American Football League
Encyclopedia
The American Football League (AFL) was a major American Professional Football
league that operated from 1960 until 1969, when the established National Football League
(NFL) merged with it. The upstart AFL operated in direct competition with the more established NFL throughout its existence. Though downplayed by the NFL as inferior, the AFL signed half of the NFL's first-round draft choices in 1960
, including All-American Billy Cannon
, perennial All-Star
Johnny Robinson, and Hall of Famer Ron Mix
. Overall, AFL teams signed 75% of the league's draft choices that first year. It continued to attract top talent from colleges and the NFL by the mid-1960s, well before the Common Draft
which began in 1967.
A merger
between the two leagues was sought by the senior league and announced in 1966, but was not finalized until 1970
. During its final two years of existence, the AFL teams won upset victories over the NFL teams in Super Bowl III
and IV
, the former considered one of the biggest upsets in American sports history. When the merger took place, all ten AFL franchises became part of the merged league's new American Football Conference
(AFC), with three teams from the original 16-team NFL (the Pittsburgh Steelers
, Cleveland Browns
, and Baltimore Colts
) joining them. The remaining 13 original NFL teams became the inaugural members of the National Football Conference
(NFC). The AFL logo was incorporated into the newly minted AFC logo, although the color of the "A" was changed from blue and white to red. The NFL retained its old name and logo and claims the rights to all AFL products including the eagle logo.
had grown to become one of the most popular professional sports leagues in the United States. One franchise that did not share in the success of the league was the Chicago Cardinals
, who were overshadowed by the more popular Chicago Bears
. The team was reportedly for sale (with the intent of relocation), and one of the men who approached the Cardinals was Lamar Hunt
, son and heir of Texas
millionaire oilman H. L. Hunt
. Hunt offered to buy the Cardinals and move them to Dallas, Texas
, where he had grown up. While Hunt negotiated with Cardinals ownership, similar offers were made by Bud Adams
, Bob Howsam
, and Max Winter
.
When Hunt, Adams, and Howsam were each unable to secure a controlling interest in the Chicago Cardinals, they approached NFL commissioner Bert Bell
and proposed the addition of expansion team
s. Bell, wary of expanding the 12-team league and risking its new found success, rejected the offer. On his return flight to Dallas, Hunt conceived the idea of an entirely new league and decided to contact the others who had shown interest in purchasing the Cardinals. He contacted Adams, Howsam, and Winter (as well as Winter's business partner, Bill Boyer) to gauge their interest in starting a new league. Hunt's first meeting with Adams was held in March 1959. Hunt, who felt a regional rivalry would be critical for the success of the new league, convinced Adams to join and found his team in Houston. Hunt next secured an agreement from Howsam to bring a team to Denver, Colorado
.
After Winter and Boyer agreed to start a team in Minneapolis-Saint Paul, the new league had its first four teams. Hunt also approached Willard Rhodes of Seattle, Washington, but that effort failed when Rhodes was turned down by Husky Stadium
and had no place for his team to play. Hunt also sought franchises in Los Angeles
, California
and New York City
. During the summer of 1959 he sought the blessings of the NFL for his nascent league, as he did not seek a potentially costly rivalry. Within weeks of the July 1959 announcement of the league's formation, Hunt received commitments from Barron Hilton
and Harry Wismer
to bring teams to Los Angeles and New York, respectively.
On August 14, 1959, the first league meeting was held in Chicago
, Illinois
, and charter memberships were given to Dallas, New York, Houston, Denver, Los Angeles, and Minneapolis-Saint Paul. On August 22 the league officially was named the American Football League. The NFL's initial reaction was not as openly hostile as it had been with the earlier All-America Football Conference
(Bell had even given his public approval), yet individual NFL owners soon began a campaign to undermine the new league. AFL owners were approached with promises of new NFL franchises or ownership stakes in existing ones. Only the party from Minneapolis accepted, and the Minnesota group joined the NFL the next year in 1961; the Minneapolis group joined Ole Haugsrud
in the new NFL team's ownership group, with Haugsrud dubbing the team the Minnesota Vikings
. The older league also announced on August 29 that it had conveniently reversed its position against expansion, and planned to bring NFL expansion teams to Houston and Dallas, to start play in 1961. (The NFL did not expand to Houston at that time, the promised Dallas team – the Dallas Cowboys
– actually started play in 1960, and the Vikings began play in 1961.)
Two more cities were awarded AFL franchises later in the year. Ralph Wilson, who owned a minority interest in the NFL's Detroit Lions
, announced he was placing a team in Buffalo
, New York
after he had been rejected by Miami
. Buffalo was officially awarded a franchise on October 28. During a league meeting on November 22, a 10-man ownership group from Boston
, Massachusetts
(led by Billy Sullivan
) was awarded the AFL's eighth team. On November 30, 1959, Joe Foss
, a World War II
Marine
fighter ace
and former governor of South Dakota
, was named the AFL's first commissioner. Foss commissioned a friend of Harry Wismer's to develop the AFL's eagle-on-football logo. Hunt was elected President of the AFL on January 26, 1960.
took place the same day Boston was awarded its franchise, and lasted 33 rounds. The league held a second draft on December 2, which lasted for 20 rounds. Because the Raiders joined after the AFL draft, they inherited Minnesota's selections (read next section). A special allocation draft
was held in January, 1960, to allow the Raiders to stock their team, as some of the other AFL teams had already signed some of Minneapolis' original draft choices.
. Los Angeles Chargers
owner Barron Hilton demanded that a replacement for Minnesota be placed in California, to reduce his team's operating costs and to create a rivalry. After a brief search, Oakland
was chosen and an ownership group led by local real estate developer Chet Soda was formed. After initially being called the Oakland "Señores", the Oakland Raiders
officially joined the AFL on January 30, 1960.
The AFL's first major success came when the Houston Oilers
signed Billy Cannon
, the All-American and 1959 Heisman Trophy
winner from LSU
. Cannon signed a $100,000 contract to play for the Oilers, despite having already signed a $50,000 contract with the NFL's Los Angeles Rams
. The Oilers filed suit and claimed that Rams general manager Pete Rozelle
had unduly manipulated Cannon. The court upheld the Houston contract, and with Cannon the Oilers appeared in the AFL's first three championship games (winning two).
On June 9, 1960, the league signed a five-year television contract with ABC
, which brought in revenues of approximately $
2,125,000 per year for the entire league. On June 17, the AFL filed an antitrust lawsuit against the NFL, which was dismissed in 1962 after a two-month trial. The AFL began regular-season play (a night game on Friday, September 9, 1960) with eight teams in the league — the Boston Patriots
, Buffalo Bills
, Dallas Texans
, Denver Broncos
, Houston Oilers, Los Angeles Chargers
, New York Titans
, and Oakland Raiders
. Raiders' co-owner Wayne Valley
dubbed the AFL ownership "The Foolish Club," a term Lamar Hunt subsequently used on team photographs he sent as Christmas gifts.
The Oilers became the first-ever league champions by defeating the Chargers, 24-16, in the AFL Championship on January 1, 1961. Attendance for the 1960 season was respectable for a new league, but not nearly that of the NFL. Whereas the more popular NFL teams in 1960 regularly saw attendance figures in excess of 50,000 per game, AFL attendance generally hovered between 10,000-20,000 per game. With the low attendance came financial losses. The Raiders, for instance, lost $500,000 in their first year and only survived after receiving a $400,000 loan from Bills owner Ralph Wilson. In an early sign of stability, however, the AFL did not lose any teams after its first year of operation. In fact, the only major change was the relocation of the Chargers from Los Angeles to nearby San Diego
.
On August 8, 1961, the AFL, desperate to prove its legitimacy, challenged the Canadian Football League
to an exhibition game. It was decided that the game would be between Hamilton Tiger-Cats
and the Buffalo Bills
. The Bills, who had finished near the bottom of the league in 1960, and Ticats, one of the best teams in the CFL at the time, were chosen because they were geographically close to one another (less than 65 miles apart). It was thought that beating a CFL team would prove that the AFL was at least the second-best football league in North America. After all, the NFL had sent several teams against teams from the CFL and had won every game so it was thought that victory against the CFL would be easy. Playing at Ivor Wynne Stadium
in Hamilton
, Ontario
, the game proved to be a disaster for the AFL as the Ticats defeated the Bills 38-21 playing a mix of AFL and CFL rules. The Bills returned to Buffalo and it marked the only time a pro football team from Canada
defeated a pro football team from the United States. No team from a U.S.-based football league has since competed with a team from a Canada
-based league (U.S./Canadian professional team matchups within one league, however, have happened, such as the Toronto Rifles
of the 1960s, the Montreal Machine
of the early 1990s and the CFL USA
of the mid-1990s).
—which already had an established NFL team (the San Francisco 49ers
)—but the product on the field was also to blame. After winning six games their debut season, the Raiders won a total of three times in the 1961 and 1962 seasons. Oakland took part in a 1961 supplemental draft meant to boost the weaker teams in the league, but it did little good. They participated in another such draft in 1962.
The Titans fared a little better on the field but had their own financial troubles. Attendance was so low for home games that team owner Harry Wismer had fans move to seats closer to the field to give the illusion of a fuller stadium on television. Eventually Wismer could no longer afford to meet his payroll, and on November 8, 1962 the AFL took over operations of the team. The Titans were sold to a five-person ownership group headed by Sonny Werblin
on March 28, 1963, and in April the new owners changed the team's name to the New York Jets
.
The Raiders and Titans both finished last in their respective divisions in the 1962 season. The Texans and Oilers, winners of their divisions, faced each other for the 1962 AFL Championship on December 23. The Texans dethroned the two-time champion Oilers, 20-17, in a double-overtime
contest that was, at the time, Professional Football's longest-ever game.
In 1963, the Texans became the second AFL team to relocate. Lamar Hunt felt that despite winning the league championship in 1962, the Texans could not succeed financially competing in the same market as the Dallas Cowboys
, which entered the NFL as an expansion franchise in 1960. After meetings with New Orleans, Atlanta and Miami, Hunt announced on May 22 that the Texans' new home would be Kansas City
, Missouri
. Kansas City mayor Harold Roe Bartle
(nicknamed "Chief") was instrumental in his city's success in attracting the team. Partly to honor Bartle, the franchise officially became the Kansas City Chiefs on May 26.
The San Diego Chargers, under head coach Sid Gillman
, won a decisive 51-10 victory over the Boston Patriots for the 1963 AFL Championship. Confident that his team was capable of beating the NFL-champion Chicago Bears
(he had the Chargers' rings inscribed with the phrase "World Champions"), Gillman approached NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle and proposed a final championship game between the two teams. Rozelle declined the offer; however, the game would be instituted three seasons later.
(beginning in the 1965 season), which gave the league money it needed to compete with the NFL for players. Upon hearing this news, an NFL owner was quoted as saying to then-NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle: "They (The AFL) don't have to call us 'Mister' anymore". A single-game attendance record was set on November 8, 1964, when 61,929 fans packed Shea Stadium
to watch the New York Jets and Buffalo Bills.
The bidding war for players between the AFL and NFL escalated in 1965. The Chiefs drafted University of Kansas
star Gale Sayers
in the first round of the 1965 AFL draft (held November 28, 1964), while the Chicago Bears did the same in the NFL draft. Sayers eventually signed with the Bears. A similar situation occurred when the New York Jets and the NFL's St. Louis Cardinals both drafted University of Alabama quarterback Joe Namath
. In what was viewed as a key victory for the AFL, Namath signed a $427,000 contract with the Jets on January 2, 1965 (the deal included a new car). It was the highest amount of money ever paid to a collegiate football player, and is cited as the strongest contributing factor to the eventual merger between the two leagues.
In early 1965, the AFL considered adding its first expansion team, to begin play in Atlanta in 1966. An AFL franchise was awarded to Rankin Smith of that city. In a typical NFL move to undermine the AFL, the old league quickly offered Smith a franchise, whereupon Smith, like Max Winter before him, broke his word and deserted the AFL. In March, 1965, Joe Robbie had met with Commissioner Foss to inquire about an expansion franchise for Miami, Florida
. On May 6, after Atlanta's exit, Robbie secured an agreement with Miami mayor Robert King Higho bring a team to Miami. League expansion was approved at a meeting held on June 7, and on August 16 the AFL's ninth franchise was officially awarded to Robbie and television star Danny Thomas
. The Miami Dolphins
joined the league for a fee of $7.5 million and started play in the AFL's Eastern Division in 1966. It is an irony of professional sports history, that the two cities that disdained AFL
franchises watched the AFL's Raiders and Dolphins franchises achieve unprecedented success, while the NFL's Vikings and Falcons are still looking for their first world championships.
, who had been instrumental in turning around the fortunes of that franchise. No longer content with trying to outbid the NFL for college talent, the AFL under Davis started to recruit players already on NFL squads. Davis's strategy focused on quarterbacks in particular, and in two months he persuaded seven NFL quarterbacks to sign with the AFL. Although Davis's intention was to help the AFL win the bidding war, some AFL and NFL owners saw the escalation as detrimental to both leagues.
The same month Davis was named commissioner, several NFL owners, along with Dallas Cowboys general manager Tex Schramm, secretly approached Lamar Hunt and other AFL owners and asked the AFL to merge. They held a series of secret meetings in Dallas to discuss their concerns over rapidly increasing player salaries, as well as the practice of player poaching. Hunt and Schramm completed the basic groundwork for a merger of the two leagues by the end of May, and on June 8, 1966, the merger was officially announced. Under the terms of the agreement, the two leagues would hold a common player draft. The agreement also called for a title game to be played between the champions of the respective leagues. The two leagues would be fully merged by 1970, and NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle
would remain as commissioner of the merged league. The AFL also agreed to pay indemnities of $18 million to the NFL over 20 years. In protest, Davis resigned as AFL commissioner on July 25 rather than remain until the completion of the merger, and Milt Woodard
was named President of the AFL.
