49 Fun Facts About Detroit Lions

The Lions franchise began in which Ohio town, as the Spartans?

Portsmouth fielded the Spartans, who in 1932 beat the reigning champions 19-0 with the same eleven men playing all 60 minutes, because their coach refused to make a single substitution.

The team was renamed the Lions in 1934 as a nod to which other Detroit club?

The Tigers were the tie-in, and a team spokesman added that the lion is monarch of the jungle and the club hoped to be monarch of the league.

The 1932 Spartans–Bears playoff moved indoors to Chicago Stadium, onto dirt left behind by which event?

A circus had just left, elephants and all, so the teams played on its dirt, and the makeshift rules worked well enough that the NFL adopted hash marks the next season.

George A. Richards owned which kind of business when he bought the Spartans and moved them to Detroit in 1934?

A radio station, Detroit's WJR, was his, and he used his broadcasting ties to put the team's first Thanksgiving game on national radio that same year.

Lions stars Lem Barney and Mel Farr sang background vocals on which Marvin Gaye classic?

What's Going On features both Lions, and Gaye then trained for a Lions tryout of his own, saying he would rather score one touchdown than earn another gold record.

On Thanksgiving 1962, the Lions sacked the quarterback 11 times to beat which unbeaten 10-0 team?

The Green Bay Packers had edged Detroit 9-7 earlier that season after a late interception, so the Lions treated the rematch as payback in what became known as the Thanksgiving Day Massacre.

The Lions' shade of blue is officially named after which place?

Honolulu blue was, by team lore, the first owner's idea after a trip to Hawaii, where he admired the colour of the Pacific waves.

The Lions last won an NFL title under which US president?

Eisenhower was in office in December 1957, when Detroit won it behind a quarterback who had taken over only weeks earlier, after the starter broke his ankle.

Which quarterback led the Lions to back-to-back NFL titles in 1952 and 1953?

Bobby Layne won the second of them by driving the Lions 80 yards in the final minutes for a 17-16 win, and a teammate said he never lost a game, time just ran out on him.

By legend, what did the Lions' star quarterback vow when traded to Pittsburgh in 1958?

They wouldn't win for 50 years is the line of legend, yet it never reached print at the time, and a Detroit News columnist who covered those teams doubts it was ever said.

As of 2026, the Lions are the only NFC team never to have done what?

Appeared in a Super Bowl is the gap, even though the game has twice been staged in the Lions' own home stadiums, in 1982 and 2006.

Who took over as the Lions' principal owner in 2020?

Sheila Ford Hamp succeeded her mother, Martha, that June, and within seven months she had hired general manager Brad Holmes and head coach Dan Campbell to rebuild the team.

Which Lions receiver died of a heart attack on the field during a 1971 game?

Chuck Hughes had run a route on a play that went elsewhere and fell untouched; the final minute was played out in near silence, and the Lions later retired his number 85.

The Lions played their home games from 1975 to 2001 in which suburban stadium?

The Pontiac Silverdome cost $55.7 million to build, yet after the Lions left, the city auctioned it off in 2009 for $583,000, about one per cent of that.

Which team won its first NFL title at the Lions' home stadium in January 1982, beating the Bengals?

San Francisco 49ers coach Bill Walsh and quarterback Joe Montana sat stuck on a bus half a mile from the stadium, held up by the vice president's motorcade, then won 26-21.

The 1991 Lions won their first playoff game since 1957 by beating which team 38-6?

The Dallas Cowboys met a team that had rallied around guard Mike Utley, who gave a thumbs-up from the stretcher after being paralysed that November; Detroit did not lose again until the NFC title game.

The Lions' third overall pick in 1989, a Heisman-winning running back, came from which college?

Oklahoma State first used him as Thurman Thomas's backup and kick returner, so his record 2,628-yard Heisman season in 1988 was his only year as the starter.

How did the Lions' star running back announce his retirement in July 1999?

By fax to his hometown newspaper, the Wichita Eagle, on the eve of training camp; he quit at 31 within reach of the career rushing record, and the Lions made him repay part of his signing bonus.

Which quarterback shared the 1997 NFL MVP award with the Lions' star running back?

Brett Favre shared it with the back, who topped 100 yards in a record 14 straight games that year, yet played only one more season before walking away at 31.

The Lions' 2008 team was the first in NFL history to finish with what record?

0-16 followed a perfect 4-0 preseason; the general manager was fired in September, and the head coach went once the season ended.

Which Lions quarterback ran out of the back of his own end zone for a safety against Minnesota in 2008?

Dan Orlovsky drifted out under pressure in the first quarter, and those two points decided it: Minnesota won 12-10 on a field goal in the final seconds.

Calvin Johnson's 1,964 receiving yards in 2012 broke whose single-season record?

Jerry Rice's 1,848 had stood for 17 years, yet the record season brought only five touchdowns, on a team that lost its last eight games.

Who gave Calvin Johnson the nickname "Megatron"?

Teammate Roy Williams coined it in 2007, struck by the rookie's huge hands; a year later he tried a new name, 'Bolt', after the sprinter, but the first one stuck.

The 2010 'Calvin Johnson rule' on catches came from a season opener against which team?

Chicago Bears fans watched him come down with the go-ahead pass with 31 seconds left, but he let the ball go as he rose, the score was wiped out, and Detroit lost 19-14.

Matthew Stafford, the Lions' first overall pick in 2009, came from which college?

