Sports
Sports have played a key role in Cleveland's history, confirming its status as a "major league town," and uniting a diverse population passionate about their city's teams. Venues where Cleveland's teams play have changed. Some have been torn down to make way for new stadiums, while others remain as relics of past glory. You may know the Browns, Cavaliers, and Guardians, but the city also was home to the namesake for the Heisman Trophy, an amateur baseball game that purportedly drew 115,000 spectators (in 1915!), and a boxing champion with a neighborhood named for him. From Cleveland’s storied Czech Sokol gymnasts to its 1948 World Series, Cleveland sports truly are major.
League Park
A "Neighborhood" Home for Cleveland Sports
The construction of the massive, 70,000-seat Cleveland Municipal Stadium in the 1930s spelled the beginning of the end for a much older stadium— League Park. This ballpark was constructed in 1891 east of downtown in Cleveland's Hough neighborhood at Dunham Street (East 66th) between Linwood and…
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The Cleveland Buckeyes
The City's Forgotten Team
Hidden within the lore of Cleveland sports history, the Cleveland Buckeyes existed in an era of war and racial strife. Overshadowed by the Indians' World Series title in 1948, the Buckeyes were a very prominent team in the Negro American League, having won a World Series in 1945. The unfortunate decline of the Buckeyes was not a result of decreased competitive play on the field, but rather the…
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Elks' Field
As you look at the vast asphalt parking lot stretching from the Winking Lizard to Giant Eagle, it is hard to believe that the area in front of you was once one of the most exciting places in Lakewood. National tennis tournaments, softball world championships, Al Capone's bulletproof Cadillac, yearly circuses and carnivals. It all happened right here.
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Kilbane Town
A Story about one of Cleveland's most famous Boxing Champions
It hadn't been called "Kilbane Town" in 100 years. In 2012, Cleveland City Council resurrected the name to honor an extraordinary Clevelander.
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Ceska Sin Sokol Hall
The Birthplace of Northeast Ohio College Gymnastics
In the early 1940s, before he was even old enough to cross the street, young Joe Bachna gazed at Ceska Sin Sokol Hall from his father's photography studio at 4203 Clark Avenue. The three and one-half story building located down and across the street at 4314 Clark Avenue, loomed large, both…
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Boxing in the Old Angle Neighborhood
From Johnny Kilbane to Jimmy Bivins
Cleveland has a rich history of amateur and professional boxing. Much of it derives from the establishment of a number of athletic clubs and gymnasiums that were started on the near west side in the the late nineteenth and early to mid-twentieth centuries. St. Malachi's La Salle Literary and Athletic Club in 1894. Jimmy Dunn's gymnasium at 2618 Detroit in 1910. Danny Dunn's…
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John W. Heisman
Ohio City's Gridiron Pioneer
On October 23, 1869, one of football's most iconic figures was born in Ohio City. Today he is best known as the namesake of the most prestigious award in college football, the Heisman Memorial Trophy. The trophy is awarded annually to the nation's most outstanding college football player.…
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National Amateur Baseball Association Tournament
On October 10, 1915, the natural amphitheater at what is now Cleveland Metroparks Brookside Reservation hosted possibly the largest crowd to ever assemble for an amateur sporting event. Attendance of the baseball game was estimated at between 80,000 and 115,000 by newspapers, park staff and city…
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Cleveland National Air Races
The National Air Races finally came to Cleveland Municipal (now Cleveland-Hopkins International) Airport in 1929. Local businessmen Louis W. Greve and Frederick C. Crawford played a big role in bringing the event to Cleveland. Both men were involved in the aviation industry -- then thriving in…
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Municipal Stadium
The demolition of Cleveland Municipal Stadium officially began in November 1996 and was complete by the following spring. In the fall of 1995, Cleveland Browns owner Art Modell decided to move the city's football team to Baltimore. Angry fans began the demolition process themselves during the…
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The Cleveland Rams
The City's Pre-Browns NFL Champions
From 1937 to 1945, Cleveland Municipal Stadium—now the site of FirstEnergy Stadium—was home to the Cleveland Rams for 20 of their 35 National Football League home games in Cleveland, including their triumph in the 1945 NFL championship game as the first Cleveland team since the 1924 Bulldogs to win…
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The Arena
The Arena at 3717 Euclid Avenue was built in 1937 by sports promoter Albert C. Stuphin. Originally designed to be the home ice for Stuphin's Cleveland Barons hockey team (which until that point had played as the Indians and then the Falcons further up Euclid Avenue at the Elysium), the Arena…
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Barrow's Hole In One Golf
In the early 1990s, William Barrow, director of Cleveland State University's Cleveland Memory Project, discovered something interesting about his great uncle Thomas Cooper Barrow. Not only had Tom owned a driving range during the Great Depression, but it was located along Euclid Avenue's…
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Progressive Field
The Cleveland Indians Find a Home of Their Own
Art Modell. The very mention of his name in Cleveland still stirs up vitriol. In 1963 he angered many by firing legendary Cleveland Browns coach Paul Brown, only two years after Art assumed principal ownership of the team. Most was forgiven in 1964 when the Browns won the NFL championship; but for…
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