On January 15, 1967, the first-ever World Championship Game between the champions of the two separate professional football leagues, the AFL-NFL Championship Game (retroactively referred to as Super Bowl I
), was played in Los Angeles. After a close first half, the NFL champion Green Bay Packers
overwhelmed the AFL champion Kansas City Chiefs, 35-10. The loss reinforced for many the notion that the AFL was an inferior league. Packers head coach Vince Lombardi
stated after the game, "I do not think they are as good as the top teams in the National Football League."
The second AFL-NFL Championship (Super Bowl II
) yielded a similar result. The Oakland Raiders—who had easily beaten the Houston Oilers to win their first AFL championship—were overmatched by the Packers, 33-14. The more experienced Packers capitalized on a number of Raiders miscues and never trailed. Green Bay defensive tackle Henry Jordan
offered a compliment to Oakland and the AFL, when he said, "...the AFL is becoming much more sophisticated on offense. I think the league has always had good personnel, but the blocks were subtler and better conceived in this game."
The AFL added its tenth and final team on May 24, 1967, when it awarded the league's second expansion franchise to an ownership group from Cincinnati
, Ohio
, headed by NFL legend Paul Brown
. Although Brown had intended to join the NFL, he agreed to join the AFL when he learned that his team would be included in the NFL once the merger was completed. The Cincinnati Bengals
began play in the 1968 season, finishing last in the Western Division.
in Super Bowl III
. The Colts, who entered the contest favored by as many as 18 points, had completed the 1968 NFL season
with a 13-1 record, and won the NFL title with a convincing 34-0 win of the Cleveland Browns. Led by their stalwart defense—which allowed a record-low 144 points—the 1968 Colts were considered one of the best-ever NFL teams.
By contrast, the Jets had allowed 280 points, the highest total for any division winner in the two leagues. They had also only narrowly beaten the favored Oakland Raiders 27-23 in the AFL championship game. Jets quarterback Joe Namath
recalled that in the days leading up to the game, he grew increasingly angry when told New York had no chance to beat Baltimore. Three days before the game, a frustrated Namath responded to a heckler
at the Touchdown Club in Miami by declaring, "We're going to win Sunday, I'll guarantee you."
Namath and the Jets made good on his guarantee as they held the Colts scoreless until late in the fourth quarter. The Jets won, 16-7, in what is considered one of the greatest upsets in American sports history. With the win, the AFL finally achieved parity with the NFL and legitimized the merger of the two leagues. That notion was reinforced one year later in Super Bowl IV
, when the AFL champion Kansas City Chiefs upset the NFL champion Minnesota Vikings
, 23-7, in the last championship game to be played between the two leagues. The Vikings, favored by 12½ points, were held to just 67 rushing yards.
The last game in AFL history was the AFL All-Star Game, held in Houston's Astrodome
on January 17, 1970. The Western All-Stars, led by Chargers quarterback John Hadl
, defeated the Eastern All-Stars, 26-3. Hadl was named the game's Most Valuable Player
. Prior to the start of the 1970 NFL season
, the merged league was organized into two conferences of three divisions each. All ten AFL teams made up the bulk of the new American Football Conference
. To avoid having an inequitable number of teams in each conference, the leagues voted to move three NFL teams to the AFC. Motivated by the prospect of an intrastate rivalry
with the Bengals as well as by personal animosity toward Paul Brown
, Cleveland Browns owner Art Modell
quickly offered to include his team in the AFC. He helped persuade the Pittsburgh Steelers
(the Browns' archrivals) and Baltimore Colts (who shared the Baltimore
/Washington, D.C.
market with the Washington Redskins
) to follow suit, and each team received US $3 million to make the switch. All the other NFL squads became part of the National Football Conference
.
Pro Football Hall of Fame
receiver Charlie Joiner
, who started his career with the Houston Oilers (1969), was the last AFL player active in professional football, retiring after the 1986 season, when he played for the San Diego Chargers
.
. After the merger, the United States Football League
; the World Football League
; and the XFL
met the same fate. From an earlier AFL (1936–1937), only the Cleveland Rams (now the St. Louis Rams
), joined the NFL and are currently operating; as are the Cleveland Browns
and the San Francisco 49ers
from the AAFC. A third AAFC team, the Baltimore Colts (not related to the 1953-1983 Baltimore Colts or to the current Indianapolis Colts franchise), played only one year in the NFL, disbanding at the end of the 1950 season.
used by the referee. The AFL played a 14-game schedule for its entire existence, starting in 1960. The NFL, which had played a 12-game schedule since 1947, changed to a 14-game schedule in 1961, a year after the American Football League instituted it. The AFL also introduced the two-point conversion
to professional football thirty-four years before the NFL instituted it in 1994 (college football had adopted the two point conversion in the late 1950s). All of these innovations pioneered by the AFL, including its more exciting style of play and colorful uniforms, have essentially made today's professional football more like the AFL than like the old-line NFL. The AFL's challenge to the NFL also laid the groundwork for the Super Bowl
, which has become the standard for championship contests in the United States.
and later with NBC
). With that first contract with ABC, the AFL adopted the first-ever cooperative television plan for professional football, in which the proceeds were divided equally among member clubs. It featured many outstanding games, such as the classic 1962 double-overtime American Football League championship game between the Dallas Texans
and the defending champion Houston Oilers
. At the time it was the longest professional football championship game
ever played. The AFL also appealed to fans by offering a flashier style of play, compared to the more conservative game of the NFL. Long passes ("bombs") were commonplace in AFL offenses, led by such talented quarterbacks as John Hadl
, Daryle Lamonica
and Len Dawson
.
Despite having a national television contract, the AFL often found itself trying to gain a foothold, only to come up against roadblocks. For example, CBS-TV, which broadcast NFL games, ignored and did not report scores from the innovative AFL, on orders from the NFL. It was only after the merger agreement was announced that CBS began to give AFL scores.
and New York, but introduced the sport to Colorado
, restored it to Texas
and later to fast-growing Florida
, as well as bringing it to New England
for the first time in 12 years. Buffalo, having lost its original NFL franchise
in 1929 and turned down by the NFL at least twice (1940 and 1950
) for a replacement, returned to the NFL with the merger.
Three NFL franchises were awarded as a direct result of the AFL's competition with the older league: the Vikings, who were awarded to Max Winter in exchange for dropping his bid to join the AFL; the Falcons, whose franchise went to Rankin Smith to dissuade him from purchasing the AFL's Miami Dolphins
; and the Saints, because of successful anti-trust legislation which let the two leagues merge, and was supported by several Louisiana politicians. Further, the success of the expansion process engendered by the AFL-NFL conflict (as well as later expansion pressures created by the WFL, USFL, and even the CFL
) certainly led to more expansion, ultimately to the current thirty-two team league. Thus, if not for the AFL, at least 15 of today's NFL teams would probably never have existed: the ten teams from the AFL, and the five instigated by the AFL's presence.
The AFL also ended up radically altering the fortunes of the Pittsburgh Steelers
. Before the merger, the Steelers had long been one of the NFL's worst teams. Constantly lacking the money to build a quality team, the Steelers had only posted eight winning seasons, and just one playoff appearance, since their first year of existence in 1933. They also finished with a 1-13 record in 1969
, tied with the Chicago Bears
for the worst record in the NFL. The $3 million relocation fee that the Steelers received for joining the AFC after the merger helped them rebuild into a contender, drafting eventual-Pro Football Hall of Fame
rs like Terry Bradshaw
and Joe Greene
, and ultimately winning four Super Bowls in the 1970s.
of its policy of being more liberal than the entrenched NFL in offering opportunity for black players
. While the NFL was still emerging from thirty years of segregation influenced by Washington Redskins' owner George Preston Marshall
, the AFL actively recruited from small and predominantly black colleges. The AFL's color-blindness led not only to the explosion of black talent on the field, but to the eventual entry of blacks into scouting, coordinating, and ultimately head coaching positions, long after the league ceased to exist.
The AFL's free agents came from several sources. Some were players who could not find success playing in the NFL, while another source was the Canadian Football League
. In the late 1950s, many players released by the NFL, or un-drafted and unsigned out of college by the NFL, went North to try their luck with the CFL, and later returned to the states to play in the AFL.
In the league's first years, players such as Oilers' George Blanda
, Chargers/Bills' Jack Kemp
, Texans' Len Dawson
, the NY Titans' Don Maynard
, Raiders/Patriots/Jets' Babe Parilli
, Pats' Bob Dee
proved to be AFL standouts. Other players such as the Broncos' Frank Tripucka
, the Pats' Gino Cappelletti
, the Bills' Cookie Gilchrist
and the Chargers' Tobin Rote
, Sam DeLuca
and Dave Kocourek
also made their mark to give the fledgling league badly needed credibility. Rounding out this mix of potential talent were the true "free agents", the walk-ons and the "wanna-be's", who tried out in droves for the chance to play professional American football.
After the AFL-NFL merger agreement in 1966, and after the AFL's Jets
defeated the "best team in the history of the NFL", the Colts, a popular misconception fostered by the NFL and spread by media reports was that the AFL defeated the NFL because of the Common Draft
instituted in 1967. This apparently was meant to assert that the AFL could not achieve parity as long as it had to compete with the NFL in the draft. But the 1968 Jets had less than a handful of "common draftees". Their stars were honed in the AFL, many of them since the Titans days. As noted below, the AFL got its share of stars long before the "common draft".
Players who chose the AFL to develop their talent included Lance Alworth
and Ron Mix
of the Chargers
, who had also been drafted by the NFL's San Francisco 49ers
and Baltimore Colts
respectively. Both eventually were elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame
after earning recognition during their careers as being among the best at their positions. Among specific teams, the 1964 Buffalo Bills
stood out by holding their opponents to a pro football record 913 yards rushing on 300 attempts, while also recording fifty quarterback sacks in a 14-game schedule.
Another example is cited by the University of Kansas
website, which describes the 1961 Bluebonnet Bowl
, won by KU, and goes on to say "Two Kansas players, quarterback John Hadl
and fullback Curtis McClinton
, signed professional contracts on the field immediately after the conclusion of the game. Hadl inked a deal with the [AFL] San Diego Chargers
, and McClinton went to the [AFL] Dallas Texans
." Between them, in their careers Hadl and McClinton combined for an American Football League Rookie of the Year
award, seven AFL All-Star
selections, two Pro Bowl selections, a team MVP award, two AFL All-Star Game
MVP awards, two AFL championships, and a World Championship
. And these were players selected by the AFL long before the "Common Draft".
In 2009, a five-part series, Full Color Football: The History of the American Football League
, on the Showtime Network, refuted many of the long-held misconceptions about the AFL. In it, Abner Haynes
tells of how his father forbade him to accept being drafted by the NFL, after drunken scouts from that league had visited the Haynes home; the NFL Cowboys' Tex Schramm is quoted as saying that if his team had ever agreed to play the AFL's Dallas Texans
, they would very likely have lost; George Blanda
makes a case for more AFL players being inducted to the Pro Football Hall of Fame by pointing out that Hall of Famer Willie Brown was cut by the Houston Oilers because he couldn't cover Oilers flanker Charlie Hennigan
in practice. Later, when Brown was with the Broncos, Hennigan needed nine catches in one game against the Broncos to break Lionel Taylor
's Professional Football record of 100 catches in one season. Hennigan caught the nine passes and broke the record, even though he was covered by Brown: Blanda's point being that if Hennigan could do so well against a Hall of Fame db, he deserves induction, as well.
, Lou Saban
, Sid Gillman
and Al Davis
were eventual hall of fame coaches such as Bill Walsh, a protegé of Davis with the AFL Oakland Raiders
; and Chuck Noll
, who worked for Gillman and the AFL LA/San Diego Chargers
from 1960 through 1965. Others include Buddy Ryan
(AFL's New York Jets
), Chuck Knox
(Jets), Walt Michaels
(Jets), and John Madden
(AFL's Oakland Raiders
). Additionally, many prominent coaches began their pro football careers as players in the AFL, including Sam Wyche
(Cincinnati Bengals
), Marty Schottenheimer
(Buffalo Bills
), Wayne Fontes
(Jets), and two-time Super Bowl winner Tom Flores
(Oakland Raiders
). Flores also has a Super Bowl ring as a player (1969 Kansas City Chiefs
).
Walsh is often cited for an impressive "coaching tree" of assistants who went on to become head coaches. But since Walsh was an assistant to Davis, who in turn learned the trade from Gillman, Walsh's coaching tree
is thus an offshoot of Gillman's coaching tree. Besides Davis, others who coached for Gillman included Dick Vermeil
, Knox, and George Allen, as well as Noll, the only head coach to win four Super Bowls. The numbers on Gillman's coaching tree indicate the Super Bowls won by his coaching "descendants", a total of twenty-four.
. The season-long celebration began in August with the 2009 Pro Football Hall of Fame Game
in Canton, Ohio
between two AFC teams (as opposed to the AFC-vs-NFC format the game first adopted in 1971). The opponents were two of the original AFL franchises, the Buffalo Bills
and Tennessee Titans
(the former Houston Oilers). Bills' owner Ralph C. Wilson Jr.
(a 2009 Hall of Fame inductee) and Titans' owner Bud Adams
are the only surviving members of the Foolish Club
, the eight original owners of AFL franchises.
The Hall of Fame Game was the first of several "Legacy Weekends," during which each of the "original eight" AFL teams sported uniforms from their AFL era. Each of the 8 teams took part in at least two such "legacy" games. On-field officials also wore red-and-white-striped AFL uniforms during these games.
