page_title: Sports in Cleveland
hierarchical_section_title: Sports in Cleveland
caption_attribution_description: The Cleveland Browns in an July 2006 game in Cleveland Browns Stadium.
context_page_description: Cleveland's professional sports teams include the Cleveland Indians, Cleveland Browns, Cleveland Cavaliers, and the Cleveland Monsters. Local sporting facilities include Progressive Field, FirstEnergy Stadium, Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse and the Wolstein Center.
  Historically, the Browns have been among the winningest franchises in American football history winning eight titles during a short period of time—1946, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1954, 1955, and 1964. The Browns have never played in a Super Bowl, getting a game away five times making it to the NFL/AFC Championship Game in 1968, 1969, 1986, 1987, and 1989.
  Former owner Art Modell's relocation of the Browns after the 1995 season, caused tremendous heartbreak and resentment among local fans. Cleveland mayor, Michael R. White, worked with the NFL and Commissioner Paul Tagliabue to bring back the Browns beginning in 1999 season, retaining all team history. In earlier NFL history, the Cleveland Bulldogs won the NFL Championship in 1924, and the Cleveland Rams won the NFL Championship in 1945 before relocating to Los Angeles.
  The Cleveland Indians won the World Series in 1920 and 1948.
context_section_description: Cleveland's professional sports teams include the Cleveland Indians (Major League Baseball), Cleveland Browns (National Football League), Cleveland Cavaliers (National Basketball Association), and the Cleveland Monsters (American Hockey League). Local sporting facilities include Progressive Field, FirstEnergy Stadium, Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse and the Wolstein Center.
  Historically, the Browns have been among the winningest franchises in American football history winning eight titles during a short period of time—1946, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1954, 1955, and 1964.  The Browns have never played in a Super Bowl, getting a game away five times making it to the NFL/AFC Championship Game in 1968, 1969, 1986, 1987, and 1989. 
  Former owner Art Modell's relocation of the Browns after the 1995 season (to Baltimore creating the Ravens), caused tremendous heartbreak and resentment among local fans.  Cleveland mayor, Michael R. White, worked with the NFL and Commissioner Paul Tagliabue to bring back the Browns beginning in 1999 season, retaining all team history.  In earlier NFL history, the Cleveland Bulldogs won the NFL Championship in 1924, and the Cleveland Rams won the NFL Championship in 1945 before relocating to Los Angeles.
  The Cleveland Indians won the World Series in 1920 and 1948.  They also won the American League pennant, making the World Series in the 1954, 1995, 1997, and 2016 seasons.  Between 1995 and 2001, Progressive Field (then known as Jacobs Field) sold out 455 consecutive games, a Major League Baseball record until it was broken in 2008.
  The Cavaliers have won the Eastern Conference in 2007, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018.  The team's first and only NBA championship was won in 2016 after coming back from a 3–1 deficit, defeating the defending champions Golden State Warriors. Afterwards, an estimated 1.3 million people attended a parade held in the Cavs honor on June 22, 2016. This was the first time the city had planned for a championship parade in 50 years. Basketball, the Cleveland Rosenblums dominated the original American Basketball League winning three of the first five championships (1926, 1929, 1930), and the Cleveland Pipers, owned by George Steinbrenner, won the American Basketball League championship in 1962.
  From 1964–2016, the city's failure to win a trophy in any major professional sport earned a reputation of being a cursed sports city, extensively covered by the 2016 ESPN 30 for 30 documentary Believeland. In addition, changes in the Cleveland sports landscape led to further heartbreak and resentment among local fans, the most notable instances being Art Modell's relocation of the Browns to Baltimore after the 1995 season (that franchise became the Ravens, with the current Browns team starting play in 1999), and Akron native LeBron James' decision to leave the Cavaliers in 2010 for the Miami Heat.  The Cleveland city sports curse is seen as having ended in June 2016, when the Cavaliers won the NBA Championship against the defending champion Golden State Warriors. Shortly before the Cavaliers' victory, the Monsters also defeated the Hershey Bears to become AHL champions, the first time a Cleveland hockey team had won the Calder Cup since 1964.
  Notable Cleveland athletes to win top individual accolades include boxer Johnny Kilbane, U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame inductees Jesse Owens and Harrison Dillard, mixed martial artist Stipe Miocic, and snowboarder Red Gerard.  Kilbane had a 12-year reign as World Featherweight Champion and is an International Boxing Hall of Fame inductee.  Owens, who grew up in Cleveland after moving from Alabama when he was nine,  participated in the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, where he achieved international fame by winning four gold medals: one each in the 100 meters, the 200 meters, the long jump, and as part of the 4 x 100 meter relay team.  Cleveland native Dillard is another four-time Olympic gold medalist, having won his medals during the 1948 and 1952 Summer Olympics in various track and field events.  In 2016, Cleveland State University alum and area native Miocic won 
caption: Cleveland Browns games attract large crowds to FirstEnergy Stadium.
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