50 Fun Facts About Los Angeles Rams

In which city was the Rams franchise founded in 1936?

Cleveland saw the Rams win the 1945 NFL title in what proved to be their last game there. Owner Dan Reeves moved the champions to Los Angeles rather than fight a new rival-league team for fans.

Which running back, acquired from Indianapolis in 1999, was named NFL MVP as a Ram in 2000?

Marshall Faulk cost the Rams only second- and fifth-round draft picks. In his first season with them he became just the second player to gain 1,000 yards both rushing and receiving.

The Rams won the 1945 NFL title by a safety after which Washington quarterback's pass hit his own goalpost?

Sammy Baugh threw from his own end zone and the ball struck the goalpost, a safety under the rules of the day. Those two points decided a 15–14 game, and the rule was changed the next season.

Which future Hall of Fame running back did the Rams draft in 1993, then trade away after three seasons?

Jerome Bettis was Rookie of the Year for the Rams, who later let him go for second- and fourth-round picks. Nicknamed The Bus, he became one of the NFL's all-time leading rushers with his next team.

Who was the first Black player the Rams signed in 1946, ending the NFL's colour bar?

Kenny Washington had starred at UCLA alongside Jackie Robinson, who broke baseball's colour line a year later. Woody Strode, another UCLA teammate, joined him on the Rams within weeks.

In 1948 the Rams became the first pro football team to put what on their helmets?

A logo: halfback Fred Gehrke, who had studied art in college, painted rams' horns on the team's helmets himself. Helmet emblems soon spread across the sport.

Which Rams quarterback threw for 554 yards in a 1951 game, an NFL record that still stood in 2025?

Norm Van Brocklin set the record against the New York Yanks while sharing the quarterback job. That December his 73-yard touchdown pass to Tom Fears beat the Browns for the NFL title.

What did the 1950 Rams become one of the first NFL teams to do with all their games?

Televise them: every Rams game, home and away, was shown on television in 1950. With home games free to watch, crowds at the stadium fell by nearly half that season.

What was the Rams' dominant defensive line of the 1960s nicknamed?

The Fearsome Foursome put Merlin Olsen and Rosey Grier at tackle with Deacon Jones and Lamar Lundy at end. For all their dominance, the Rams never got past the first playoff round in the 1960s.

Which Rams quarterback was the NFL MVP in 1969?

Roman Gabriel threw 24 touchdown passes against only seven interceptions as the Rams won their first 11 games. They then dropped their last three and lost a playoff game in Minnesota.

In 1972 a new owner bought the Rams and swapped the franchise the same day for which other NFL team?

The Baltimore Colts went to Robert Irsay in a swap of franchises with Carroll Rosenbloom, who took over the Rams the same day. Twelve years later Irsay moved the Colts to Indianapolis.

Which Rams defensive end played Super Bowl XIV on a broken leg?

Jack Youngblood fractured his left fibula in the first playoff game, had a plastic brace fitted and then played every defensive down of the NFC title game and the Super Bowl.

Which team beat the Rams 31–19 in Super Bowl XIV, their first Super Bowl?

The Pittsburgh Steelers trailed 19–17 entering the fourth quarter before two late touchdowns won them the game. The Rams had got there with only a 9–7 regular-season record.

Which owner took over the Rams when her husband Carroll Rosenbloom drowned in 1979?

Georgia Frontiere surprised fans who expected her stepson Steve Rosenbloom to run the team, and she fired him within four months. She owned the Rams until her death in 2008.

Which Ram set the NFL single-season rushing record with 2,105 yards in 1984?

Eric Dickerson broke O. J. Simpson's mark of 2,003 yards in only his second season. Three years later a contract dispute ended with the Rams trading him to Indianapolis.

To which city did the Rams move after the 1994 season?

St. Louis had lost its football Cardinals to Arizona a few years earlier. The move made the Rams the first NFL team to leave the West Coast, reversing decades of franchises heading west.