In the fall of 2009, the Showtime pay-cable network premiered Full Color Football: The History of the American Football League
, a 5-part documentary series produced by NFL Films
that features vintage game film and interviews as well as more recent interviews with those associated with the AFL.
The NFL sanctioned a variety of "Legacy" gear to celebrate the AFL anniversary, such as "throwback" jerseys, t-shirts, signs, pennants and banners, including items with the logos and colors of the Dallas Texans
, Houston Oilers, and New York Titans
, the three of the Original Eight
AFL teams which have changed names or venues. A December 5, 2009 story by Ken Belson in the New York Times quotes league officials as stating that AFL "Legacy" gear made up twenty to thirty percent of the league's annual $3 billion merchandise income. Fan favorites were the Denver Broncos
' vertically striped socks, which could not be re-stocked quickly enough.
Today, two of the NFL's eight divisions are composed entirely of former AFL teams, the AFC West
(Broncos
, Chargers
, Chiefs
, and Raiders
) and the AFC East
(Bills
, Dolphins
, Jets
, and Patriots
). Additionally, the Bengals
now play in the AFC North
and the Tennessee Titans
(formerly the Oilers) play in the AFC South
.
" playoffs were conducted. A four-team playoff was held, with the second-place teams in each division playing the winner of the other division. The Chiefs upset the Raiders in Oakland 17-7 in the league's Championship, the final AFL game played. The Kansas City Chiefs were the first Super Bowl champion to win two road playoff games and the first wildcard team to win the Super Bowl, although the term "wildcard" was coined by the media, and not used officially until several years later.
Italics – Super Bowl Appearance
Bold - Super Bowl Victory
After the 1964 season, the AFL All-Star game had been scheduled for early 1965 in New Orleans' Tulane Stadium. After numerous black players were refused service by a number of area hotels and businesses, black and white players alike called for a boycott
. Led by Bills players such as Cookie Gilchrist
, the players successfully lobbied to have the game moved to Houston's Jeppesen Stadium.
Professional football
In the United States and Canada, the term professional football includes the professional forms of American and Canadian gridiron football. In common usage, it refers to former and existing major football leagues in either country...
league that operated from 1960 until 1969, when the established National Football League
National Football League
The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
(NFL) merged with it. The upstart AFL operated in direct competition with the more established NFL throughout its existence. Though downplayed by the NFL as inferior, the AFL signed half of the NFL's first-round draft choices in 1960
1960 NFL Draft
The 1960 National Football League Draft Annual Player Selection Meeting in which NFL teams take turns selecting amateur college American football players and other first-time eligible players, was held in secret in order to fend off increased competition for college players from the American...
, including All-American Billy Cannon
Billy Cannon
William Abb "Billy" Cannon is an All-American, 1959 Heisman Trophy winner and 2008 inductee into the College Football Hall of Fame from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, and one of the American Football League's most celebrated players.He was born in Philadelphia, Mississippi, and moved...
, perennial All-Star
All-star
All-star is a term designating an individual as having a high level of performance in their field. Originating in sports, it has since drifted into vernacular and been borrowed heavily by the entertainment industry...
Johnny Robinson, and Hall of Famer Ron Mix
Ron Mix
Ronald Jack Mix , in Los Angeles, California was an American football player.Mix attended USC, and upon graduation played right tackle and guard for the American Football League's Los Angeles/San Diego Chargers and the NFL Oakland Raiders .- College career :A graduate of the University of Southern...
. Overall, AFL teams signed 75% of the league's draft choices that first year. It continued to attract top talent from colleges and the NFL by the mid-1960s, well before the Common Draft
Common Draft
The Common Draft was the name given to the selection of college football players in a combined draft from 1967 to 1969 by the American Football League and the National Football League . This took place after the AFL-NFL merger agreement in 1966....
which began in 1967.
A merger
AFL-NFL Merger
The AFL–NFL merger of 1970 was the merger of the two major professional American football leagues in the United States at the time: the National Football League and the American Football League...
between the two leagues was sought by the senior league and announced in 1966, but was not finalized until 1970
1970 NFL season
The 1970 NFL season was the 51st regular season of the National Football League, and the first one after the AFL-NFL Merger.The merger forced a realignment between the combined league's clubs. Because there were 16 NFL teams and 10 AFL teams, three teams needed to transfer to balance the two new...
. During its final two years of existence, the AFL teams won upset victories over the NFL teams in Super Bowl III
Super Bowl III
Super Bowl III was the third AFL-NFL Championship Game in professional American football, but the first to officially bear the name "Super Bowl". This game is regarded as one of the greatest upsets in sports history...
and IV
Super Bowl IV
Super Bowl IV was the fourth AFL-NFL World Championship Game in professional American football, and the second one to officially bear the name "Super Bowl"...
, the former considered one of the biggest upsets in American sports history. When the merger took place, all ten AFL franchises became part of the merged league's new American Football Conference
American Football Conference
The American Football Conference is one of the two conferences of the National Football League . This conference and its counterpart, the National Football Conference , currently contain 16 teams each, making up the 32 teams of the NFL....
(AFC), with three teams from the original 16-team NFL (the Pittsburgh Steelers
Pittsburgh Steelers
The Pittsburgh Steelers are a professional football team based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The team currently belongs to the North Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League . Founded in , the Steelers are the oldest franchise in the AFC...
, Cleveland Browns
Cleveland Browns
The Cleveland Browns are a professional football team based in Cleveland, Ohio. They are currently members of the North Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
, and Baltimore Colts
Indianapolis Colts
The Indianapolis Colts are a professional American football team based in Indianapolis. They are currently members of the South Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League ....
) joining them. The remaining 13 original NFL teams became the inaugural members of the National Football Conference
National Football Conference
The National Football Conference is one of the two conferences of the National Football League . This conference and its counterpart, the American Football Conference , currently contain 16 teams each, making up the 32 teams of the NFL.-Current teams:Since 2002, the NFC has comprised 16 teams,...
(NFC). The AFL logo was incorporated into the newly minted AFC logo, although the color of the "A" was changed from blue and white to red. The NFL retained its old name and logo and claims the rights to all AFL products including the eagle logo.
League history
The National Football LeagueNational Football League
The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
had grown to become one of the most popular professional sports leagues in the United States. One franchise that did not share in the success of the league was the Chicago Cardinals
Arizona Cardinals
The Arizona Cardinals are a professional American football team based in Glendale, Arizona, a suburb of Phoenix. They are currently members of the Western Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League...
, who were overshadowed by the more popular Chicago Bears
Chicago Bears
The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago, Illinois. They are members of the North Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League...
. The team was reportedly for sale (with the intent of relocation), and one of the men who approached the Cardinals was Lamar Hunt
Lamar Hunt
Lamar Hunt was an American sportsman and promoter of American football, soccer, basketball, and ice hockey in the United States and an inductee into three sports' halls of fame. He was one of the founders of the American Football League and Major League Soccer , as well as MLS predecessor the...
, son and heir of Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
millionaire oilman H. L. Hunt
H. L. Hunt
Haroldson Lafayette Hunt, Jr. , known throughout his life as "H. L. Hunt," was a Texas oil tycoon and conservative activist. He built one of the world's largest fortunes by trading poker winnings for oil rights, ultimately securing title to much of the East Texas Oil Field, one of the world's very...
. Hunt offered to buy the Cardinals and move them to Dallas, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
, where he had grown up. While Hunt negotiated with Cardinals ownership, similar offers were made by Bud Adams
Bud Adams
Kenneth Stanley "Bud" Adams, Jr. is the owner of the Tennessee Titans' National Football League franchise. He was instrumental in the founding and establishment of the former American Football League. Adams became a charter AFL owner with the establishment of the Titans franchise, which was...
, Bob Howsam
Bob Howsam
Robert Lee Howsam was an executive in American professional sport who, in 1959, played a key role in establishing two leagues — the American Football League, which succeeded and merged with the National Football League, and baseball's Continental League, which never played a game but forced...
, and Max Winter
Max Winter
Max Winter was a Minneapolis businessman and sport executive. Winter was born in Austria-Hungary and his family emigrated to the United States in 1913 and settled in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Winter graduated from high school in 1922...
.
When Hunt, Adams, and Howsam were each unable to secure a controlling interest in the Chicago Cardinals, they approached NFL commissioner Bert Bell
Bert Bell
De Benneville "Bert" Bell was the National Football League commissioner from 1946 until his death in 1959. As commissioner, he helped chart a path for the NFL to facilitate its rise in becoming the most popular sports attraction in the United States...
and proposed the addition of expansion team
Expansion team
An expansion team is a brand new team in a sports league. The term is most commonly used in reference to the North American major professional sports leagues, but is applied to sports leagues worldwide that use a closed franchise system of league membership. The term comes from the expansion of the...
s. Bell, wary of expanding the 12-team league and risking its new found success, rejected the offer. On his return flight to Dallas, Hunt conceived the idea of an entirely new league and decided to contact the others who had shown interest in purchasing the Cardinals. He contacted Adams, Howsam, and Winter (as well as Winter's business partner, Bill Boyer) to gauge their interest in starting a new league. Hunt's first meeting with Adams was held in March 1959. Hunt, who felt a regional rivalry would be critical for the success of the new league, convinced Adams to join and found his team in Houston. Hunt next secured an agreement from Howsam to bring a team to Denver, Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
.
After Winter and Boyer agreed to start a team in Minneapolis-Saint Paul, the new league had its first four teams. Hunt also approached Willard Rhodes of Seattle, Washington, but that effort failed when Rhodes was turned down by Husky Stadium
Husky Stadium
Husky Stadium is an outdoor athletic stadium on the campus of the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the home of the Washington Huskies...
and had no place for his team to play. Hunt also sought franchises in Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
and New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. During the summer of 1959 he sought the blessings of the NFL for his nascent league, as he did not seek a potentially costly rivalry. Within weeks of the July 1959 announcement of the league's formation, Hunt received commitments from Barron Hilton
Barron Hilton
William Barron Hilton I is an American business magnate, socialite, and hotel heir. He is the former co-chairman of the Hilton Hotels chain, and the original owner of the Los Angeles Chargers...
and Harry Wismer
Harry Wismer
Harry Wismer was a sports broadcaster and charter owner of the New York Titans franchise in the American Football League.-Early years:...
to bring teams to Los Angeles and New York, respectively.
On August 14, 1959, the first league meeting was held in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
, and charter memberships were given to Dallas, New York, Houston, Denver, Los Angeles, and Minneapolis-Saint Paul. On August 22 the league officially was named the American Football League. The NFL's initial reaction was not as openly hostile as it had been with the earlier All-America Football Conference
All-America Football Conference
The All-America Football Conference was a professional American football league that challenged the established National Football League from 1946 to 1949. One of the NFL's most formidable challengers, the AAFC attracted many of the nation's best players, and introduced many lasting innovations...
(Bell had even given his public approval), yet individual NFL owners soon began a campaign to undermine the new league. AFL owners were approached with promises of new NFL franchises or ownership stakes in existing ones. Only the party from Minneapolis accepted, and the Minnesota group joined the NFL the next year in 1961; the Minneapolis group joined Ole Haugsrud
Ole Haugsrud
Ole Haugsrud was an American sports executive. Haugsrud was born in Superior, Wisconsin. There is also a field in Superior, Wisconsin called Ole Haugsrud Field. The Superior High School Spartans and University of Wisconsin–Superior Yellowjackets play there. Haugsrud was owner of the Duluth Eskimos...
in the new NFL team's ownership group, with Haugsrud dubbing the team the Minnesota Vikings
Minnesota Vikings
The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Vikings joined the National Football League as an expansion team in 1960...
. The older league also announced on August 29 that it had conveniently reversed its position against expansion, and planned to bring NFL expansion teams to Houston and Dallas, to start play in 1961. (The NFL did not expand to Houston at that time, the promised Dallas team – the Dallas Cowboys
Dallas Cowboys
The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football franchise which plays in the Eastern Division of the National Football Conference of the National Football League . They are headquartered in Valley Ranch in Irving, Texas, a suburb of Dallas...
– actually started play in 1960, and the Vikings began play in 1961.)
Two more cities were awarded AFL franchises later in the year. Ralph Wilson, who owned a minority interest in the NFL's Detroit Lions
Detroit Lions
The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit, Michigan. They are members of the North Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League , and play their home games at Ford Field in Downtown Detroit.Originally based in Portsmouth, Ohio and...
, announced he was placing a team in Buffalo
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
after he had been rejected by Miami
Miami, Florida
Miami is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida and the eighth-most populous county in the United States with a population of 2,500,625...
. Buffalo was officially awarded a franchise on October 28. During a league meeting on November 22, a 10-man ownership group from Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
(led by Billy Sullivan
Billy Sullivan (American football)
William Hallissey "Billy" Sullivan, Jr. was an American businessman who owned the Boston Patriots franchise from their inception in the American Football League until their sale, as the New England Patriots of the NFL, to Victor Kiam in 1988.-Early life:Sullivan was born in Lowell, Massachusetts...
) was awarded the AFL's eighth team. On November 30, 1959, Joe Foss
Joe Foss
Joseph Jacob "Joe" Foss was the leading fighter ace of the United States Marine Corps during World War II and a 1943 recipient of the Medal of Honor, recognizing his role in the air combat during the Guadalcanal Campaign...
, a World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
Marine
United States Marine Corps
The United States Marine Corps is a branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for providing power projection from the sea, using the mobility of the United States Navy to deliver combined-arms task forces rapidly. It is one of seven uniformed services of the United States...
fighter ace
Fighter Ace
Fighter Ace was a massively multiplayer online computer game in which one flies World War II fighter and bomber planes in combat against other players and virtual pilots...
and former governor of South Dakota
South Dakota
South Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux American Indian tribes. Once a part of Dakota Territory, South Dakota became a state on November 2, 1889. The state has an area of and an estimated population of just over...
