In many cases, as with baseball's American League, football's All-America Football Conference (AAFC) and hockey's Western Hockey League (WHL) and World Hockey Association WHAA), the impetus for forming a second major league was to bring the sport into regions lacking professional options.
The Browns have won four NFL championships (1950, 1954 55, 1964) and four All-America Football Conference (AAFC) championships (1946 49).
October 5, 1921 Columbus, Ohio November 27, 2007 Columbus, Ohio Bill Willis William Karnet Williss), (born Oct. 5, 1921, Columbus, Ohio died Nov. 27, 2007, Columbus) American football player who became one of the first African American players in professional football's modern era when he joined (1946) the Cleveland Browns of the newly formed All-America Football Conference (AAFC).
His coach there was Paul Brown, who later was named the first coach of the Cleveland Browns in the All-America Football Conference (AAFC).
The Browns were originally members of the AAFC and won the league title in each of the four years of the AAFC's existence.
The 49ers were one of three AAFC teams to survive merger with the NFL.
The AAFC and its push into the western United States heavily influenced the NFL's decision to lower its color barrier in 1946, as the Los Angeles Coliseum refused to house the Rams unless the club integrated.
In 1945, the AAFC took advantage of the new viability of air travel to place professional football's first teams in Florida (the Miami Seahawks) and California (the San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Dons).
The AAFC itself, meanwhile, was integrated from the start, as its Cleveland Browns hired professional football's first black players in over a decade in running back Marion Motley and defensive lineman Bill Willis.
The Browns were integrated into the NFL along with two other former AAFC teams in 1950, and despite the prevailing expectations they continued to have success in the new league.
