Los Angeles Dons (1946-1949)

All-America Football Conference (1946-1949)

Tombstone

Born: September 2, 1944¹
Folded: December 9, 1949 (Merged with NFL L.A. Rams)²

First Game: September 13, 1946(W 20-14 vs. Brooklyn Dodgers)
Last Game: November 24, 1949 (L 17-16 vs. New York Yankees)

AAFC Championships: None

None

Stadium

Stadium:
1946-1949: Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum (92,500)
Completed: May 1, 1923³

Branding

Team Colors:

Red, blue, and white⁴

Ownership

Owners: Don Ameche, Christy Walsh, Ben Lindheimer, Bob Hope, Louis B. Mayer, and Bing Crosby

Background

The Los Angeles Dons were a professional football team that played four seasons in the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) starting in 1946. They were L.A.’s first professional sports team since the Los Angeles Bulldogs of the second American Football League moved down to a minor league circuit called the Pacific Coast Professional Football League in 1940.

The Dons were established on September 2, 1944 when Chicago Tribune sports editor Arch Ward established the AAFC. The new league was supposed to begin play in 1945, but with World War II still going on, the start was pushed back to 1946. Actor and radio star Don Ameche (Dante’s Inferno, The Sins of Man, The Boatniks, Trading Places, Cocoon) and former newspaper syndicate editor Christy Walsh were identified as the team’s owners at the league’s introductory press conference. Chicago racetrack owner Ben Lindheimer later joined the ownership group as majority shareholder, along with Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, and Louis B. Mayer.⁵

The NFL comes to L.A.

At first, the Dons had the city all to themselves until another pro football franchise moved to town. Just seventeen months after the Dons were established, and before they played a down, Dan Reeves, owner of the NFL champion Cleveland Rams, announced his intention to move his club to Southern California.⁶, keen to have a team in one of the country’s fastest growing cities.

LA Coliseum 1920s aerial view — *The L.A. Coliseum was coveted by both of L.A.’s pro football teams in 1946*

Ameche told the United Press his team welcomed the Rams. “There is no reason to believe the city cannot support two major league football clubs,” he stated. He also echoed Reeves’ opinion that Los Angeles would someday be one of the nation’s top sports markets. A few weeks later, Ameche’s club chose the name Dons, somewhat ironically, and was then dealt a setback.⁷

On January 29, the Coliseum Commission granted the Rams exclusive use of the city’s massive sports complex.⁸ Desperate to find a home, the Dons considered using the Rose Bowl.⁹ Three weeks later, though, they were granted dates at the Coliseum.¹⁰

Signing Angelo Bertelli

While the stadium issue was being resolved, the Dons were attempting to sign their first star player, former Notre Dame QB Angelo Bertelli, who had guided the Fighting Irish to the national title in 1943 and captured the Heisman Trophy. He signed with the Dons, but three months later, he signed a contract with the NFL’s Boston Yanks. A court battle ensued and dragged on past the start of the AAFC season.

On August 31, the Dons hit the field in their hometown for the first time¹¹10 days ahead of the Rams.¹²That contest, an exhibition game against the New York Yankees, was not played at the Coliseum but at Gilmore Stadium, a baseball park in the Fairfax neighborhood. The Dons were also the first to play a regular season game in town, as they opened their season on September 13, with a 20-14 win over the Brooklyn Dodgers in the Coliseum before 19,500. The following week, over 23,000 turned up to watch the Dons down the Miami Seahawks 30-14. A crowd of 30,500 attended the Rams’ home opener a week later, a 25-14 loss to the Eagles.

Angelo Bertelli desperately wanted to play in his hometown of Boston, but in September the judge ruled against him and the NFL team. The Yanks owner, Ted Collins, offered Bertelli a paid position as a scout, which he would keep until the Dons player contract expired. The former Heisman winner declined, noting he’d been out of football for two years due to a stint in the Marines and just wanted to get back on the field.

He made his debut in the team’s third game, a 21-21 tie on the road against the Buffalo Bison. Charlie O’Rourke started the game, with Bertelli going 3 of 7 for 21 yards and an interception. His first start came on October 12 against arch-rivals the San Francisco 49ers. The Dons lost 23-13 in the Coliseum in front of 12,500.

Middle of the freeway

The Dons finished their first season with a record of 7-5-2, good for third place in the AAFC’s Western division , while the Rams finished in second place in the NFL West with a mark of 6-4. Both muddled along through the 1947 and 1948 seasons, with the Dons outdrawing the Rams slightly. Indeed, a 1947 game between the Dons and the New York Yankees pulled in a then-pro-record crowd of 82,576 to the Coliseum.¹³ The Dons lost 30-14. The following week, over 69,000 attended the Rams’ home opener against the Chicago Cardinals. In 1948, the Dons outdrew every NFL team, including the Rams. Only their fellow AAFC squad, the Cleveland Browns, had higher attendance.

Our Favorite Stuff

Los Angeles Dons Football Gear

When it comes to Replica jerseys, we turn to our friends at Royal Retros, who put extraordinary detail into their fully customizable pro football jerseys, including the Los Angeles Dons of the All-America Football Conference.

Free Customization Included
Any name and number
Heavyweight sewn tackle twill
100% polyester

Honor the rich history of pro football in Los Angeles in one of these great jerseys or tees from Royal Retros today!

In 1949, however, things went south for the Dons. They dropped to 4-8 in the AAFC standings, good for sixth of the seven remaining teams. The Rams, on the other hand, finished with a record of 8-2-2, captured first place in the NFL West and went on to face the Philadelphia Eagles in the championship game. Though they lost that contest, it was clear which team was favored by Angelinos as the Rams drew twice as many fans to the Coliseum as their AAFC rivals.

The end of the Dons

At the end of the 1949 season, the NFL absorbed three AAFC clubs, the Cleveland Browns, San Francisco 49ers, and the Baltimore Colts. The Dons roster was folded into the Rams, and while the former AAFC team’s majority owner Ben Lindheimer was invited to take a stake in the NFL club, he declined due to health reasons.

Rams owner Dan Reeves and Dons partner Don Ameche were proven right, of course, as Los Angeles went on to become one of the country’s top sports markets. Today, the greater Los Angeles area boasts two pro teams in each of the five major sports leagues, including two football teams.

Oddly, the city was without pro football for 20 years. The city had become a two-football team town again in 1982 with the relocation of the Oakland Raiders. It was a three-team town when the Los Angeles Express of the original United States Football League (USFL) set up shop in the Coliseum for three years starting in 1983. The city, though, lost both the Raiders and Rams in 1995. The Raiders moved back to Oakland, while the Rams headed to St. Louis. The latter returned in 2016 and were joined by the former San Diego Chargers in 2018, making L.A., once again, a two-football team town.

Like the Rams and Dons of the late ‘40s, the Rams and Chargers share a stadium, though it is state-of-the-art SoFi Stadium and not the historic Coliseum they call home. The Chargers, of course, previously spent one season in Los Angeles in 1960, before moving to San Diego for the second season of the (fourth) American Football League.

Additional source: The League That Didn’t Exist, Gary Webster, McFarland & Company, 2019.

Links

All-America Football Conference Programs

Los Angeles Dons (1946-1949)

Tombstone

Stadium

Branding