, was named the AFL's first commissioner. Foss commissioned a friend of Harry Wismer's to develop the AFL's eagle-on-football logo. Hunt was elected President of the AFL on January 26, 1960.
The AFL Draft
The AFL's first draftAmerican Football League Draft
The American Football League stocked its teams in two ways:# Signing free agents ....
took place the same day Boston was awarded its franchise, and lasted 33 rounds. The league held a second draft on December 2, which lasted for 20 rounds. Because the Raiders joined after the AFL draft, they inherited Minnesota's selections (read next section). A special allocation draft
1960 American Football League Draft
The 1960 American Football League Draft was held on November 22, 1959, shortly after the organization of the league, and lasted 33 rounds. An additional draft of 20 rounds was held by the AFL on December 2.- Territorial draft :...
was held in January, 1960, to allow the Raiders to stock their team, as some of the other AFL teams had already signed some of Minneapolis' original draft choices.
Crisis and success (1960–61)
In November 1959, Minneapolis owner Max Winter announced his intent to leave the AFL to accept a franchise offer from the NFL. In 1961, his team began play in the NFL as the Minnesota VikingsMinnesota Vikings
The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Vikings joined the National Football League as an expansion team in 1960...
. Los Angeles Chargers
San Diego Chargers
The San Diego Chargers are a professional American football team based in San Diego, California. they were members of the Western Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
owner Barron Hilton demanded that a replacement for Minnesota be placed in California, to reduce his team's operating costs and to create a rivalry. After a brief search, Oakland
Oakland, California
Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...
was chosen and an ownership group led by local real estate developer Chet Soda was formed. After initially being called the Oakland "Señores", the Oakland Raiders
Oakland Raiders
The Oakland Raiders are a professional American football team based in Oakland, California. They currently play in the Western Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
officially joined the AFL on January 30, 1960.
The AFL's first major success came when the Houston Oilers
Tennessee Titans
The Tennessee Titans are a professional American football team based in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. They are members of the South Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League . Previously known as the Houston Oilers, the team began play in 1960 as a charter...
signed Billy Cannon
Billy Cannon
William Abb "Billy" Cannon is an All-American, 1959 Heisman Trophy winner and 2008 inductee into the College Football Hall of Fame from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, and one of the American Football League's most celebrated players.He was born in Philadelphia, Mississippi, and moved...
, the All-American and 1959 Heisman Trophy
Heisman Trophy
The Heisman Memorial Trophy Award , is awarded annually to the player deemed the most outstanding player in collegiate football. It was created in 1935 as the Downtown Athletic Club trophy and renamed in 1936 following the death of the Club's athletic director, John Heisman The Heisman Memorial...
winner from LSU
LSU Tigers football
The LSU Tigers football team, also known as the Fighting Tigers or Bayou Bengals, represents Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States in NCAA Division I FBS college football. Current head coach Les Miles has led the team since 2005. Since 1999 when Nick Saban took over as...
. Cannon signed a $100,000 contract to play for the Oilers, despite having already signed a $50,000 contract with the NFL's Los Angeles Rams
St. Louis Rams
The St. Louis Rams are a professional American football team based in St. Louis, Missouri. They are currently members of the West Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The Rams have won three NFL Championships .The Rams began playing in 1936 in Cleveland,...
. The Oilers filed suit and claimed that Rams general manager Pete Rozelle
Pete Rozelle
Alvin Ray "Pete" Rozelle was the commissioner of the National Football League from January 1960 to November 1989, when he retired from office. Rozelle is credited with making the NFL into one of the most successful sports leagues in the world....
had unduly manipulated Cannon. The court upheld the Houston contract, and with Cannon the Oilers appeared in the AFL's first three championship games (winning two).
On June 9, 1960, the league signed a five-year television contract with ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
, which brought in revenues of approximately $
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
2,125,000 per year for the entire league. On June 17, the AFL filed an antitrust lawsuit against the NFL, which was dismissed in 1962 after a two-month trial. The AFL began regular-season play (a night game on Friday, September 9, 1960) with eight teams in the league — the Boston Patriots
New England Patriots
The New England Patriots, commonly called the "Pats", are a professional football team based in the Greater Boston area, playing their home games in the town of Foxborough, Massachusetts at Gillette Stadium. The team is part of the East Division of the American Football Conference in the National...
, Buffalo Bills
Buffalo Bills
The Buffalo Bills are a professional football team based in Buffalo, New York. They are currently members of the East Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
, Dallas Texans
Kansas City Chiefs
The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. They are a member of the Western Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League . Originally named the Dallas Texans, the club was founded by Lamar Hunt in 1960 as a...
, Denver Broncos
Denver Broncos
The Denver Broncos are a professional American football team based in Denver, Colorado. They are currently members of the West Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
, Houston Oilers, Los Angeles Chargers
San Diego Chargers
The San Diego Chargers are a professional American football team based in San Diego, California. they were members of the Western Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
, New York Titans
New York Jets
The New York Jets are a professional football team headquartered in Florham Park, New Jersey, representing the New York metropolitan area. The team is a member of the Eastern Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
, and Oakland Raiders
Oakland Raiders
The Oakland Raiders are a professional American football team based in Oakland, California. They currently play in the Western Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
. Raiders' co-owner Wayne Valley
F. Wayne Valley
F. Wayne Valley was an American businessman, philanthropist and football player. He attended Oregon State University in the 1930s, where he was a starting linebacker and fullback on the Oregon State Beavers football team, though he would ultimately graduate with a business degree from the...
dubbed the AFL ownership "The Foolish Club," a term Lamar Hunt subsequently used on team photographs he sent as Christmas gifts.
The Oilers became the first-ever league champions by defeating the Chargers, 24-16, in the AFL Championship on January 1, 1961. Attendance for the 1960 season was respectable for a new league, but not nearly that of the NFL. Whereas the more popular NFL teams in 1960 regularly saw attendance figures in excess of 50,000 per game, AFL attendance generally hovered between 10,000-20,000 per game. With the low attendance came financial losses. The Raiders, for instance, lost $500,000 in their first year and only survived after receiving a $400,000 loan from Bills owner Ralph Wilson. In an early sign of stability, however, the AFL did not lose any teams after its first year of operation. In fact, the only major change was the relocation of the Chargers from Los Angeles to nearby San Diego
San Diego, California
San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round...
.
On August 8, 1961, the AFL, desperate to prove its legitimacy, challenged the Canadian Football League
Canadian Football League
The Canadian Football League or CFL is a professional sports league located in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football, a form of gridiron football closely related to American football....
to an exhibition game. It was decided that the game would be between Hamilton Tiger-Cats
Hamilton Tiger-Cats
The Hamilton Tiger-Cats are a Canadian Football League team based in Hamilton, Ontario, founded in 1950 with the merger of the Hamilton Tigers and the Hamilton Wildcats. The Tiger-Cats play their home games at Ivor Wynne Stadium...
and the Buffalo Bills
Buffalo Bills
The Buffalo Bills are a professional football team based in Buffalo, New York. They are currently members of the East Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
. The Bills, who had finished near the bottom of the league in 1960, and Ticats, one of the best teams in the CFL at the time, were chosen because they were geographically close to one another (less than 65 miles apart). It was thought that beating a CFL team would prove that the AFL was at least the second-best football league in North America. After all, the NFL had sent several teams against teams from the CFL and had won every game so it was thought that victory against the CFL would be easy. Playing at Ivor Wynne Stadium
Ivor Wynne Stadium
Ivor Wynne Stadium is a Canadian football stadium located at the corner of Balsam and Beechwood Avenues, two blocks west of Gage Avenue North in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada...
in Hamilton
Hamilton, Ontario
Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Conceived by George Hamilton when he purchased the Durand farm shortly after the War of 1812, Hamilton has become the centre of a densely populated and industrialized region at the west end of Lake Ontario known as the Golden Horseshoe...
, Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
, the game proved to be a disaster for the AFL as the Ticats defeated the Bills 38-21 playing a mix of AFL and CFL rules. The Bills returned to Buffalo and it marked the only time a pro football team from Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
defeated a pro football team from the United States. No team from a U.S.-based football league has since competed with a team from a Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
-based league (U.S./Canadian professional team matchups within one league, however, have happened, such as the Toronto Rifles
Toronto Rifles
The Toronto Rifles were a minor-league professional American football team active between 1964 and 1967. It was based in Toronto, Ontario. The team's home fields were Maple Leaf Stadium and Varsity Stadium from 1966 to 1967...
of the 1960s, the Montreal Machine
Montreal Machine
The Montreal Machine was the sole Canadian team in the World League of American Football, a springtime developmental professional league set up by the National Football League that played in 1991 and 1992. There were also three European teams and six U.S.-based teams...
of the early 1990s and the CFL USA
CFL USA
The term CFL USA refers to the abortive expansion of the Canadian Football League into the United States in the early-to-mid 1990s. The 1993 CFL season saw the addition of the first American team to the league, the Sacramento Gold Miners...
of the mid-1990s).
Movement and instability (1962–63)
While the Oilers found instant success in the AFL, other teams did not fare as well. The Oakland Raiders and New York Titans struggled on and off the field during their first few seasons in the league. Oakland's eight-man ownership group was reduced to just three in 1961, after heavy financial losses their first season. Attendance for home games was poor, partly due to the team playing in the San Francisco Bay AreaSan Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...
—which already had an established NFL team (the San Francisco 49ers
San Francisco 49ers
The San Francisco 49ers are a professional American football team based in San Francisco, California, playing in the West Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The team was founded in 1946 as a charter member of the All-America Football Conference and...
)—but the product on the field was also to blame. After winning six games their debut season, the Raiders won a total of three times in the 1961 and 1962 seasons. Oakland took part in a 1961 supplemental draft meant to boost the weaker teams in the league, but it did little good. They participated in another such draft in 1962.
The Titans fared a little better on the field but had their own financial troubles. Attendance was so low for home games that team owner Harry Wismer had fans move to seats closer to the field to give the illusion of a fuller stadium on television. Eventually Wismer could no longer afford to meet his payroll, and on November 8, 1962 the AFL took over operations of the team. The Titans were sold to a five-person ownership group headed by Sonny Werblin
Sonny Werblin
David Abraham "Sonny" Werblin was a prominent entertainment industry executive and sports impresario who was an owner of the New York Jets, Chairman of Madison Square Gardens, and who built and managed the Meadowlands Sports Complex.A graduate of Rutgers University, Werblin went to work for Music...
on March 28, 1963, and in April the new owners changed the team's name to the New York Jets
New York Jets
The New York Jets are a professional football team headquartered in Florham Park, New Jersey, representing the New York metropolitan area. The team is a member of the Eastern Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
.
The Raiders and Titans both finished last in their respective divisions in the 1962 season. The Texans and Oilers, winners of their divisions, faced each other for the 1962 AFL Championship on December 23. The Texans dethroned the two-time champion Oilers, 20-17, in a double-overtime
Overtime (sports)
Overtime or extra time is an additional period of play specified under the rules of a sport to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw. In most sports, this extra period is only played if the game is required to have a clear winner, as in single-elimination...
contest that was, at the time, Professional Football's longest-ever game.
In 1963, the Texans became the second AFL team to relocate. Lamar Hunt felt that despite winning the league championship in 1962, the Texans could not succeed financially competing in the same market as the Dallas Cowboys
Dallas Cowboys
The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football franchise which plays in the Eastern Division of the National Football Conference of the National Football League . They are headquartered in Valley Ranch in Irving, Texas, a suburb of Dallas...
, which entered the NFL as an expansion franchise in 1960. After meetings with New Orleans, Atlanta and Miami, Hunt announced on May 22 that the Texans' new home would be Kansas City
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
, Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
. Kansas City mayor Harold Roe Bartle
Harold Roe Bartle
Harold Roe Bennett Sturdevant Bartle was a businessman, philanthropist, Boy Scout executive, and professional public speaker who served two terms as mayor of Kansas City, Missouri...
(nicknamed "Chief") was instrumental in his city's success in attracting the team. Partly to honor Bartle, the franchise officially became the Kansas City Chiefs on May 26.
The San Diego Chargers, under head coach Sid Gillman
Sid Gillman
Sidney "Sid" Gillman was an American football player, coach, executive, and innovator. Gillman's insistence on stretching the football field by throwing deep downfield passes, instead of short passes to running backs or wide receivers at the sides of the line of scrimmage, was instrumental in...
, won a decisive 51-10 victory over the Boston Patriots for the 1963 AFL Championship. Confident that his team was capable of beating the NFL-champion Chicago Bears
Chicago Bears
The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago, Illinois. They are members of the North Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League...
(he had the Chargers' rings inscribed with the phrase "World Champions"), Gillman approached NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle and proposed a final championship game between the two teams. Rozelle declined the offer; however, the game would be instituted three seasons later.
Watershed years (1964–65)
A series of events throughout the next few years demonstrated the AFL's ability to achieve a greater level of equality with the NFL. On January 29, 1964, the AFL signed a lucrative $36 million television contract with NBCNBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
(beginning in the 1965 season), which gave the league money it needed to compete with the NFL for players. Upon hearing this news, an NFL owner was quoted as saying to then-NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle: "They (The AFL) don't have to call us 'Mister' anymore". A single-game attendance record was set on November 8, 1964, when 61,929 fans packed Shea Stadium
Shea Stadium
William A. Shea Municipal Stadium, usually shortened to Shea Stadium or just Shea , was a stadium in the New York City borough of Queens, in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park. It was the home baseball park of Major League Baseball's New York Mets from 1964 to 2008...
to watch the New York Jets and Buffalo Bills.
