67 Fun Facts About Cleveland

Legend says Cleveland dropped the first 'a' of 'Cleaveland' to fit the name where?

On a newspaper's front-page banner: the story credits the Cleveland Advertiser's first issue in 1831, yet some of the founder's own surveyors had already dropped the letter on their 1790s maps.

What did Moses Cleaveland do after founding his namesake settlement in 1796?

Went home for good: Cleaveland, sent by the Connecticut Land Company to survey its holdings, left that October and practised law in Connecticut until he died in 1806.

What is thought to have ignited the June 22, 1969 fire on the Cuyahoga River?

A spark from a passing rail car is blamed for lighting oily debris under two railroad trestles; the fire was out within half an hour, did about $50,000 of damage and made little news at first.

Time magazine's 1969 story on the burning Cuyahoga ran a photograph of what?

Time ran a dramatic photo of the much larger 1952 river fire, because the 1969 blaze was out before photographers arrived and no pictures of it are known to exist.

Which Cleveland brewery named its Burning River Pale Ale after the Cuyahoga's fires?

Great Lakes Brewing Company, which the Conway brothers opened in 1988 as Ohio's first craft brewery, also founded the Burning River Foundation to protect the region's fresh water.

Who was elected in 1967 as Cleveland's first Black mayor, among the first in any major US city?

Carl B. Stokes, who had narrowly lost the 1965 race, beat Seth Taft, grandson of President William Howard Taft, to become one of the first Black mayors elected in a major American city.

Which film star, raised in suburban Cleveland, put his name on a salad dressing?

Paul Newman: raised in Shaker Heights, he and writer A. E. Hotchner bottled dressing as gifts for friends, then founded Newman's Own in 1982 and gave away all its profits, more than half a billion dollars.

Which architect designed the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame building in Cleveland?

I. M. Pei, who admitted he knew little about rock music when he took the job, designed the glass pyramid and tower that opened in September 1995.

The Rock Hall's planned tower had to be made shorter because of its proximity to what?

Burke Lakefront Airport: when the museum moved to its harbour site, the planned glass tower was too tall to stand so near the runways, so a shorter tower and pyramid emerged.

Who led the ribbon-cutting alongside Little Richard at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 1995 dedication?

Yoko Ono and Little Richard led the ribbon-cutting on 1 September 1995; Aretha Franklin, Chuck Berry and Bob Dylan were in town too, playing the all-star stadium concert the following night.

Which record-label chief established the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation in 1983?

Ahmet Ertegun, co-founder of Atlantic Records, set up the foundation in New York in 1983; three years later it picked Cleveland for the museum after a year of lobbying by city officials, who cited Alan Freed's role in early rock.

Alan Freed's 1952 Moondog Coronation Ball, called the first major rock concert, was held where?

The Cleveland Arena on Euclid Avenue held about 10,000, but counterfeit and misprinted tickets drew thousands more than it could hold, and police shut the show down early.

Which style of music did DJ Alan Freed start playing on Cleveland's WJW in 1951?

Rhythm and blues records were drawing white teenagers to Leo Mintz's Cleveland record store, so Mintz sponsored a late-night WJW show where Freed played them, calling himself Moondog.

Alan Freed's memorial at Lake View Cemetery, which holds his ashes, is shaped like what?

A jukebox is the shape of the memorial over his ashes, which had rested in the Rock Hall from 2002 until the museum asked his son to remove them in 2014.

The Cleveland Browns are named after whom?

Paul Brown, their first coach, is the namesake: after a 1945 contest winner, Panthers, was dropped, the owner bowed to popular demand, though Brown objected and long claimed the name was short for Brown Bombers.

The Browns are unique among the NFL's 32 clubs for what reason?

They have no logo on their helmets: the plain orange shell itself serves as the team's logo, and a 'CB' helmet decal drawn up in 1965 went unworn.

Which new franchise did Art Modell take his Browns roster to in 1996, leaving the name in Cleveland?

The Baltimore Ravens, named by fan vote after Edgar Allan Poe's poem, debuted in 1996 with Modell's players; Cleveland's Browns were deemed suspended and returned in 1999, restocked via an expansion draft.

Which team was the only one before the 2017 Browns to finish an NFL season 0–16?

