Love them or hate them, the Detroit Lions are the city’s only professional football franchise. Currently, the team resides just a luxury sedan or limousine at Ford Field, located in downtown Detroit. Here are some historical highlights of the team:

The Lions were not Detroit’s first professional football team. In 1920, the Detroit Heralds were charter members of the American Professional Football Association, but the franchise closed after two years. The Detroit Panthers were then formed in 1925, but that team also folded after two seasons. In 1928, the Detroit Wolverines were formed, but failed after only one year. Finally, Detroit welcomed the Lions in 1934. The team originated in Ohio and was purchased for $7,952.08 by a group headed by Detroit radio executive George A. Richards, later moving to Motown.

The Lions played at the University of Detroit Stadium before an average crowd of 16,000 people. The new Detroit Lions won the NFL Championship in just their second year in 1935. Under coach “Potsy” Clark and such stars as Hall of Famer “Dutch” Clark, Ernie Caddel, George Christensen, “Ace Gutowski,
Glenn Presnell and “Ox” Emerson, the early Lions established professional football in Detroit.

In 1940, Fred Mandel of Chicago purchased the club. The team was sold eight years later to a group of local businessmen under the leadership of Edwin J. Anderson. The Detroit syndicate controlled the club until 1964, when William Clay Ford became sole owner for a price of $4.5 million…

The Lions dominated in the 1950s with four division titles and three league championships. Under head coach Buddy Parker, the team won back-to-back world crowns in 1952-53, defeating Cleveland both times. The Detroit-Cleveland battles of the time were classic matchups between two giants of the burgeoning NFL.

In 1967, Schmidt began the first of six seasons as the Lions’ head coach. His 1970 team made the playoffs (first postseason trip since 1957) but lost in the first round to Dallas by a baseball-like score of 5-0.

During the 1974 season, the Lions moved to a new domed stadium, the Silverdome, in Pontiac, Michigan, a suburb 30 miles north of Detroit. It remains the largest air-supported domed structure in the world and seats more than 80,000 spectators under a fiberglass roof.

Monte Clark took control of all football operations as head coach in 1978. Under Clark, the Lions narrowly missed out on playoff spots in 1980-81, before qualifying in 1982, the Lions’ first appearance. Lions in the playoffs since 1970.
Darryl Rogers replaced Clark in 1985, but was replaced on an interim basis by his defensive coordinator, Wayne Fontes, in November 1988, after Rogers’ teams posted a combined 18-40 record. Fontes was officially named the seventeenth head coach of the Detroit Lions on December 22, 1988.

The Lions “Restored the Roar” in 1991, winning a franchise record 12 regular season games. Riding a tide of emotion after shooting guard Mike Utley’s crippling neck injury, Detroit defeated Dallas, 38-6, in the Lions’ Silverdome opener of the playoffs. The victory gave the Lions a spot in the NFC Championship Game, where they were defeated by the Super Bowl champion Washington Redskins.

The Lions went 10-6 in 1993 en route to capturing the NFC Central Division title and earned a wild-card bid for the playoffs in 1994. The 1995 Lions featured the highest-rated offense in the NFL and won their last seven games to win a third straight game. playoff spot.

In 1996, running back Barry Sanders captured his third NFL rushing title with a dramatic 175-yard blast on the final Monday night of the season in San Francisco.

Bobby Ross was named the 18th head coach in team history on January 13, 1997, and led the club back to the playoffs in his inaugural year in charge with a 9–7 record. That season, Sanders continued his storybook career by becoming the third player in league history to record 2,000 rushing yards in a single season (2,053) and posted an NFL record 14 consecutive 100-yard outings. to end the season.

After nine games into the 2002 season and compiling a 5-4 record, Bobby Ross abruptly resigned as head coach on November 6 and was immediately replaced by Gary Moeller. Moeller guided the team to a 4-3 record in the last seven games, but narrowly missed the playoffs with a loss to the Chicago Bears in the season finale. Following the season, William Clay Ford named Matt Millen president and CEO and assumed control of the team’s operations. On January 25, 2001, Gary Moeller was replaced as head coach by former San Francisco 49ers offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg.

In 2002, Detroit opened Ford Field, its $500 million downtown stadium. Following the worst two consecutive seasons in Lions history, team management fired Marty Mornhinweg, who went 5-27 over the two years. The Lions then hired former San Francisco 49ers head coach and Michigan native Steve Mariucci as their 22nd head coach.

During his third season in Detroit, Mariucci and his Lions maintained a 4-7 record after their Thanksgiving Day loss against Atlanta. Millen later released Mariucci and named defensive coordinator Dick Jauron as interim head coach. Detroit finished the season 5–11 and formed the defensive line for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers/Assistant Head Coach Rod Marinelli was named the 24th Lions coach in franchise history on January 19, 2006.