The bidding war for players between the AFL and NFL escalated in 1965. The Chiefs drafted University of Kansas
University of Kansas
The University of Kansas is a public research university and the largest university in the state of Kansas. KU campuses are located in Lawrence, Wichita, Overland Park, and Kansas City, Kansas with the main campus being located in Lawrence on Mount Oread, the highest point in Lawrence. The...
star Gale Sayers
Gale Sayers
Gale Eugene Sayers also known as "The Kansas Comet", is a former professional football player in the National Football League who spent his entire career with the Chicago Bears....
in the first round of the 1965 AFL draft (held November 28, 1964), while the Chicago Bears did the same in the NFL draft. Sayers eventually signed with the Bears. A similar situation occurred when the New York Jets and the NFL's St. Louis Cardinals both drafted University of Alabama quarterback Joe Namath
Joe Namath
Joseph William "Joe" Namath , nicknamed "Broadway Joe" or "Joe Willie", is a former American football quarterback. He played college football for the University of Alabama under coach Paul "Bear" Bryant and his assistant, Howard Schnellenberger, from 1962–1964, and professional football in the...
. In what was viewed as a key victory for the AFL, Namath signed a $427,000 contract with the Jets on January 2, 1965 (the deal included a new car). It was the highest amount of money ever paid to a collegiate football player, and is cited as the strongest contributing factor to the eventual merger between the two leagues.
In early 1965, the AFL considered adding its first expansion team, to begin play in Atlanta in 1966. An AFL franchise was awarded to Rankin Smith of that city. In a typical NFL move to undermine the AFL, the old league quickly offered Smith a franchise, whereupon Smith, like Max Winter before him, broke his word and deserted the AFL. In March, 1965, Joe Robbie had met with Commissioner Foss to inquire about an expansion franchise for Miami, Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
. On May 6, after Atlanta's exit, Robbie secured an agreement with Miami mayor Robert King Higho bring a team to Miami. League expansion was approved at a meeting held on June 7, and on August 16 the AFL's ninth franchise was officially awarded to Robbie and television star Danny Thomas
Danny Thomas
Danny Thomas was an American nightclub comedian and television and film actor, best known for starring in the television sitcom Make Room for Daddy . He was also the founder of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital...
. The Miami Dolphins
Miami Dolphins
The Miami Dolphins are a Professional football team based in the Miami metropolitan area in Florida. The team is part of the Eastern Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
joined the league for a fee of $7.5 million and started play in the AFL's Eastern Division in 1966. It is an irony of professional sports history, that the two cities that disdained AFL
AFL
AFL may refer to:* American Federation of Labor, one of the first federations of labor unions in the United States, and now part of the AFL-CIO* American Football League AFL may refer to:* American Federation of Labor, one of the first federations of labor unions in the United States, and now part...
franchises watched the AFL's Raiders and Dolphins franchises achieve unprecedented success, while the NFL's Vikings and Falcons are still looking for their first world championships.
Escalation and merger (1966–67)
In 1966, the rivalry between the AFL and NFL reached an all-time peak. On April 7, Joe Foss resigned as AFL commissioner. His successor was Oakland Raiders head coach and general manager Al DavisAl Davis
Allen "Al" Davis was an American football executive. He was the principal owner of the Oakland Raiders of the National Football League from 1970 to 2011...
, who had been instrumental in turning around the fortunes of that franchise. No longer content with trying to outbid the NFL for college talent, the AFL under Davis started to recruit players already on NFL squads. Davis's strategy focused on quarterbacks in particular, and in two months he persuaded seven NFL quarterbacks to sign with the AFL. Although Davis's intention was to help the AFL win the bidding war, some AFL and NFL owners saw the escalation as detrimental to both leagues.
The same month Davis was named commissioner, several NFL owners, along with Dallas Cowboys general manager Tex Schramm, secretly approached Lamar Hunt and other AFL owners and asked the AFL to merge. They held a series of secret meetings in Dallas to discuss their concerns over rapidly increasing player salaries, as well as the practice of player poaching. Hunt and Schramm completed the basic groundwork for a merger of the two leagues by the end of May, and on June 8, 1966, the merger was officially announced. Under the terms of the agreement, the two leagues would hold a common player draft. The agreement also called for a title game to be played between the champions of the respective leagues. The two leagues would be fully merged by 1970, and NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle
Pete Rozelle
Alvin Ray "Pete" Rozelle was the commissioner of the National Football League from January 1960 to November 1989, when he retired from office. Rozelle is credited with making the NFL into one of the most successful sports leagues in the world....
would remain as commissioner of the merged league. The AFL also agreed to pay indemnities of $18 million to the NFL over 20 years. In protest, Davis resigned as AFL commissioner on July 25 rather than remain until the completion of the merger, and Milt Woodard
Milt Woodard
Milt Woodard was an American sports writer and sport executive. He attended the College of Puget Sound in Washington, where he played baseball. He graduated in 1933....
was named President of the AFL.
On January 15, 1967, the first-ever World Championship Game between the champions of the two separate professional football leagues, the AFL-NFL Championship Game (retroactively referred to as Super Bowl I
Super Bowl I
The First AFL-NFL World Championship Game in professional American football, later known as Super Bowl I and referred to in some contemporary reports as the Supergame, was played on January 15, 1967 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles, California.The National Football League ...
), was played in Los Angeles. After a close first half, the NFL champion Green Bay Packers
Green Bay Packers
The Green Bay Packers are an American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. They are members of the North Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The Packers are the current NFL champions...
overwhelmed the AFL champion Kansas City Chiefs, 35-10. The loss reinforced for many the notion that the AFL was an inferior league. Packers head coach Vince Lombardi
Vince Lombardi
Vincent Thomas "Vince" Lombardi was an American football coach. He is best known as the head coach of the Green Bay Packers during the 1960s, where he led the team to three straight league championships and five in seven years, including winning the first two Super Bowls following the 1966 and...
stated after the game, "I do not think they are as good as the top teams in the National Football League."
The second AFL-NFL Championship (Super Bowl II
Super Bowl II
The second AFL-NFL World Championship Game in professional American football, later to be known as Super Bowl II, was played on January 14, 1968 at the Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida....
) yielded a similar result. The Oakland Raiders—who had easily beaten the Houston Oilers to win their first AFL championship—were overmatched by the Packers, 33-14. The more experienced Packers capitalized on a number of Raiders miscues and never trailed. Green Bay defensive tackle Henry Jordan
Henry Jordan
Henry Wendell Jordan was an American football defensive tackle who played for two teams, the Green Bay Packers and the Cleveland Browns, during his thirteen-year National Football League career. He played in the NFL from 1957 to 1969.Jordan attended Warwick High School in Newport News, Virginia...
offered a compliment to Oakland and the AFL, when he said, "...the AFL is becoming much more sophisticated on offense. I think the league has always had good personnel, but the blocks were subtler and better conceived in this game."
The AFL added its tenth and final team on May 24, 1967, when it awarded the league's second expansion franchise to an ownership group from Cincinnati
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio. Cincinnati is the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located to north of the Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border, near Indiana. The population within city limits is 296,943 according to the 2010 census, making it Ohio's...
, Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
, headed by NFL legend Paul Brown
Paul Brown
Paul Eugene Brown was a coach in American football and a major figure in the development of the National Football League...
. Although Brown had intended to join the NFL, he agreed to join the AFL when he learned that his team would be included in the NFL once the merger was completed. The Cincinnati Bengals
Cincinnati Bengals
The Cincinnati Bengals are a professional football team based in Cincinnati, Ohio. They are members of the AFC's North Division in the National Football League . The Bengals began play in 1968 as an expansion team in the American Football League , and joined the NFL in 1970 in the AFL-NFL...
began play in the 1968 season, finishing last in the Western Division.
Legitimacy and the end of an era (1968-70)
While many AFL players and observers believed their league was the equal of the NFL, their first two Super Bowl performances did nothing to prove it. That perception changed on January 12, 1969, when the AFL Champion New York Jets shocked the heavily favored NFL Champion Baltimore ColtsIndianapolis Colts
The Indianapolis Colts are a professional American football team based in Indianapolis. They are currently members of the South Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League ....
in Super Bowl III
Super Bowl III
Super Bowl III was the third AFL-NFL Championship Game in professional American football, but the first to officially bear the name "Super Bowl". This game is regarded as one of the greatest upsets in sports history...
. The Colts, who entered the contest favored by as many as 18 points, had completed the 1968 NFL season
1968 NFL season
The 1968 NFL season was the 49th regular season of the National Football League. As per the agreement made during the 1967 realignment, the New Orleans Saints and the New York Giants switched divisions; the Saints joined the Century Division while the Giants became part of the Capitol Division.The...
with a 13-1 record, and won the NFL title with a convincing 34-0 win of the Cleveland Browns. Led by their stalwart defense—which allowed a record-low 144 points—the 1968 Colts were considered one of the best-ever NFL teams.
By contrast, the Jets had allowed 280 points, the highest total for any division winner in the two leagues. They had also only narrowly beaten the favored Oakland Raiders 27-23 in the AFL championship game. Jets quarterback Joe Namath
Joe Namath
Joseph William "Joe" Namath , nicknamed "Broadway Joe" or "Joe Willie", is a former American football quarterback. He played college football for the University of Alabama under coach Paul "Bear" Bryant and his assistant, Howard Schnellenberger, from 1962–1964, and professional football in the...
recalled that in the days leading up to the game, he grew increasingly angry when told New York had no chance to beat Baltimore. Three days before the game, a frustrated Namath responded to a heckler
Heckler
A heckler is a person who harass and try to disconcert others with questions, challenges, or gibes.Hecklers are often known to shout disparaging comments at a performance or event, or interrupts set-piece speeches, for example at a political meeting, with intent to disturb its performers or...
at the Touchdown Club in Miami by declaring, "We're going to win Sunday, I'll guarantee you."
Namath and the Jets made good on his guarantee as they held the Colts scoreless until late in the fourth quarter. The Jets won, 16-7, in what is considered one of the greatest upsets in American sports history. With the win, the AFL finally achieved parity with the NFL and legitimized the merger of the two leagues. That notion was reinforced one year later in Super Bowl IV
Super Bowl IV
Super Bowl IV was the fourth AFL-NFL World Championship Game in professional American football, and the second one to officially bear the name "Super Bowl"...
, when the AFL champion Kansas City Chiefs upset the NFL champion Minnesota Vikings
Minnesota Vikings
The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Vikings joined the National Football League as an expansion team in 1960...
, 23-7, in the last championship game to be played between the two leagues. The Vikings, favored by 12½ points, were held to just 67 rushing yards.
The last game in AFL history was the AFL All-Star Game, held in Houston's Astrodome
Reliant Astrodome
Reliant Astrodome, also known as the Houston Astrodome or simply the Astrodome, is the world's first multi-purpose, domed sports stadium, located in Houston, Texas, USA. The stadium is part of the Reliant Park complex...
on January 17, 1970. The Western All-Stars, led by Chargers quarterback John Hadl
John Hadl
John Willard Hadl is a former collegiate and professional football player.Hadl was born in Lawrence, Kansas. After playing halfback on both offense and defense at the University of Kansas as a sophomore, Hadl played quarterback for his last two years at Kansas, and was selected as the school's...
, defeated the Eastern All-Stars, 26-3. Hadl was named the game's Most Valuable Player
Most Valuable Player
In sports, a Most Valuable Player award is an honor typically bestowed upon the best performing player or players on a specific team, in an entire league, or for a particular contest or series of contests...
. Prior to the start of the 1970 NFL season
1970 NFL season
The 1970 NFL season was the 51st regular season of the National Football League, and the first one after the AFL-NFL Merger.The merger forced a realignment between the combined league's clubs. Because there were 16 NFL teams and 10 AFL teams, three teams needed to transfer to balance the two new...
, the merged league was organized into two conferences of three divisions each. All ten AFL teams made up the bulk of the new American Football Conference
American Football Conference
The American Football Conference is one of the two conferences of the National Football League . This conference and its counterpart, the National Football Conference , currently contain 16 teams each, making up the 32 teams of the NFL....
. To avoid having an inequitable number of teams in each conference, the leagues voted to move three NFL teams to the AFC. Motivated by the prospect of an intrastate rivalry
Battle of Ohio (NFL)
In the National Football League, the Battle of Ohio refers to games played between the Cleveland Browns and the Cincinnati Bengals. This rivalry has produced 2 of the 8 highest scoring games in NFL history...
with the Bengals as well as by personal animosity toward Paul Brown
Paul Brown
Paul Eugene Brown was a coach in American football and a major figure in the development of the National Football League...
, Cleveland Browns owner Art Modell
Art Modell
Arthur B. Modell is an American businessman, entrepreneur and former National Football League team owner. He owned the Cleveland Browns franchise from 1961–1995 and the Baltimore Ravens franchise from 1996–2004. Modell is the grandson of the late Morris Modell who founded the northeast...
quickly offered to include his team in the AFC. He helped persuade the Pittsburgh Steelers
Pittsburgh Steelers
The Pittsburgh Steelers are a professional football team based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The team currently belongs to the North Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League . Founded in , the Steelers are the oldest franchise in the AFC...
(the Browns' archrivals) and Baltimore Colts (who shared the Baltimore
Baltimore
Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...
/Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
market with the Washington Redskins
Washington Redskins
The Washington Redskins are a professional American football team and members of the East Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The team plays at FedExField in Landover, Maryland, while its headquarters and training facility are at Redskin Park in Ashburn,...
) to follow suit, and each team received US $3 million to make the switch. All the other NFL squads became part of the National Football Conference
National Football Conference
The National Football Conference is one of the two conferences of the National Football League . This conference and its counterpart, the American Football Conference , currently contain 16 teams each, making up the 32 teams of the NFL.-Current teams:Since 2002, the NFC has comprised 16 teams,...
.
