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My mom told me stories about seeing the Seahawks play at Burdines Stadium the first year of their existence.
 
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Dingaan is part right, and part wrong. Yes, the colors were orange green and white. And no, they did not become today's Cleveland Browns. The Seahawks essentially became the first iteration of the Baltimore Colts, who folded in 1950. The second iteration of the Colts, founded three years later, lasted in Baltimore through 1983 and moved to Indianapolis. There was never any lineage that I can discover between the old Miami Seahawks and the Cleveland Browns, either the first or second iteration. The old Miami Seahawks only played one season, pretty much a disaster of a season, and were reorganized as the original (and first iteration) of the Baltimore Colts. That Colts team was taken into the NFL as part of the All American Football Conference (AAFC) merger with the NFL, along with the Cleveland Browns and the San Francisco 49ers. After one year in the NFL, 1950, the Baltimore franchise folded.

From what I know about the history, and what i can read now, there is no connection between the first NFL iteration of the Cleveland Browns (who became the Baltimore Ravens) or the second and current iteration of the Browns, and the old Miami Seahawks.

A few years after the original Colts franchise folded in 1950, another franchise was founded. This was the franchise that eventually ended up in Indianapolis. The real connection between the first and second versions of the Colts was the Colts Band. The band stayed in existence, and became the band for the next iteration, the one that so malevolently skipped town under cover of darkness in 1984. (This second iteration of the Colts existed from 1953 through 1983, but won championships with the likes of Raymond Berry, Lenny Moore, Artie Donovan, Johnny Unitas and some others in the late '50's). The second iteration of the Colts was the successor to the first iteration of the Dallas Texans who were moved to Baltimore 1953. (The second iteration of the Dallas Texans, not the Houston Texans, was a founding franchise in the old American Football League and eventually became the Kansas City Chiefs). Another connection between the original Colts and the second iteration of the Colts was Baltimore legend, lineman Artie Donovan, who played with the first Colts, then the New York Yanks, then the Dallas Texans, and again for many years with the Colts.

The old Colts Band is, from what I have read, now the Band of the Ravens (ironically, the old Browns). In the mid '80's, after the Colts had fled, I used to tease a guy I knew who was from Baltimore. He was a musician and member of the Colts band. He said that when Irsay packed up overnight, the Colts band uniforms were in the dry cleaners, so Irsay's movers missed them. The band members went and picked up the uniforms and continued the band. So, for a number of years, the Colts Band was a band without a team. From what I have read, the Band later became the Ravens Band. The Band was always very popular, and still played at events while there was no team in Baltimore in the 1980's. I used to tease this guy for having a football band but no team. (That guy I knew from the Colts band also worked at the IRS HQ in DC and he was the conductor of the IRS band. Now, if you ever want to lose your lunch, go see the IRS band. Nothing is more incongruous than the IRS having a band. A disaster.)

Anyway, back to the topic at hand, the old Seahawks had nothing to do with the second iteration of the Colts, the one that ended up in Indianapolis. They became, or at least their remains, the assets, became, the first version of the Colts, a version that lasted through 1950. (The Seahawks had their only season in 1946).

By the way, before Cleveland had its Browns, it had its Rams, that left the city for L.A. the year that the Browns were formed.

Here's the Miami Seahawks logo:

150px-Miami_Seahawks_logo.webp
 
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And no, it is not true, that the late avant garde Baltimore transvestite actor Divine tried out for the Colts. Just wanted to quash that rumor before I started it.
 
callmetrip said:
Whenever I hear old Miami stories I wonder how many people there were willing to speak out against Jim Crow.
Click to expand...

Probably not many. Most people accepted it as normal. I remember going over to a water fountain in the old A&P grocery store that was marked "colored" and turning it on to see what color it was. My mother yeled at me to get away from there. On the public buses, I was ****ed because I couldn't sit in the back of the bus. That's from a kid's point of view. I can remember many many instances of somewhat "benign" racism (yeah, I realize that in 2015 that's hard to understand) that made me cringe by the time I was 16.
 
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