Which head coach, hired in 1997, won Super Bowl XXXIV and promptly retired?

Dick Vermeil had quit coaching in 1983 citing burnout and spent 14 years as a television analyst before the Rams lured him back. He later returned once more, with Kansas City.

Kurt Warner got the 1999 starting job only after which quarterback tore up his knee in preseason?

Trent Green had just signed as the Rams' prized new starter when a hit in a preseason game wrecked his knee. His little-known backup then threw 41 touchdown passes and was named league MVP.

What nickname did the Rams' record-setting 1999–2001 offence earn?

The Greatest Show on Turf turned a 4–12 team into 13–3 champions within a year, scoring 526 points in 1999.

Which Titans receiver did Mike Jones tackle a yard short to end Super Bowl XXXIV?

Kevin Dyson was stopped one yard from a tying touchdown as time ran out. Weeks earlier he had scored on the 'Music City Miracle', the last-second kick-return lateral that kept Tennessee in the playoffs.

The heavily favoured Rams lost Super Bowl XXXVI 20–17 to which team?

The New England Patriots were 14-point underdogs and won on Adam Vinatieri's field goal as time expired. They beat the Rams again, 13–3, in Super Bowl LIII.

Which minority owner exercised his right of first refusal in 2010 to buy the rest of the Rams?

Stan Kroenke used the clause on the last possible day, cutting out Shahid Khan, who had agreed to buy the team and later bought the Jacksonville Jaguars instead. Kroenke then took the Rams back to Los Angeles.

Where did the Rams play from 2016 to 2019 while SoFi Stadium was built?

The Memorial Coliseum had been the Rams' first Los Angeles home, from 1946 to 1979, and a 1957 game there against San Francisco drew 102,368 fans. The return was a stopgap until SoFi opened in 2020.

Which California quarterback did the Rams take first overall in 2016 in their first draft back in LA?

Jared Goff cost the Rams six draft picks across two years just to trade up to the top spot. In his third season he took them to a Super Bowl.

Whose mark as the youngest head coach in modern NFL history did Sean McVay break in 2017?

Lane Kiffin was 31 when the Raiders hired him in 2007, and McVay was 30 when the Rams hired him. Within two seasons McVay had his team in the Super Bowl.

Which Rams head coach was fired in December 2016 with the team at 4–9?

Jeff Fisher never managed a winning season in five years with the Rams. A year after he was fired, the team won 11 games and its division under a coach hired at 30.

The Rams beat which team 23–20 in Super Bowl LVI at their own SoFi Stadium?

The Cincinnati Bengals led 20–16 until a touchdown with 1:25 left. The Rams became the second team, after Tampa Bay a year earlier, to win a Super Bowl in its home stadium.

Who was MVP of Super Bowl LVI after converting a fourth down and scoring the winning touchdown?

Cooper Kupp had missed the Rams' previous Super Bowl, three years earlier, with a torn knee ligament. In 2021 he led the NFL in catches, receiving yards and touchdown catches.

The Rams' Super Bowl LVI MVP came to the team in 2017 as a third-round pick from which small school?

Eastern Washington plays in college football's second tier, where he set career records for receiving yards. Sixty-eight players were still drafted ahead of him.

Which star pass rusher did the Rams acquire midway through their 2021 title season?

Von Miller arrived at the trade deadline for second- and third-round picks. Three months later he had a second Super Bowl ring, six years after being MVP of Super Bowl 50 with the Broncos.

Which Ram was NFL Defensive Player of the Year in 2017, 2018 and 2020?

Aaron Donald lasted until the 13th pick of the 2014 draft, then made the Pro Bowl in every one of his first ten seasons.

Which fifth-round pick from BYU set NFL rookie records for receptions and receiving yards in 2023?

He had started his college career at Washington; he made the Pro Bowl and second-team All-Pro as a rookie.

Which NFL team shares SoFi Stadium with the Rams?

The Chargers first shared Los Angeles with the Rams in 1960, then left for San Diego after one season of meagre crowds. They returned in 2017 and moved into SoFi alongside the Rams in 2020.