Pro Football Hall of Fame
Pro Football Hall of Fame
The Pro Football Hall of Fame is the hall of fame of professional football in the United States with an emphasis on the National Football League . It opened in Canton, Ohio, on September 7, 1963, with 17 charter inductees...
receiver Charlie Joiner
Charlie Joiner
Charles B. Joiner Jr. is a former American football player who starred in professional football for eighteen seasons, virtually exclusively at the position of wide receiver. He retired with the most career receptions, receiving yards, and games played of any wide receiver in NFL history. He was...
, who started his career with the Houston Oilers (1969), was the last AFL player active in professional football, retiring after the 1986 season, when he played for the San Diego Chargers
San Diego Chargers
The San Diego Chargers are a professional American football team based in San Diego, California. they were members of the Western Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
.
Overview
The American Football League stands as the only professional football league to successfully compete against the NFL. When the two leagues merged in 1970, all ten AFL franchises and their statistics became part of the new NFL. Every other professional league that had competed against the NFL before the AFL-NFL merger had folded completely: the three previous leagues named "American Football League" and the All-America Football ConferenceAll-America Football Conference
The All-America Football Conference was a professional American football league that challenged the established National Football League from 1946 to 1949. One of the NFL's most formidable challengers, the AAFC attracted many of the nation's best players, and introduced many lasting innovations...
. After the merger, the United States Football League
United States Football League
The United States Football League was an American football league which was in active operation from 1983 to 1987. It played a spring/summer schedule in its first three seasons and a traditional autumn/winter schedule was set to commence before league operations ceased.The USFL was conceived in...
; the World Football League
World Football League
The World Football League was a short-lived gridiron football league that played in 1974 and part of 1975. Although the league's proclaimed ambition was to bring American football onto a worldwide stage, the farthest the WFL reached was placing a team – the Hawaiians – in Honolulu, Hawaii. The...
; and the XFL
XFL
The XFL was a professional American football league that played for one season in 2001. The league was founded by Vince McMahon, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of WWE...
met the same fate. From an earlier AFL (1936–1937), only the Cleveland Rams (now the St. Louis Rams
St. Louis Rams
The St. Louis Rams are a professional American football team based in St. Louis, Missouri. They are currently members of the West Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The Rams have won three NFL Championships .The Rams began playing in 1936 in Cleveland,...
), joined the NFL and are currently operating; as are the Cleveland Browns
Cleveland Browns
The Cleveland Browns are a professional football team based in Cleveland, Ohio. They are currently members of the North Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
and the San Francisco 49ers
San Francisco 49ers
The San Francisco 49ers are a professional American football team based in San Francisco, California, playing in the West Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The team was founded in 1946 as a charter member of the All-America Football Conference and...
from the AAFC. A third AAFC team, the Baltimore Colts (not related to the 1953-1983 Baltimore Colts or to the current Indianapolis Colts franchise), played only one year in the NFL, disbanding at the end of the 1950 season.
Rule changes
The NFL eventually adopted many ideas introduced by the AFL. One was including the names on player jerseys. The older league also adopted the practice of using the stadium scoreboard clocks to keep track of the official game time, instead of just having a stopwatchStopwatch
A stopwatch is a handheld timepiece designed to measure the amount of time elapsed from a particular time when activated to when the piece is deactivated. A large digital version of a stopwatch designed for viewing at a distance, as in a sports stadium, is called a stopclock.The timing functions...
used by the referee. The AFL played a 14-game schedule for its entire existence, starting in 1960. The NFL, which had played a 12-game schedule since 1947, changed to a 14-game schedule in 1961, a year after the American Football League instituted it. The AFL also introduced the two-point conversion
Two-point conversion
In American and Canadian football, a two-point conversion is a play a team attempts instead of kicking a one-point convert immediately after it scores a touchdown...
to professional football thirty-four years before the NFL instituted it in 1994 (college football had adopted the two point conversion in the late 1950s). All of these innovations pioneered by the AFL, including its more exciting style of play and colorful uniforms, have essentially made today's professional football more like the AFL than like the old-line NFL. The AFL's challenge to the NFL also laid the groundwork for the Super Bowl
Super Bowl
The Super Bowl is the championship game of the National Football League , the highest level of professional American football in the United States, culminating a season that begins in the late summer of the previous calendar year. The Super Bowl uses Roman numerals to identify each game, rather...
, which has become the standard for championship contests in the United States.
Television
The NFL also adapted how the AFL used the growing power of televised football games, which were bolstered with the help of major network contracts, first with ABCAmerican Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
and later with NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
). With that first contract with ABC, the AFL adopted the first-ever cooperative television plan for professional football, in which the proceeds were divided equally among member clubs. It featured many outstanding games, such as the classic 1962 double-overtime American Football League championship game between the Dallas Texans
Kansas City Chiefs
The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. They are a member of the Western Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League . Originally named the Dallas Texans, the club was founded by Lamar Hunt in 1960 as a...
and the defending champion Houston Oilers
Tennessee Titans
The Tennessee Titans are a professional American football team based in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. They are members of the South Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League . Previously known as the Houston Oilers, the team began play in 1960 as a charter...
. At the time it was the longest professional football championship game
Professional American football championship games
Below is a list of professional football championship games in the United States, involving:* the informal Pittsburgh circuit of professional football teams ;...
ever played. The AFL also appealed to fans by offering a flashier style of play, compared to the more conservative game of the NFL. Long passes ("bombs") were commonplace in AFL offenses, led by such talented quarterbacks as John Hadl
John Hadl
John Willard Hadl is a former collegiate and professional football player.Hadl was born in Lawrence, Kansas. After playing halfback on both offense and defense at the University of Kansas as a sophomore, Hadl played quarterback for his last two years at Kansas, and was selected as the school's...
, Daryle Lamonica
Daryle Lamonica
Daryle Pat Lamonica is a former American collegiate and professional football quarterback who played in the American Football League, and later in the NFL....
and Len Dawson
Len Dawson
Leonard Ray "Len" "Lenny" Dawson is a former American collegiate and Professional Football quarterback who attended Purdue University and went on to play for three professional teams, most notably the Dallas Texans/Kansas City Chiefs...
.
Despite having a national television contract, the AFL often found itself trying to gain a foothold, only to come up against roadblocks. For example, CBS-TV, which broadcast NFL games, ignored and did not report scores from the innovative AFL, on orders from the NFL. It was only after the merger agreement was announced that CBS began to give AFL scores.
Expanding and reintroducing the sport to more cities
The AFL took advantage of the burgeoning popularity of football by locating teams in major cities that lacked NFL franchises. Hunt's vision not only brought a new professional football league to CaliforniaCalifornia
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
and New York, but introduced the sport to Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
, restored it to Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
and later to fast-growing Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
, as well as bringing it to New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
for the first time in 12 years. Buffalo, having lost its original NFL franchise
Buffalo (NFL)
Buffalo, New York had a turbulent, early-era National Football League team that operated under three different names and several different owners between the 1910s and 1920s...
in 1929 and turned down by the NFL at least twice (1940 and 1950
Buffalo Bills (AAFC)
The Buffalo Bills was an American Football team, based in Buffalo, NY, that played in the All-America Football Conference from 1946 to 1949. During its first season in 1946, the team was known as the Buffalo Bisons...
) for a replacement, returned to the NFL with the merger.
Three NFL franchises were awarded as a direct result of the AFL's competition with the older league: the Vikings, who were awarded to Max Winter in exchange for dropping his bid to join the AFL; the Falcons, whose franchise went to Rankin Smith to dissuade him from purchasing the AFL's Miami Dolphins
Miami Dolphins
The Miami Dolphins are a Professional football team based in the Miami metropolitan area in Florida. The team is part of the Eastern Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
; and the Saints, because of successful anti-trust legislation which let the two leagues merge, and was supported by several Louisiana politicians. Further, the success of the expansion process engendered by the AFL-NFL conflict (as well as later expansion pressures created by the WFL, USFL, and even the CFL
CFL USA
The term CFL USA refers to the abortive expansion of the Canadian Football League into the United States in the early-to-mid 1990s. The 1993 CFL season saw the addition of the first American team to the league, the Sacramento Gold Miners...
) certainly led to more expansion, ultimately to the current thirty-two team league. Thus, if not for the AFL, at least 15 of today's NFL teams would probably never have existed: the ten teams from the AFL, and the five instigated by the AFL's presence.
The AFL also ended up radically altering the fortunes of the Pittsburgh Steelers
Pittsburgh Steelers
The Pittsburgh Steelers are a professional football team based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The team currently belongs to the North Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League . Founded in , the Steelers are the oldest franchise in the AFC...
. Before the merger, the Steelers had long been one of the NFL's worst teams. Constantly lacking the money to build a quality team, the Steelers had only posted eight winning seasons, and just one playoff appearance, since their first year of existence in 1933. They also finished with a 1-13 record in 1969
1969 NFL season
The 1969 NFL season was the 50th regular season of the National Football League, and the last one before the AFL-NFL Merger. To honor the NFL's 50th season, a special anniversary logo was designed and each player wore a patch on their jerseys with this logo throughout the season.As per the...
, tied with the Chicago Bears
Chicago Bears
The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago, Illinois. They are members of the North Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League...
for the worst record in the NFL. The $3 million relocation fee that the Steelers received for joining the AFC after the merger helped them rebuild into a contender, drafting eventual-Pro Football Hall of Fame
Pro Football Hall of Fame
The Pro Football Hall of Fame is the hall of fame of professional football in the United States with an emphasis on the National Football League . It opened in Canton, Ohio, on September 7, 1963, with 17 charter inductees...
rs like Terry Bradshaw
Terry Bradshaw
Terry Paxton Bradshaw is a former American football quarterback with the Pittsburgh Steelers in the National Football League . He played 14 seasons. He is a football analyst and co-host of Fox NFL Sunday...
and Joe Greene
Joe Greene (American football)
Charles Edward Greene, known as “Mean Joe” Greene, is a former all-pro American football defensive tackle who played for the Pittsburgh Steelers of the NFL. Throughout the early 1970s he was the one of most dominant defensive players in the National Football League...
, and ultimately winning four Super Bowls in the 1970s.
Effects on players
Perhaps the greatest social legacy of the AFL was the domino effectDomino effect
The domino effect is a chain reaction that occurs when a small change causes a similar change nearby, which then will cause another similar change, and so on in linear sequence. The term is best known as a mechanical effect, and is used as an analogy to a falling row of dominoes...
of its policy of being more liberal than the entrenched NFL in offering opportunity for black players
Black players in American professional football
Details of the history of black players in American professional football depend on the professional football league considered: the National Football League , which evolved from the first professional league, the American Professional Football Association, or the American Football League, , a...
. While the NFL was still emerging from thirty years of segregation influenced by Washington Redskins' owner George Preston Marshall
George Preston Marshall
George Preston Marshall was the owner and president of the Washington Redskins of the National Football League from 1932 until his death in 1969.-Contributions:...
, the AFL actively recruited from small and predominantly black colleges. The AFL's color-blindness led not only to the explosion of black talent on the field, but to the eventual entry of blacks into scouting, coordinating, and ultimately head coaching positions, long after the league ceased to exist.
The AFL's free agents came from several sources. Some were players who could not find success playing in the NFL, while another source was the Canadian Football League
Canadian Football League
The Canadian Football League or CFL is a professional sports league located in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football, a form of gridiron football closely related to American football....
. In the late 1950s, many players released by the NFL, or un-drafted and unsigned out of college by the NFL, went North to try their luck with the CFL, and later returned to the states to play in the AFL.
In the league's first years, players such as Oilers' George Blanda
George Blanda
George Frederick Blanda was a collegiate and professional football quarterback and placekicker...
, Chargers/Bills' Jack Kemp
Jack Kemp
Jack French Kemp was an American politician and a collegiate and professional football player. A Republican, he served as Housing Secretary in the administration of President George H. W. Bush from 1989 to 1993, having previously served nine terms as a congressman for Western New York's 31st...
, Texans' Len Dawson
Len Dawson
Leonard Ray "Len" "Lenny" Dawson is a former American collegiate and Professional Football quarterback who attended Purdue University and went on to play for three professional teams, most notably the Dallas Texans/Kansas City Chiefs...
, the NY Titans' Don Maynard
Don Maynard
Donald Rogers Maynard is a former American football player who played collegiately for Texas Western College and professionally with the National Football League's New York Giants and the American Football League's New York Jets and the World Football League's Shreveport Steamer.After having been...
, Raiders/Patriots/Jets' Babe Parilli
Babe Parilli
-Biography:Parilli was born in the Pittsburgh industrial suburb of Rochester, Pennsylvania. He attended the University of Kentucky as an All-American starting quarterback for the Wildcats under Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant....
, Pats' Bob Dee
Bob Dee
Robert Henry Dee was an American football defensive end in the National Football League and the American Football League...
proved to be AFL standouts. Other players such as the Broncos' Frank Tripucka
Frank Tripucka
Francis Joseph Tripucka is a former American collegiate and Professional Football quarterback, at Notre Dame, in the National Football League, in the Canadian Football League, and in the early American Football League.-Notre Dame Fighting Irish:Tripucka was backup quarterback to Heisman Trophy...
, the Pats' Gino Cappelletti
Gino Cappelletti
Gino Cappelletti is a former American collegiate and Professional Football player. He played at the University of Minnesota, and was a star in the American Football League for the Boston Patriots...
, the Bills' Cookie Gilchrist
Cookie Gilchrist
Carlton Chester "Cookie" Gilchrist was a gridiron football player in the American Football League and Canadian Football League.-Career:...
and the Chargers' Tobin Rote
Tobin Rote
Tobin Cornelius Rote was an American college and professional football player who played quarterback for the NFL's Green Bay Packers and Detroit Lions, the Canadian Football League's Toronto Argonauts, and the American Football League's San Diego Chargers and Denver Broncos.-Early life:Rote...