Georgia's quarterback threw for 5,038 yards in 2011, his first full season as a healthy starter, and carried Detroit to its first playoff berth in 12 years.

In 2021 the Lions traded Matthew Stafford and got which quarterback back along with draft picks?

Jared Goff came with two first-round picks and a third-rounder, and three years later he beat Stafford's new team for Detroit's first playoff win in 32 years.

What did Dan Campbell promise to do to opponents at his introductory press conference in January 2021?

Bite a kneecap off was his picture of a team that gets knocked down, like its city, and takes a piece of you on the way back up; he had been a Lions tight end himself.

The Lions' last division title before 2023 came in 1993, in which division?

NFC Central was the name until the 2002 realignment, so 2023 brought Detroit's first NFC North crown, won with a quarterback who had not been born in 1993.

The Lions' first playoff win since 1991 came in January 2024, 24-23, over which team?

Los Angeles Rams arrived with Matthew Stafford, Detroit's own quarterback for 12 seasons, and lost by a point; the Lions then beat Tampa Bay before falling in the NFC title game.

The Lions led the 2023 NFC title game 24-7, then lost after twice declining what?

Field goal attempts were on offer on two fourth downs in the second half; Detroit went for it both times, failed both, and lost 34-31.

What was the Lions' record in 2024, the best in franchise history?

15-2 was sealed in a final-night showdown with a 14-2 Minnesota team for the top seed; Detroit swept its division and led the league with 564 points.

The top-seeded 2024 Lions were upset 45-31 in the divisional round by which team?

Washington Commanders, a sixth seed, scored 28 points in the second quarter alone; within days both Detroit coordinators had left for head-coaching jobs.

Which Lions running back scored a franchise-record 20 touchdowns in 2024?

Jahmyr Gibbs scored four of them in the final-night win that clinched the top seed, passing the 17 Barry Sanders set in 1991 and Jamaal Williams matched in 2022.

Against Seattle in 2024, the Lions' quarterback did what for the first time in NFL history?

Completed all 18 of his passes, for 292 yards and two scores, the most attempts ever in a game without an incompletion; he also caught a touchdown pass himself.

The father of Lions receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown was a champion in which sport?

Bodybuilding made John Brown a two-time Mr. Universe; he named his son for the Egyptian sun god, and Detroit found him in the fourth round of the 2021 draft.

Aidan Hutchinson, the Lions' second overall pick in 2022, played his college football where?

Michigan kept the Dearborn high schooler in state; he set a school record with 14 sacks in 2021 and finished second in the Heisman vote, the only defender among four finalists.

Ford Field, opened in 2002, incorporates which historic downtown building into its structure?

A 1920s Hudson's warehouse forms the whole southern sideline, so most of the suites sit inside the old department-store building rather than in the bowl.

Which two teams met in the February 2006 championship game hosted at Ford Field?

Steelers and Seahawks met, Pittsburgh winning 21-10; its running back Jerome Bettis, a Detroit native, was sent out ahead of his team and retired after the game.

What is the name of the Lions' official costumed mascot at Ford Field?

Roary works the home sidelines and runs a kids' Cub Club; the team has since added mascot friends abroad, among them Leo Löwe, its official mascot for Germany.

After their record-setting 2024, how did the 2025 Lions finish?

9-8 and out of the playoffs came after a 7-4 start: they won two of their last six and were eliminated on Christmas Day, giving up six turnovers after eight all season.

The Lions' first NFL championship, in 1935, was a 26-7 win over which team?

New York Giants fell 13-0 behind on Dutch Clark's 40-yard run and lost 26-7; the last touchdown came from Buddy Parker, who later coached Detroit to two more titles.

Which coach swapped the Lions' blue and silver in 1948 for his old college team's colours?

Bo McMillin dressed Detroit in scarlet to echo his Indiana teams; the side went 2-10 that first season, and the new look did not outlast his three years in charge.

By one original Lion's own account, who picked the team's blue and silver colours in 1934?

Glenn Presnell and his wife were shown a table of sample uniforms the day he signed and fell for the blue and silver; he told the story as the last survivor of that first team.

In 2017 the Lions removed which colour entirely from their team identity?

Black arrived as trim in 2003, reportedly at the urging of a general manager who had played for the Raiders, and came back in 2024 as the 'Motor City Muscle' alternate.

What do the initials 'WCF' on the Lions' uniform commemorate?

A late owner, William Clay Ford, died in 2014; his initials went from a chest patch to the sleeve in 2017, then to a permanent helmet sticker.

Which network agreed in 1934 to carry the Lions' Thanksgiving game live on all its stations?

NBC put that first holiday game on the air nationwide; Detroit lost 19-16 to the defending champions before 26,000, yet the date stuck and has been the Lions' ever since, wartime aside.

Why did the Lions retire No. 93 for the 2009 season only?

Corey Smith was lost at sea when a 21-foot fishing boat capsized off Florida's Gulf Coast; one of the four men aboard was found clinging to the hull, and Detroit set 93 aside for a year.

Which team did the Lions face in four NFL Championship Games during the 1950s?

Cleveland Browns lost to Detroit in the 1952 and 1953 title games, took the 1954 rematch, then were beaten by 45 points in 1957.

In 2016 the Lions became one of the last NFL teams to add what to their game days?

Official cheerleaders had last worked Lions games in the 1970s; an unofficial squad had been performing outside Ford Field, and the move left only six teams without any.