The 2008 Detroit Lions won all four preseason games, then lost all 16 that counted; nine years later the Browns repeated the trick, 4–0 in preseason and 0–16 after it.

Which Browns cornerback began calling the defense 'the Dawgs' in 1985, inspiring the Dawg Pound's name?

Hanford Dixon gave his fellow defenders the nickname before the 1985 season; when fans at training camp began barking along, he and Frank Minnifield hung the first 'Dawg Pound' banner in front of the stadium bleachers.

The 2016 Cavaliers were the first team to win the NBA Finals after trailing by what margin?

Down 3–1, the Cavaliers won Games 5, 6 and 7, a comeback no team had managed in the Finals; more than a million people turned out for the victory parade on June 22, 2016.

Which team lost the 2016 NBA Finals to the Cavaliers?

The Golden State Warriors had won a record 73 games, but Cleveland took Game 7 in Oakland for the city's first major title since the Browns won the NFL championship in 1964.

The NBA rule barring trades of first-round picks in successive seasons is named after which Cavaliers owner?

Ted Stepien, owner from 1980 to 1983, traded away so many first-round picks that the NBA wrote the rule; his teams went 66–180 and he lost about $15 million before selling the club.

In 2010's The Decision, LeBron James announced he was leaving Cleveland for which team?

'I'm going to take my talents to South Beach': LeBron chose the Miami Heat, joining Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh; the ESPN special raised $2.5 million for Boys & Girls Clubs.

LeBron James, drafted first overall by the Cavaliers in 2003, was born and raised in which nearby city?

LeBron James was born in Akron in 1984 and went straight from St. Vincent–St. Mary High School there to the NBA; in 2018 his foundation helped open the I Promise School for the city's at-risk children.

The Cleveland Guardians take their name from eight Art Deco statues on which bridge?

The Hope Memorial Bridge's sandstone Guardians each hold a different vehicle, from hay wagon to 1930s automobile; the 1932 span was renamed in 1983 for comedian Bob Hope or his stonemason father, depending on the account.

Cleveland's AL club was nicknamed after which star player-manager from 1903 to 1914?

Nap Lajoie, a second baseman who had hit .426 in 1901, was so popular that fans voted in 1903 to rename the club the Naps; when he left after 1914, baseball writers picked Indians.

Which pitching great did the Cleveland Spiders' owners move to St. Louis before their record 20–134 season in 1899?

Cy Young went to St. Louis because the Robison brothers, who owned both clubs, were fed up with thin crowds in Cleveland; stripped of their stars, the Spiders never played another season.

Which Cleveland owner signed Larry Doby in 1947, breaking the American League's color barrier?

Bill Veeck bought Larry Doby's contract from the Negro leagues' Newark Eagles in July 1947, three months after Jackie Robinson's debut; a year later Doby and Satchel Paige helped Cleveland win the World Series.

Cleveland's 1974 Ten Cent Beer Night riot erupted during a game against which visiting team?

The Texas Rangers were the visitors on June 4, 1974; a brawl between the teams in Arlington six days earlier had primed the crowd, and drunken fans storming the field forced a forfeit to Texas.

Which Italian-food brand began in Cleveland in the 1920s?

Chef Boyardee is how Hector Boiardi spelled his name for shoppers: diners at his Cleveland restaurant kept asking for his spaghetti sauce to take home, and by 1928 demand called for a factory.

Two Cleveland catchers caught baseballs dropped from Terminal Tower in 1938, breaking a record set at which landmark?

The Washington Monument record was Gabby Street's 1908 catch from 555 feet; in 1938 Hank Helf and Frankie Pytlak caught balls thrown 708 feet down by teammate Ken Keltner, at an estimated 138 mph.

Which brothers built Terminal Tower atop the city's new Union Terminal rail station in the 1920s?

The Van Sweringens, Oris and Mantis, had developed the suburb of Shaker Heights and wanted a downtown terminal for the rapid transit line that served it; their 708-foot tower rose above the station.

Which skyscraper ended Terminal Tower's run as Ohio's tallest building in 1991?

Key Tower opened as Society Center, home of the Society bank; after Society agreed in 1991 to take over its rival AmeriTrust, that bank's plan for an even taller tower on Public Square was dropped.

The West Side Market stands at West 25th Street and Lorain Avenue in which Cleveland neighborhood?

