The Cincinnati Bengals are a Professional Football team based in Cincinnati, Ohio. They are currently members of the North Division of the American Football Conference (AFC) in the National Football League (NFL). Their first two seasons, 1968 and 1969, were as an American Football League franchise. They joined the NFL as part of the 1970 AFL-NFL Merger, which had actually been agreed to in 1966. They have never won a Super Bowl.
The Bengals currently conduct summer training camp at Georgetown College in Georgetown, Kentucky and play home games at Paul Brown Stadium in Downtown Cincinnati.
CINCINNATI PRO FOOTBALL HISTORY
In 1937, a team known as the Cincinnati Bengals was formed as a member of the American Football League. The 1937 Bengals finished with a 2-4-2 record in their first year, but the AFL folded after the season. The Bengals continued as an independent team in 1938, and in 1939 joined a new AFL, finishing in second place with a 6-2 record. But again, the league folded after the season.
Once again in 1940, another new AFL emerged, and again the Bengals joined. But that AFL suffered the fate of the two AFLs before it, folding after the 1941 season as the United States entered World World II, and the Bengals folded along with it.
Pro football returned to Cincinnati 26 years later in 1967 when Paul Brown headed an ownership group that landed an expansion franchise in the modern-era American Football League. Brown, a Pro Football Hall of Famer who founded and coached the Cleveland Browns from 1946-62, picked the name Bengals for the new team "to give it a link with past professional football in Cincinnati."
[ Back To Top ]
Franchise history
In 1966, Paul Brown wanted to become involved in professional football again. James A. Rhodes, then the governor of Ohio, convinced Brown that Ohio needed a second team. Cincinnati was deemed the logical choice, in essence, splitting the state.
Brown named the team the Bengals in order "to give it a link with past professional football in Cincinnati." Another Bengals team existed in the city and played in a three previous American Football Leagues from 1937 to 1942. The city's renowned zoo was also home to a rare white Bengal Tiger. However, possibly as an insult to Art Modell, Paul Brown chose the exact shade of orange used by his former team. He added black as the secondary color. Brown chose a very simple logo: the word "BENGALS" in black lettering. Ironically, one of the potential helmet designs Brown rejected was a striped motif that was similar to the helmets adopted by the team in 1981 and which is still in use to this day; however, that design featured orange stripes on a black helmet which were more uniform in width.
However, Brown was not a supporter of the rival American Football League, stating that "I didn't pay ten million dollars to be in the AFL.". He only acquiesced to joining the AFL when he was guaranteed that the team would become an NFL franchise after the impending merger of the two leagues.
There was also a complication: Major League Baseball's Cincinnati Reds were in need of a facility to replace the antiquated, obsolete Crosley Field, which they had used since 1912. Parking nightmares had plagued the city as far back as the 1950s, the little park lacked modern amenities, and New York City, which in 1957 had lost both its National League teams (the Dodgers and the Giants) to Los Angeles and San Francisco, respectively, was actively courting Reds owner Powel Crosley. However, Crosley was adamant that the Reds remain in Cincinnati and tolerated worsening problems with the Crosley Field location, which were exacerbated by the Millcreek Expressway (I-75) project that ran alongside the park.
With assistance from Ohio governor James A. Rhodes, Hamilton County and the Cincinnati city council agreed to build a single multi-purpose facility on the dilapidated riverfront section of the city. The new facility had to be ready by the opening of the 1970 NFL season and was officially named Riverfront Stadium, which was its working title.
With the completion of the merger in 1970, the Cleveland Browns were moved to the AFL-based American Football Conference and placed in the AFC Central, the same division as the Bengals. An instant rivalry was born, fueled initially by Paul Brown's rivalry with Art Modell.
For their inaugural season, the Bengals played at Nippert Stadium which is the current home of the University of Cincinnati Bearcats. The team finished its first season with a 3–11 record, although one bright spot was running back Paul Robinson. Robinson rushed for 1,023 yards and was named the AFL Rookie of the Year.
Founder Paul Brown coached the team for its first eight seasons. One of Brown’s college draft strategies was to draft players with above-average intelligence. Punter/wide receiver Pat McInally attended Harvard University and linebacker Reggie Williams attended Dartmouth College and served on Cincinnati city council while on the Bengals’ roster. Because of this policy, many former players were highly articulate and went on to have successful careers in commentary and broadcasting as well as the arts. In addition, Brown had a knack for locating and recognizing pro football talent in unusual places.
In the '70s the Bengals moved to play at Riverfront Stadium, a home they shared with the Cincinnati Reds until the team moved to Paul Brown Stadium in 2000. The team would reach the playoffs three times during that decade, but could not win any of those postseason games. In 1975, the team posted an 11-3 record, giving them what is to this day the highest winning percentage (.786) in franchise history. But it only earned them a Wild Card spot in the playoffs, behind the 12–2 Pittsburgh Steelers, who went on to win the Super Bowl, and Bengals lost to the Oakland Raiders 31–28 in the divisional playoffs.
The Bengals would reach the Super Bowl twice during the 1980s, but lost both times to the San Francisco 49ers. Then, after appearing in the playoffs in 1990, Paul Brown died. He had already transferred control to his son, Mike Brown, but was reported to still influence the daily operations of the team. The Bengals' fortunes changed for the worse as the team would post 14 consecutive non-winning seasons. The Bengals began to emerge from that dismal period into a new era of increased consistency after hiring Marvin Lewis as head coach in 2003. Carson Palmer, the future star quarterback, was drafted in 2003 but did not play a snap that whole season, as Jon Kitna had a comeback year (voted NFL Comeback Player of the Year). Despite Kitna's success, Carson was promoted to starting quarterback the following season. Under Carson, the team advanced to the playoffs for the first time since 1990 in the 2005 season, which marked the first time the team had a winning percentage above .500 since 1990.
Meanwhile, Paul Brown Stadium was built for the 2000 season using private and public money. In tribute to his father, Mike Brown refused corporate offers to have the stadium renamed for their company which became a trend in the NFL and other sports teams around that time.
Under the ownership of Mike Brown, the Bengals remain one of five NFL teams without a General Manager – the other four being the Dallas Cowboys (with owner Jerry Jones legally serving as his own GM), the New England Patriots, the Oakland Raiders (with owner Al Davis in a similar capacity to Jones) and the Washington Redskins (with Daniel Snyder in a similar role to Mike Brown and serving as the de facto GM without the title).
[ Back To Top ]