The Rams' mascot, introduced in 2010, is called what?

Rampage got his name from a fan vote in 2010, when the team still played in the Midwest. He came west with the Rams six years later.

Why did the Rams sit out the 1943 season?

They resumed in 1944 and won the championship in 1945, their last year in their original city.

Which entertainer was a part-owner of the Rams until Dan Reeves bought out his partners in 1962?

Bob Hope had joined the partners who fought Reeves for years over running the team. In 1962 the NFL commissioner refereed a sealed-bid auction, and Reeves outbid them to win control.

Which Rams coach won the NFC West every year from 1973 to 1977?

Chuck Knox, nicknamed 'Ground Chuck' for his run-first offence, kept falling short in the playoffs and left for Buffalo. The Rams won two more division titles straight after him.

Which Rams receiver, nicknamed 'Crazylegs', gained 1,495 yards in the 1951 championship season?

Elroy Hirsch got the nickname from a running style in which his legs seemed to whirl in several directions at once. His 1951 yardage was a league record at the time.

Which Rams receiver caught the 73-yard winning touchdown in Super Bowl XXXIV?

Isaac Bruce scored with 1:54 left, moments after Tennessee had come all the way back from 16–0 down to tie the game.

Which offensive tackle did the Rams trade up to draft in 1997, later a Hall of Famer?

Orlando Pace was the first overall pick, taken a day after the Rams dealt with the Jets for the top spot. He anchored an offence that topped 500 points three seasons running.

Which Rams running back, the NFL's 2017 Offensive Player of the Year, was released in 2020 after knee trouble?

Todd Gurley became the NFL's highest-paid running back with a $60 million extension in July 2018. Arthritis in his left knee was reported the following spring, and the Rams released him in March 2020.

Which Rams head coach took medical leave in 2005 and, once cleared to return, was fired instead?

Mike Martz was being treated for a bacterial infection of the heart. During his leave a team executive even blocked him from phoning in a play call, the low point of a season-long feud with the front office.

In 2000 the Rams swapped royal blue and yellow for which darker colour scheme?

Navy blue and metallic gold arrived weeks after the Rams' first Super Bowl win and stayed for nearly two decades. The 2020 move into SoFi Stadium brought royal blue back.

Which Rams quarterback of the late 1980s led an offence with receivers Henry Ellard and Flipper Anderson?

Jim Everett was drafted third overall by Houston in 1986 but never signed there, so the Oilers traded his rights to the Rams. In 1989 his passes gave Flipper Anderson a record 336 receiving yards in one game.

Which Rams head coach of 1966–70 had five winning seasons but no playoff wins, then moved to Washington?

George Allen inherited a team with seven straight losing seasons and had it at 11–1–2 by his second year. He became known for the motto 'The future is now'.

Which coach, back on the sideline in 2018 after nine years in television, lost 33–13 to Sean McVay's Rams?

Jon Gruden had given McVay his first NFL job, at Tampa Bay in 2008. In his first game back with the Raiders, the Rams scored 23 unanswered points in the second half.

Which Rams quarterback was named NFL MVP for the 2025 season?

Matthew Stafford won it at 37, in his 17th NFL season, after leading the league in passing yards and touchdown passes for the first time in his career.

Which stadium was the Rams' home from 1980 to 1994?

Anaheim Stadium was a baseball park, home of the Angels since 1966. It had to be enclosed and enlarged to about 69,000 seats before the Rams could move in.

Which third-year quarterback led the Rams past Dallas and Tampa Bay to reach their first Super Bowl?

Vince Ferragamo got the job only when starter Pat Haden broke a finger in mid-season. A year after the Super Bowl he left for the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian league.

Which 2004 first-round pick from Oregon State became the Rams' career rushing leader in 2010?

Steven Jackson ran for at least 1,000 yards in eight consecutive seasons, yet the Rams never managed a winning record in his nine years with them.