Established: 1929
Home Field: Ford Field – Detroit, Michigan
Owner(s): William Clay Ford, Sr.
General Manager: Martin Mayhew
Head Coach: Jim Schwartz

The Lions were established in 1929 in Ohio as the Portsmouth Spartans. They formally joined the NFL in 1930, but could not remain in Portsmouth due to financial issues. In 1934, the team moved to Detroit and changed their name to the Lions as a nod to the Detroit Tigers baseball team. They currently play in the NFC North.

The team won its first NFL Championship in 1935, just a year after relocating. However, the success didn’t last. The team experienced an extreme low all throughout the 1940s. They only scored 5 touchdowns in the entire 1942 season and never scored more than seven points in a single game. There was a peak in 1944 and 45 when the team posted winning seasons, but they fell again in 1946. From then until the end of the decade, the Lions won a total of 10 games.

Despite their terrible performance all through the 1940s, the Lions achieved their greatest success throughout the 50s. Led by famed QB Bobby Layne, the team won League Championships in 1952, 1953, and 1957. However, in 1958, Layne was plagued by injury. Team owners thought his career was over and wanted to get what they could out of him so they traded him to Pittsburgh. It is rumored that Layne, upset by the trade, proclaimed that the Lions “would not win for 50 years.” Since, the Lions have not won another championship and have only achieved one playoff win. Many attribute this 49-year dry spell to the Curse of Bobby Layne.

The team saw a resurgence in the 1990s with trips to the playoffs in 1991, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1997, and 1999. Though they dropped back to the bottom in the 2000s and recorded a historic 0-16 season in 2008.

Championships

League Championships
NFL: 1935, 1952, 1953, 957

Conference Championships
NFL National: 1952
NFL Western: 1953, 1954, 1957

Division Championships
NFL West: 1935
NFC Central: 1983, 1991, 1993

Lions Trivia

• In 1970, Marvin Gaye tried out for the Detroit Lions.
• The Lions’ fight song is the “Gridiron Heroes”.
• Sports Journalist George Plimpton joined the Lions training camp in the mid 1960s, acting as a player. He put his experience into the Paper Lion, which later became a movie.