, Sam DeLuca
Sam DeLuca
Saverio Frank "Sam" DeLuca was an American Professional Football offensive lineman in the American Football League and later a radio and television football coverage broadcaster. He played six seasons, three for the Los Angeles/San Diego Chargers and three for the New York Jets. He was a member of...
and Dave Kocourek
Dave Kocourek
Dave Kocourek was an American college and Professional Football player who played collegiately at Wisconsin. As a professional, he played for the Canadian Football League's Winnipeg Blue Bombers in 1959, and then played for nine years as a tight end in the American Football League, from 1960...
also made their mark to give the fledgling league badly needed credibility. Rounding out this mix of potential talent were the true "free agents", the walk-ons and the "wanna-be's", who tried out in droves for the chance to play professional American football.
After the AFL-NFL merger agreement in 1966, and after the AFL's Jets
New York Jets
The New York Jets are a professional football team headquartered in Florham Park, New Jersey, representing the New York metropolitan area. The team is a member of the Eastern Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
defeated the "best team in the history of the NFL", the Colts, a popular misconception fostered by the NFL and spread by media reports was that the AFL defeated the NFL because of the Common Draft
Common Draft
The Common Draft was the name given to the selection of college football players in a combined draft from 1967 to 1969 by the American Football League and the National Football League . This took place after the AFL-NFL merger agreement in 1966....
instituted in 1967. This apparently was meant to assert that the AFL could not achieve parity as long as it had to compete with the NFL in the draft. But the 1968 Jets had less than a handful of "common draftees". Their stars were honed in the AFL, many of them since the Titans days. As noted below, the AFL got its share of stars long before the "common draft".
Players who chose the AFL to develop their talent included Lance Alworth
Lance Alworth
Lance Dwight Alworth is a former American collegiate and Professional Football wide receiver. He is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame and the Pro Football Hall of Fame...
and Ron Mix
Ron Mix
Ronald Jack Mix , in Los Angeles, California was an American football player.Mix attended USC, and upon graduation played right tackle and guard for the American Football League's Los Angeles/San Diego Chargers and the NFL Oakland Raiders .- College career :A graduate of the University of Southern...
of the Chargers
San Diego Chargers
The San Diego Chargers are a professional American football team based in San Diego, California. they were members of the Western Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
, who had also been drafted by the NFL's San Francisco 49ers
San Francisco 49ers
The San Francisco 49ers are a professional American football team based in San Francisco, California, playing in the West Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The team was founded in 1946 as a charter member of the All-America Football Conference and...
and Baltimore Colts
History of the Indianapolis Colts
The Indianapolis Colts are a professional football team based in Indianapolis, Indiana. They play in the AFC South division of the National Football League. They have won 3 NFL championships and 2 Super Bowls....
respectively. Both eventually were elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame
Pro Football Hall of Fame
The Pro Football Hall of Fame is the hall of fame of professional football in the United States with an emphasis on the National Football League . It opened in Canton, Ohio, on September 7, 1963, with 17 charter inductees...
after earning recognition during their careers as being among the best at their positions. Among specific teams, the 1964 Buffalo Bills
Buffalo Bills
The Buffalo Bills are a professional football team based in Buffalo, New York. They are currently members of the East Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
stood out by holding their opponents to a pro football record 913 yards rushing on 300 attempts, while also recording fifty quarterback sacks in a 14-game schedule.
Another example is cited by the University of Kansas
University of Kansas
The University of Kansas is a public research university and the largest university in the state of Kansas. KU campuses are located in Lawrence, Wichita, Overland Park, and Kansas City, Kansas with the main campus being located in Lawrence on Mount Oread, the highest point in Lawrence. The...
website, which describes the 1961 Bluebonnet Bowl
Bluebonnet Bowl
The Bluebonnet Bowl was an annual college football bowl game played in Houston, Texas. A civic group was appointed by the Houston Chamber of Commerce Athletics Committee in 1959 to organize the bowl game. It was held at Rice Stadium from 1959 through 1967, and again in 1985 and 1986. The game was...
, won by KU, and goes on to say "Two Kansas players, quarterback John Hadl
John Hadl
John Willard Hadl is a former collegiate and professional football player.Hadl was born in Lawrence, Kansas. After playing halfback on both offense and defense at the University of Kansas as a sophomore, Hadl played quarterback for his last two years at Kansas, and was selected as the school's...
and fullback Curtis McClinton
Curtis McClinton
Curtis McClinton is a former collegiate and professional American football player.McClinton attended Wichita High School North in Wichita, Kansas before attending the University of Kansas. A three-time All-Big Eight selection as a Jayhawk, McClinton led the team in rushing in 1959 and rushed for...
, signed professional contracts on the field immediately after the conclusion of the game. Hadl inked a deal with the [AFL] San Diego Chargers
San Diego Chargers
The San Diego Chargers are a professional American football team based in San Diego, California. they were members of the Western Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
, and McClinton went to the [AFL] Dallas Texans
Kansas City Chiefs
The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. They are a member of the Western Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League . Originally named the Dallas Texans, the club was founded by Lamar Hunt in 1960 as a...
." Between them, in their careers Hadl and McClinton combined for an American Football League Rookie of the Year
American Football League Rookies of the Year
In each year of its ten-year existence , numerous sports-news services named their choice for the American Football League's best first-year player...
award, seven AFL All-Star
American Football League All-Star games
-All-League Teams:The Sporting News published American Football League All-League Teams for each season played by the American Football League, 1960 through 1969...
selections, two Pro Bowl selections, a team MVP award, two AFL All-Star Game
American Football League All-Star games
-All-League Teams:The Sporting News published American Football League All-League Teams for each season played by the American Football League, 1960 through 1969...
MVP awards, two AFL championships, and a World Championship
Professional American football championship games
Below is a list of professional football championship games in the United States, involving:* the informal Pittsburgh circuit of professional football teams ;...
. And these were players selected by the AFL long before the "Common Draft".
In 2009, a five-part series, Full Color Football: The History of the American Football League
Full Color Football: The History of the American Football League
Full Color Football: The History of the American Football League is a sports documentary miniseries that focuses on the American Football League , recognized by many as the genesis of modern Professional Football...
, on the Showtime Network, refuted many of the long-held misconceptions about the AFL. In it, Abner Haynes
Abner Haynes
Abner Haynes is a former college and professional football player in the United States.Haynes is a graduate of North Texas State University where he and his then teammate Leon King integrated college football in the state of Texas in 1956...
tells of how his father forbade him to accept being drafted by the NFL, after drunken scouts from that league had visited the Haynes home; the NFL Cowboys' Tex Schramm is quoted as saying that if his team had ever agreed to play the AFL's Dallas Texans
Kansas City Chiefs
The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. They are a member of the Western Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League . Originally named the Dallas Texans, the club was founded by Lamar Hunt in 1960 as a...
, they would very likely have lost; George Blanda
George Blanda
George Frederick Blanda was a collegiate and professional football quarterback and placekicker...
makes a case for more AFL players being inducted to the Pro Football Hall of Fame by pointing out that Hall of Famer Willie Brown was cut by the Houston Oilers because he couldn't cover Oilers flanker Charlie Hennigan
Charlie Hennigan
Charles Taylor Hennigan, Sr., known as Charlie Hennigan , is a retired American football player with the former Houston Oilers who resides in Shreveport, Louisiana. Born in Bienville in Bienville Parish in north Louisiana, Hennigan grew up in nearby Minden, the seat of Webster Parish, located...
in practice. Later, when Brown was with the Broncos, Hennigan needed nine catches in one game against the Broncos to break Lionel Taylor
Lionel Taylor
Lionel Thomas Taylor is a former American football wide receiver who led the American Football League in receptions each year for the first six years of the league's existence.-College football:...
's Professional Football record of 100 catches in one season. Hennigan caught the nine passes and broke the record, even though he was covered by Brown: Blanda's point being that if Hennigan could do so well against a Hall of Fame db, he deserves induction, as well.
Influence on professional football coaching
The AFL also spawned coaches whose style and techniques profoundly affect the play of professional football until this day. In addition to AFL greats like Hank StramHank Stram
Henry Louis "Hank" Stram was an American football coach. He is best known for his 15-year tenure with the American Football League's Dallas Texans/Kansas City Chiefs and the Chiefs of the NFL. Stram won three AFL Championships and Super Bowl IV with the Chiefs...
, Lou Saban
Lou Saban
Louis Henry Saban was an American football player and coach. Saban played for Indiana University in college and as a pro for the Cleveland Browns of the All-America Football Conference...
, Sid Gillman
Sid Gillman
Sidney "Sid" Gillman was an American football player, coach, executive, and innovator. Gillman's insistence on stretching the football field by throwing deep downfield passes, instead of short passes to running backs or wide receivers at the sides of the line of scrimmage, was instrumental in...
and Al Davis
Al Davis
Allen "Al" Davis was an American football executive. He was the principal owner of the Oakland Raiders of the National Football League from 1970 to 2011...
were eventual hall of fame coaches such as Bill Walsh, a protegé of Davis with the AFL Oakland Raiders
Oakland Raiders
The Oakland Raiders are a professional American football team based in Oakland, California. They currently play in the Western Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
; and Chuck Noll
Chuck Noll
Charles Henry "Chuck" Noll is a former professional American football player and coach, and a member of the Sid Gillman coaching tree. He served most notably as the head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers of the National Football League from 1969 to 1991...
, who worked for Gillman and the AFL LA/San Diego Chargers
San Diego Chargers
The San Diego Chargers are a professional American football team based in San Diego, California. they were members of the Western Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
from 1960 through 1965. Others include Buddy Ryan
Buddy Ryan
James David "Buddy" Ryan is a former American NFL football coach.-Early years:Ryan was born and reared in a small, agricultural-based community "just outside of Frederick, Oklahoma." Ryan played college football for Oklahoma A&M University where he earned four letters as a guard between 1952 and...
(AFL's New York Jets
New York Jets
The New York Jets are a professional football team headquartered in Florham Park, New Jersey, representing the New York metropolitan area. The team is a member of the Eastern Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
), Chuck Knox
Chuck Knox
Charles Robert "Chuck" Knox is a former American football coach at the high school, collegiate and professional levels. He is best remembered as head coach of three National Football League teams, the Seattle Seahawks, the Buffalo Bills, and the Los Angeles Rams, serving two separate stints with...
(Jets), Walt Michaels
Walt Michaels
Walt Michaels was a former professional football player and coach who is best remembered for his six-year tenure as head coach of the NFL's New York Jets from 1977-1982.-Collegiate and early NFL career:...
(Jets), and John Madden
John Madden (American football)
John Earl Madden is a former American professional football player in the National Football League, a former Super Bowl-winning head coach with the Oakland Raiders in the American Football League and later the NFL, and a former color commentator for NFL telecasts. In 2006, he was inducted into...
(AFL's Oakland Raiders
Oakland Raiders
The Oakland Raiders are a professional American football team based in Oakland, California. They currently play in the Western Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
). Additionally, many prominent coaches began their pro football careers as players in the AFL, including Sam Wyche
Sam Wyche
Samuel David "Sam" Wyche is a former American football player and head coach, who is best known as the head coach of the Cincinnati Bengals of the NFL...
(Cincinnati Bengals
Cincinnati Bengals
The Cincinnati Bengals are a professional football team based in Cincinnati, Ohio. They are members of the AFC's North Division in the National Football League . The Bengals began play in 1968 as an expansion team in the American Football League , and joined the NFL in 1970 in the AFL-NFL...
), Marty Schottenheimer
Marty Schottenheimer
Martin Edward "Marty" Schottenheimer is the current head coach of the Virginia Destroyers of the United Football League. Over his career, he has served as head coach of the Cleveland Browns, Kansas City Chiefs, Washington Redskins, and San Diego Chargers. He has the most wins of any NFL coach...
(Buffalo Bills
Buffalo Bills
The Buffalo Bills are a professional football team based in Buffalo, New York. They are currently members of the East Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
), Wayne Fontes
Wayne Fontes
Wayne Fontes is a former American football coach and college and professional football player who was the head coach of the NFL's Detroit Lions from 1988 to 1996. His 67 wins and 71 losses are each the most for a head coach in team history.-Background and early career:Fontes was born in the...
(Jets), and two-time Super Bowl winner Tom Flores
Tom Flores
Thomas R. "Tom" Flores is a retired American football quarterback and coach. Flores and Mike Ditka are the only two people in the National Football League history to win a Super Bowl as a player, as an assistant coach, and as a head coach...
(Oakland Raiders
Oakland Raiders
The Oakland Raiders are a professional American football team based in Oakland, California. They currently play in the Western Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
). Flores also has a Super Bowl ring as a player (1969 Kansas City Chiefs
Kansas City Chiefs
The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. They are a member of the Western Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League . Originally named the Dallas Texans, the club was founded by Lamar Hunt in 1960 as a...
).
Walsh is often cited for an impressive "coaching tree" of assistants who went on to become head coaches. But since Walsh was an assistant to Davis, who in turn learned the trade from Gillman, Walsh's coaching tree
Coaching tree
A coaching tree is similar to a family tree except it shows the relationships of coaches instead of family members. There are several different ways to define a relationship between two coaches...
is thus an offshoot of Gillman's coaching tree. Besides Davis, others who coached for Gillman included Dick Vermeil
Dick Vermeil
Richard Albert "Dick" Vermeil is a former American head coach for the National Football League's Philadelphia Eagles , St. Louis Rams and Kansas City Chiefs...
, Knox, and George Allen, as well as Noll, the only head coach to win four Super Bowls. The numbers on Gillman's coaching tree indicate the Super Bowls won by his coaching "descendants", a total of twenty-four.
AFL 50th Anniversary Celebration
As the influence of the AFL continues through the present, the 50th anniversary of its launch was celebrated during 20092009 NFL season
The 2009 NFL season was the 90th regular season of the National Football League.The preseason started with the Pro Football Hall of Fame Game on August 9, 2009, and the regular season began September 10. The season ended with Super Bowl XLIV, the league's championship game, on February 7, 2010 at...
