1946 AAFC season

In addition to his role shattering the color barrier, powerful Cleveland fullback and linebacker Marion Motley was the AAFC's first black star.

The 1946 regular season of the All-America Football Conference kicked off the night of Friday, September 6 at Cleveland's Municipal Stadium, where the Cleveland Browns — a team which featured two African-American players, Marion Motley and Bill Willis — hosted the visiting Miami Seahawks.[9] The game, attended by a massive crowd of 60,135, was the largest ever to see a regularly scheduled professional football game.[9] The result was never in doubt, as the Paul Brown-coached Browns, led by quarter back Otto Graham annihilated the hapless Seahawks by a score of 44-0.[9]

The week continued with two games on Sunday, September 9, with the San Francisco 49ers giving up an early lead and falling to the visiting New York Yankees, 21-7, in front of about 35,000 people at Kezar Stadium.[9] In game two, single wing half back Glenn Dobbs passed for one touchdown and lateraled for another midway through a 58-yard scoring run as the visiting Brooklyn Dodgers topped the Buffalo Bisons, 27-14, in front of Commissioner Jim Crowley and a crowd of 25,489 at Buffalo's Civic Stadium.[9] Chicago and Los Angeles had first week byes.[9]

A four-game slate began with two Friday night tilts on September 13, with the Cleveland Browns giving up their first points of the season in the fourth quarter of a 20-6 drubbing of the Chicago Rockets in front of 51,962 fans at Chicago's Soldier Field.[10] Scoring was opened with a 20-yard run by the Brown's powerful running back Marion Motley, with Lou Groza adding two field goals and two PATs, running his season scoring total to 22 points.[10] Game two was a lightly attended contest in the massive Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, in which the Los Angeles Dons managed to hold on for a 20-14 win over the visiting Brooklyn Dodgers in front of an announced attendance of 19,500.[10]

On Sunday, 40,606 fans turned out to Yankee Stadium to watch their New York Yankees win a sloppy, turnover-plagued contest over the visiting Buffalo Bisons.[10] A Yankee fumble in the red zone was run back 95 yards for a touchdown by Buffalo's Al Vandeweghe.[10] Despite substantially outgaining Buffalo over the course of the game, it took two touchdowns in the final quarter for the Yankees to achieve a come-from-behind win.[10] In the second Sunday game, Frankie Albert and the San Francisco 49ers made the Miami Seahawks the league's first 0-2 team with a 21-14 victory in front of a reported 25,000 people at Kezar Stadium.[10]

Last minute heroics by Chicago halfback Bill Boedeker enabled the Rockets to escape with a tie in AAFC Week 3.

The league once again split its action between Friday and Sunday in week 3, with the Chicago Rockets salvaging a 17-17 tie with the Yankees thanks to a 36-yard touchdown pass from QB Walt Williams to halfback Bill Boedeker with just 55 seconds remaining.[11] In game 2, about 23,000 fans made their way to the LA Coliseum to see the Dons run their record to 2-0 in a 30-14 victory over the Miami Seahawks.[11] Despite the lopsided final score, the game was close at halftime, with Miami hitting the locker room holding a 14-10 lead.[11] Twenty unanswered points in the second half, with the Dons' Charlie O'Rourke finishing the game with three touchdown passes as part of his 9-17 throwing effort.[11]

On Sunday, September 22, the mighty Cleveland Browns went to Buffalo and took no prisoners in a 28-0 shutout that was virtually beyond doubt by the end of the first quarter.[11] Cleveland star Otto Graham threw for two more touchdowns, including a 33-yard strike to Marion Motley out of the backfield, as the Browns cruised to their third straight victory.[11] The Browns allowed just six points in their first three games, establishing themselves as the team to beat in the AAFC in 1946. In game 2, 35,000 people turned out at Kezar Stadium to watch Frankie Albert throw for two touchdowns and run for one more as part of a 32-13 disassembling of the visiting Brooklyn Dodgers.[11] The Niners moved their season record to 2-1.

The AAFC held its first Wednesday night contest to kick off week 4, drawing 20,768 fans to Soldier Field to witness an offensive shootout, won by the home team Chicago Rockets over the visiting Buffalo Bisons, 38-35.[12] A fourth quarter rally with 17 unanswered point was needed for the Rockets to escape with the narrow win, won with a walk-off chip-shot field goal by Steve Nemeth.[12] The game was marked by the acrimonious departure of head coach Dick Hanley, who watched the game from the stands after leaving the team owing to personal disagreements with owner John L. Keeshin.[12]

With Brooklyn and Miami on the bye, both the Rockets and the Bisons were needed to play again on Sunday, Sept. 29, just four days later. The previously 0-4 Bisons managed a tie with the visiting Los Angeles Dons, 21-21, while the Rockets played another home game, winning twice in a single week with a 24-7 dispatching of the 49ers.[12] In the final game of the week, the New York Yankees more than doubled the season points allowed total of the Cleveland Browns, scoring a first quarter touchdown en route to a 24-7 loss.[12] The Browns went to 4-0 on the year in the victory.

The fifth week of the AAFC's inaugural season opened with a pair of Friday night games. In the first, the visiting New York Yankees began to exert Eastern Division dominance with a 21–13 victory over the Buffalo Bisons in front of more than 17,000 fans.[13] Yankee rookie Spec Sanders, league leader in total offense, led the team to victory with a pair of fourth quarter scores — a touchdown pass and a 76-yard punt return to the house.[13] In the second game, the Los Angeles Dons scored 21 unanswered points after halftime to notch a come-from-behind 21–9 victory over the Chicago Rockets at Soldier Field.[13]

Only one game took place on Sunday, October 6, in which the Cleveland Browns extended their unbeaten record to five games with an easy 26–7 victory over the Brooklyn Dodgers in front of 43,713 of the home faithful.[13] The league's first foray into football in the Deep South, a Tuesday tilt between the Seahawks and the visiting San Francisco 49ers was a debacle, with only 7,621 fans passing through the turnstiles to watch the dismantling of the home team by a score of 34–7.[13]

W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, Pct. = Winning Percentage
PF = Points Scored For, PA = Point Scored Against