Ohio City was once a separate rival town: in 1836 its residents fought the 'Bridge War' over a new Cleveland bridge that drew trade away from them, and Cleveland annexed it in 1854.

Which 1989 baseball comedy follows a hapless Cleveland Indians team that starts winning to spite its owner?

Major League was set in Cleveland but shot mostly in Milwaukee, where County Stadium stood in for Cleveland Stadium, partly because filming there was cheaper.

Superman's creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster met as students at which Cleveland high school?

At Glenville High School Siegel wrote for the weekly Glenville Torch and Shuster illustrated his stories; streets in the neighborhood now carry the names Jerry Siegel Lane and Joe Shuster Lane.

In 1938, Siegel and Shuster sold all rights to Superman to Detective Comics for how much?

They signed away Superman for $130, ten dollars a page for his first story; they saw none of his fortune for decades, until the publisher at last restored their credit and granted them pensions.

Superman artist Joe Shuster moved to Cleveland as a boy from which city?

Shuster was born in Toronto in 1914 and moved to Cleveland as a boy; Clark Kent's paper was originally the Daily Star, named for the Toronto Daily Star he had delivered there.

Ralphie Parker's house from A Christmas Story is a museum in which Cleveland neighborhood?

The house on West 11th Street in Tremont, bought and restored by fan Brian Jones, opened as a museum in 2006; the location was picked partly for its view of the Cuyahoga valley steel mills.

Cleveland was chosen for A Christmas Story's exterior filming largely because of which department store?

Higbee's on Public Square agreed to let the crew film inside, which stores in other cities had refused; it appears in three scenes, including the Santa Claus slide.

Fan Brian Jones bought the A Christmas Story house in 2004 through which website?

eBay listed the Cleveland house and Jones paid $150,000 for it, funded by his business selling replicas of the film's leg lamp; he restored its movie look and opened it to visitors in 2006.

Which war inspired Cleveland Clinic?

World War I took surgeons George Crile, Frank Bunts and William Lower to an army hospital unit; back home they recruited John Phillips and opened the clinic in 1921 on the military model of specialists working together.

What caused the 1929 Cleveland Clinic disaster that killed 123 people, including one of its founders?

Stored X-ray films ignited in a basement room, and the burning nitrocellulose gave off the poison gas that caused most of the deaths; the disaster led to national rules for storing such film.

In 2015 the Cleveland Clinic opened an overseas hospital in which city?

Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, a hospital on Al Maryah Island developed with Abu Dhabi's Mubadala, opened to patients in 2015; a London hospital followed in 2022.

What did Cleveland install at East 105th Street and Euclid Avenue in August 1914, widely called a world first?

An electric traffic signal went up at the corner on August 5, 1914; Salt Lake City policeman Lester Wire had rigged a handmade electric signal two years earlier, so the title is disputed.

In 1930 Cleveland's airport tower became the first in the US to guide pilots by what means?

Radio made Cleveland's the first radio-equipped control tower in the US, and about twenty cities copied it within five years; before that, controllers such as Archie League in St. Louis waved flags from the field.

Which group allegedly bombed the Cleveland Museum of Art's cast of Rodin's The Thinker in 1970?

The Weathermen were blamed by Cleveland police after dynamite set between the statue's legs on 24 March 1970 destroyed its base and lower legs; the museum chose to put it back on view unrepaired.

Which famous dog's mounted body is displayed at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History?

Balto, a hero of the 1925 serum run to Nome, ended up in a Los Angeles dime museum until Clevelanders raised the money in two weeks in 1927 to buy him and his team; he lived at the city's zoo until 1933.

Pianist Adella Prentiss Hughes founded which Cleveland institution in 1918?

The Cleveland Orchestra made its debut at Grays Armory in December 1918 after Hughes had conductor Nikolai Sokoloff hired; she then ran it as general manager for fifteen seasons.

Comedian Bob Hope, who grew up in Cleveland, was born in which country?

Bob Hope was born Leslie Townes Hope in Eltham, England, in 1903 and reached Cleveland in 1908, not yet five; as a teenager he boxed briefly as 'Packy East' before turning to vaudeville.

Which industrialist founded Standard Oil in Cleveland in 1870?

