland an expansion franchise beginning in 1999, resulting in the modern Cleveland Browns. The franchise name, colors, history, and records remained Cleveland's property; Baltimore's team took only the active roster and draft picks.

Baltimore's New Identity

The Ravens name reflected Baltimore's literary history, specifically Edgar Allan Poe's 1845 poem "The Raven." Poe lived in Baltimore from 1831 to 1835 and died there in 1849; his grave sits in Westminster Hall and Burying Ground in downtown Baltimore. The team's color scheme (purple and black, later updated to a darker purple) distinguished the franchise from Cleveland's brown and orange. Baltimore's inaugural draft in 1996 selected tackle Jonathan Ogden from UCLA with the fourth overall pick; Ogden became one of the league's elite offensive linemen and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2013.

The Ravens' first decade proved exceptionally successful. The team won the AFC Central division in 1996 and 1997, qualified for the playoffs five times in nine seasons, and reached Super Bowl XXXV after the 2000 season, defeating the New York Giants 34-7. The defense that season, anchored by linebacker Ray Lewis and defensive end Peter Boulware, allowed only 165 points all season, the lowest total in modern NFL history at that time.

Related Questions

Did Cleveland get a new Browns team after the relocation? Yes. The NFL granted Cleveland an expansion franchise that began play in 1999 at the newly constructed Cleveland Browns Stadium. The expansion Browns reacquired the original franchise name, colors, and historical records, though they started with a fresh roster.

Where did the Ravens play before M&T Bank Stadium opened? The Ravens played at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore from 1996 to 1997, sharing the facility with the Baltimore Orioles baseball team. M&T Bank Stadium, built on the former site of Camden Yards' parking lots, opened for the 1998 season and remains their home.