The

1954 Events January * January 3 – The Italian broadcaster RAI officially begins transmitting. * January 7 – Georgetown–IBM experiment: The first public demonstration of a machine translation system is held in New York, at the head ...

Detroit Lions The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit. The Lions compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. The team plays their home game ...

season marked the franchise's 25th year in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

(NFL), including four initial seasons as the Portsmouth Spartans. The team failed to improve on their previous season's output of 10–2, winning only nine games. They qualified for the championship game for the third consecutive season.

Offseason

NFL draft

The Lions drafted 32 players in the 1954 NFL draft. Their first-round pick was Dick Chapman, an All-American

defensive tackle A defensive tackle (DT) is a position in American football that typically lines up on the line of scrimmage, opposite one of the Guard (American football), offensive guards; however, he may also line up opposite one of the offensive Tackle (gridir ...

out of

Rice Rice is a cereal grain and in its Domestication, domesticated form is the staple food of over half of the world's population, particularly in Asia and Africa. Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice)—or, much l ...

. Chapman never played a snap for the Lions, electing to return to Rice and finish his degree in physics. Their second-round pick, Michigan State center Jim Neal, also never played a snap after "marrying a girl whose religion prohibited him to play football on Sundays."

Preseason

Regular season

According to the team, a total of 28,553 season tickets were sold by the Lions for the 1954 campaign.Edward M. "Bud" Erickson (ed.), ''Detroit Lions Facts Book 1963: Press, Radio, TV.'' Detroit, MI: Detroit Football Company, 1963, p. 4. The Lions played their home games in

Briggs Stadium Tiger Stadium, previously known as Navin Field and Briggs Stadium, was a multi-use stadium located in the Corktown neighborhood of Detroit, Michigan, United States. The stadium was nicknamed "The Corner" for its location at the intersection of ...

(Tiger Stadium), which had a regular listed seating capacity of 46,194, with an additional 7,000 bleacher seats for football to bring total capacity to 53,194.

Schedule

Standings

Postseason

Roster

References

External links

1954 Detroit Lions at Pro Football Reference1954 Detroit Lions at jt-sw.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:1954 Detroit Lions Season Detroit Lions seasons

1954 in Detroit