John D. Rockefeller started at 16 as an assistant bookkeeper for a Cleveland produce merchant in 1855; fifteen years later he organized Standard Oil, which by the end of the 1870s refined about 90 percent of America's oil.

Which assassinated U.S. president is entombed in a memorial at Cleveland's Lake View Cemetery?

James A. Garfield was shot less than four months into his term and died of infection 79 days later; his casket lies on open display in the crypt of the 180-foot memorial, dedicated in 1890.

The Cleveland Metroparks system that encircles the city is known locally by what nickname?

The Emerald Necklace follows engineer William Stinchcomb's plan for a continuous parkway encircling the county along its river valleys; the park district he pushed for was created in 1917.

Cleveland's early-1900s nickname 'Sixth City' boasted of its national rank in what?

Population: Cleveland was the sixth-largest US city by 1910 and the fifth by 1920, with 796,841 people; the 2020 census counted 372,624, fewer than half as many.

In December 1978, Cleveland became the first major American city since the Great Depression to do what?

Default on its loans came when Cleveland could not repay $14 million owed to six local banks, after Mayor Dennis Kucinich refused to sell the city's Muny Light utility to raise cash; voters then raised the income tax.

In James Gunn's 2025 DC superhero film, downtown Cleveland stood in for which fictional city?

Metropolis was played by downtown Cleveland when Superman filmed there in summer 2024: the Leader Building became the Daily Planet, and Ohio granted the production an $11 million tax credit.

What job did Eliot Ness of 'Untouchables' fame hold in Cleveland during the 1930s Torso Murders?

Ness was Cleveland's Public Safety Director from 1935 to 1942, overseeing police and fire; the Torso killer was never caught, and Ness lost a 1947 run for mayor.

Which colors did the Cavaliers wear in 1970?

Wine and gold dressed the expansion Cavaliers, who went 15–67 in their first season; the team switched to orange and blue in the 1980s and went back to wine and gold in 2003, LeBron James's rookie year.

Which word appears on Claes Oldenburg's giant rubber-stamp sculpture beside Cleveland City Hall?

FREE is the word on the Free Stamp, commissioned by Sohio in 1982 to stand upright outside its new headquarters; after BP took the company over, the stamp was instead laid on its side in Willard Park in 1991.

Which former Case professor was the first American to win a science Nobel?

Albert A. Michelson taught physics at Cleveland's Case School in the 1880s; his 1887 experiment in the city with Edward Morley failed to detect any motion through the ether, a puzzle Einstein's relativity explained in 1905.

Garrett Morgan sold the rights to his 1923 traffic signal to which company for $40,000?

General Electric paid Garrett Morgan $40,000 for his three-position traffic signal, patented in 1923; in 1916 he had used his own smoke hood to rescue workers trapped in a waterworks tunnel under Lake Erie.

Cleveland's Playhouse Square is the second-largest US performing arts center after which venue?

Lincoln Center alone is larger; four of Playhouse Square's 1920s theatres had gone dark by 1969 before school-district employee Ray Shepardson rallied volunteers to save and restore them.

Which Cleveland institution, founded in 1915, is the oldest African American theatre in the nation?

Karamu House began in 1915 as a settlement house run by two white social workers, Russell and Rowena Jelliffe; in the 1930s its Gilpin Players premiered several plays by alumnus Langston Hughes.

Which street food, piled with French fries, coleslaw and barbecue sauce, is a Cleveland original?

The Polish Boy is a grilled kielbasa in a bun under the fries, sauce and slaw; Cleveland-born chef Michael Symon picked it on the Food Network's The Best Thing I Ever Ate.

The Cleveland Public Library's John G. White collection holds the world's largest library on what?

Chess is the subject of the 12,000 volumes lawyer John G. White left the library at his death in 1928, with an endowment to keep buying; the collection has since grown past 32,000 volumes.

Which Cleveland venue hosted the 2016 Republican National Convention?

Quicken Loans Arena, the Cavaliers' home, gave Cleveland its first Republican convention since 1936; that year's nominee, chosen at Public Auditorium, was Alf Landon, who went on to lose 46 of 48 states.

The Cleveland Thyagaraja Festival is the largest festival of what outside India?

The festival of Indian classical music and dance honours the composer Thyagaraja; first held in 1978 in a rented church hall, it has grown into a twelve-day event each spring.