. The season-long celebration began in August with the 2009 Pro Football Hall of Fame Game
Pro Football Hall of Fame Game
The Pro Football Hall of Game is an annual National Football League exhibition game that is held the weekend of the Pro Football Hall of Fame's induction ceremonies. The game is played at Fawcett Stadium, which is located next door to the Hall of Fame building in Canton, Ohio...
in Canton, Ohio
Canton, Ohio
Canton is the county seat of Stark County in northeastern Ohio, approximately south of Akron and south of Cleveland.The City of Caton is the largest incorporated area within the Canton-Massillon Metropolitan Statistical Area...
between two AFC teams (as opposed to the AFC-vs-NFC format the game first adopted in 1971). The opponents were two of the original AFL franchises, the Buffalo Bills
Buffalo Bills
The Buffalo Bills are a professional football team based in Buffalo, New York. They are currently members of the East Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
and Tennessee Titans
Tennessee Titans
The Tennessee Titans are a professional American football team based in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. They are members of the South Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League . Previously known as the Houston Oilers, the team began play in 1960 as a charter...
(the former Houston Oilers). Bills' owner Ralph C. Wilson Jr.
Ralph C. Wilson Jr.
Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. is the founder, owner and president of NFL's Buffalo Bills. He was one of the founding owners of the American Football League, the league that the NFL merged with in 1970. He is the oldest owner in the National Football League, at age...
(a 2009 Hall of Fame inductee) and Titans' owner Bud Adams
Bud Adams
Kenneth Stanley "Bud" Adams, Jr. is the owner of the Tennessee Titans' National Football League franchise. He was instrumental in the founding and establishment of the former American Football League. Adams became a charter AFL owner with the establishment of the Titans franchise, which was...
are the only surviving members of the Foolish Club
Foolish Club
The Foolish Club was the self-imposed name taken by the owners of the eight original franchises of the American Football League . When Texas millionaires Lamar Hunt and Bud Adams, Jr. were refused entry to the established NFL in 1959, they contacted other businessmen to form an eight-team...
, the eight original owners of AFL franchises.
The Hall of Fame Game was the first of several "Legacy Weekends," during which each of the "original eight" AFL teams sported uniforms from their AFL era. Each of the 8 teams took part in at least two such "legacy" games. On-field officials also wore red-and-white-striped AFL uniforms during these games.
In the fall of 2009, the Showtime pay-cable network premiered Full Color Football: The History of the American Football League
Full Color Football: The History of the American Football League
Full Color Football: The History of the American Football League is a sports documentary miniseries that focuses on the American Football League , recognized by many as the genesis of modern Professional Football...
, a 5-part documentary series produced by NFL Films
NFL Films
NFL Films is a Mount Laurel, New Jersey-based company devoted to producing commercials, television programs, feature films, and documentaries on the National Football League, as well as other unrelated major events and awards shows...
that features vintage game film and interviews as well as more recent interviews with those associated with the AFL.
The NFL sanctioned a variety of "Legacy" gear to celebrate the AFL anniversary, such as "throwback" jerseys, t-shirts, signs, pennants and banners, including items with the logos and colors of the Dallas Texans
Kansas City Chiefs
The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. They are a member of the Western Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League . Originally named the Dallas Texans, the club was founded by Lamar Hunt in 1960 as a...
, Houston Oilers, and New York Titans
New York Jets
The New York Jets are a professional football team headquartered in Florham Park, New Jersey, representing the New York metropolitan area. The team is a member of the Eastern Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
, the three of the Original Eight
Foolish Club
The Foolish Club was the self-imposed name taken by the owners of the eight original franchises of the American Football League . When Texas millionaires Lamar Hunt and Bud Adams, Jr. were refused entry to the established NFL in 1959, they contacted other businessmen to form an eight-team...
AFL teams which have changed names or venues. A December 5, 2009 story by Ken Belson in the New York Times quotes league officials as stating that AFL "Legacy" gear made up twenty to thirty percent of the league's annual $3 billion merchandise income. Fan favorites were the Denver Broncos
Denver Broncos
The Denver Broncos are a professional American football team based in Denver, Colorado. They are currently members of the West Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
' vertically striped socks, which could not be re-stocked quickly enough.
AFL franchises
| Division | Team | First Season | Home Stadium | AFL Record (W-L-T) | AFL Titles |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eastern | Boston Patriots New England Patriots The New England Patriots, commonly called the "Pats", are a professional football team based in the Greater Boston area, playing their home games in the town of Foxborough, Massachusetts at Gillette Stadium. The team is part of the East Division of the American Football Conference in the National... |
1960 | Nickerson Field Nickerson Field Nickerson Field is a stadium on the site of Braves Field, in Boston, Massachusetts, the former home of the National League Boston Braves baseball team which is now located in Atlanta... (1960–62), Fenway Park Fenway Park Fenway Park is a baseball park near Kenmore Square in Boston, Massachusetts. Located at 4 Yawkey Way, it has served as the home ballpark of the Boston Red Sox baseball club since it opened in 1912, and is the oldest Major League Baseball stadium currently in use. It is one of two "classic"... (1963–68), Alumni Stadium Alumni Stadium Alumni Stadium is a football stadium located on the campus of Boston College in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, approximately sixmiles west of downtown Boston. The stadium lies within the city limits of Boston, although its postal address is Chestnut Hill. It is the home of the Boston College Eagles... (1969) |
64-69-9 | 0 |
| Buffalo Bills Buffalo Bills The Buffalo Bills are a professional football team based in Buffalo, New York. They are currently members of the East Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League... |
1960 | War Memorial Stadium War Memorial Stadium (Buffalo) War Memorial Stadium is the name of a stadium that formerly stood in Buffalo, New York. The stadium was on a rectangular block near the downtown area. Its main entrance was at Jefferson Avenue to the east and Best Street to the south... (1960-1969) |
67-71-6 | 2 | |
| Houston Oilers | 1960 | Jeppesen Stadium Robertson Stadium John O'Quinn Field at Corbin J. Robertson Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Houston, located on the campus of the University of Houston. It is the home of the Houston Cougars football and women's soccer teams... (1960–64), Rice Stadium Rice Stadium Rice Stadium is a football stadium located on the Rice University campus in Houston, Texas. It has been the home of the Rice University football team since its completion in 1950 and hosted Super Bowl VIII in 1974.... (1965–67), Houston Astrodome Reliant Astrodome Reliant Astrodome, also known as the Houston Astrodome or simply the Astrodome, is the world's first multi-purpose, domed sports stadium, located in Houston, Texas, USA. The stadium is part of the Reliant Park complex... (1968–69) |
72-69-4 | 2 | |
| Miami Dolphins Miami Dolphins The Miami Dolphins are a Professional football team based in the Miami metropolitan area in Florida. The team is part of the Eastern Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League... |
1966 | Miami Orange Bowl Miami Orange Bowl The Orange Bowl, formerly Burdine Stadium, was an outdoor athletic stadium in Miami, Florida, west of downtown in Little Havana. Considered a landmark, it was the home stadium for the Miami Hurricanes college football team... |
15-39-2 | 0 | |
| New York Titans/Jets New York Jets The New York Jets are a professional football team headquartered in Florham Park, New Jersey, representing the New York metropolitan area. The team is a member of the Eastern Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League... |
1960 | Polo Grounds Polo Grounds The Polo Grounds was the name given to four different stadiums in Upper Manhattan, New York City, used by many professional teams in both baseball and American football from 1880 until 1963... (1960–63), Shea Stadium Shea Stadium William A. Shea Municipal Stadium, usually shortened to Shea Stadium or just Shea , was a stadium in the New York City borough of Queens, in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park. It was the home baseball park of Major League Baseball's New York Mets from 1964 to 2008... (1964–69) |
71-67-6 | 1 | |
| Western | Cincinnati Bengals Cincinnati Bengals The Cincinnati Bengals are a professional football team based in Cincinnati, Ohio. They are members of the AFC's North Division in the National Football League . The Bengals began play in 1968 as an expansion team in the American Football League , and joined the NFL in 1970 in the AFL-NFL... |
1968 | Nippert Stadium Nippert Stadium Nippert Stadium in Cincinnati, Ohio is the University of Cincinnati's football stadium, home to their Bearcats football team in rudimentary form since 1901, and as a complete stadium since 1924, making it the fourth oldest playing site and fifth oldest stadium in college football.In 1895, the... (1968-1969) |
7-20-1 | 0 |
| Dallas Texans/Kansas City Chiefs Kansas City Chiefs The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. They are a member of the Western Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League . Originally named the Dallas Texans, the club was founded by Lamar Hunt in 1960 as a... |
1960 | Cotton Bowl Cotton Bowl (stadium) The Cotton Bowl is a stadium which opened in 1929 and became known as "The House That Doak Built" due to the immense crowds that former SMU running back Doak Walker drew to the stadium during his college career in the late 1940s. Originally known as Fair Park Stadium, it is located in Fair Park,... (1960–62), Municipal Stadium Municipal Stadium (Kansas City) Kansas City Municipal Stadium was a baseball and football stadium that formerly stood in Kansas City, Missouri. It hosted the minor league Kansas City Blues of the American Association from 1923 to 1954 and the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro Leagues during the same period... (1963–69) |
92-50-5 | 3 | |
| Denver Broncos Denver Broncos The Denver Broncos are a professional American football team based in Denver, Colorado. They are currently members of the West Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League... |
1960 | Bears Stadium/Mile High Stadium Mile High Stadium Mile High Stadium was a multi-purpose stadium, that stood in Denver, Colorado, from 1948 until 2001.It hosted the Denver Broncos, of the AFL and the NFL, from 1960-2000, the Colorado Rockies, of the National League, of the MLB, from 1993-1994, the Colorado Rapids, of MLS, from 1996-2001, the... (1960–69) |
39-97-4 | 0 | |
| Los Angeles/San Diego Chargers San Diego Chargers The San Diego Chargers are a professional American football team based in San Diego, California. they were members of the Western Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League... |
1960 | Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum is a large outdoor sports stadium in the University Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, at Exposition Park, that is home to the Pacific-12 Conference's University of Southern California Trojans football team... (1960), Balboa Stadium Balboa Stadium Balboa Stadium is a football and soccer stadium located in San Diego, California. The original stadium was built in 1914 as part of the many buildings erected for the 1915 Panama-California Exposition located in Balboa Park. Originally called City Stadium, and designed by the Quayle Brothers... (1961–66), San Diego Stadium Qualcomm Stadium Qualcomm Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium, in San Diego, California, in the Mission Valley area.... (1967–69) |
88-51-6 | 1 | |
| Oakland Raiders Oakland Raiders The Oakland Raiders are a professional American football team based in Oakland, California. They currently play in the Western Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League... |
1960 | Kezar Stadium Kezar Stadium Kezar Stadium is a stadium located adjacent to Kezar Pavilion in the southeastern corner of Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, California. It is the former home of the Oakland Raiders and the San Francisco 49ers of the NFL, and of the San Francisco Dragons of MLL. It also served as the home of the... (1960), Candlestick Park (1961), Frank Youell Field Frank Youell Field Frank Youell Field was a football stadium that stood in Oakland, California. It was the home of the Oakland Raiders from 1962 to 1965.The stadium, which was essentially a temporary home until the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum was completed, sat 22,000 and cost $400,000 to build. The facility was... (1962–65), Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum (1966–69) |
80-61-5 | 1 | |
Today, two of the NFL's eight divisions are composed entirely of former AFL teams, the AFC West
AFC West
The AFC West is a division of the National Football League's American Football Conference, currently comprising the Denver Broncos, San Diego Chargers, Kansas City Chiefs, and the Oakland Raiders.-History:...
(Broncos
Denver Broncos
The Denver Broncos are a professional American football team based in Denver, Colorado. They are currently members of the West Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
, Chargers
San Diego Chargers
The San Diego Chargers are a professional American football team based in San Diego, California. they were members of the Western Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
, Chiefs
Kansas City Chiefs
The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. They are a member of the Western Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League . Originally named the Dallas Texans, the club was founded by Lamar Hunt in 1960 as a...
, and Raiders
Oakland Raiders
The Oakland Raiders are a professional American football team based in Oakland, California. They currently play in the Western Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
) and the AFC East
AFC East
The American Football Conference – Eastern Division or AFC East is a division of the National Football League's American Football Conference. There are four members: Buffalo Bills, Miami Dolphins, New England Patriots , and New York Jets...
(Bills
Buffalo Bills
The Buffalo Bills are a professional football team based in Buffalo, New York. They are currently members of the East Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
, Dolphins
Miami Dolphins
The Miami Dolphins are a Professional football team based in the Miami metropolitan area in Florida. The team is part of the Eastern Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
, Jets
New York Jets
The New York Jets are a professional football team headquartered in Florham Park, New Jersey, representing the New York metropolitan area. The team is a member of the Eastern Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
, and Patriots
New England Patriots
The New England Patriots, commonly called the "Pats", are a professional football team based in the Greater Boston area, playing their home games in the town of Foxborough, Massachusetts at Gillette Stadium. The team is part of the East Division of the American Football Conference in the National...
). Additionally, the Bengals
Cincinnati Bengals
The Cincinnati Bengals are a professional football team based in Cincinnati, Ohio. They are members of the AFC's North Division in the National Football League . The Bengals began play in 1968 as an expansion team in the American Football League , and joined the NFL in 1970 in the AFL-NFL...
now play in the AFC North
AFC North
The American Football Conference North Division, or AFC North, is a division of the National Football League's American Football Conference. It was created prior to the 1967 season as the NFL Century Division when the NFL split into four divisions...
and the Tennessee Titans
Tennessee Titans
The Tennessee Titans are a professional American football team based in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. They are members of the South Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League . Previously known as the Houston Oilers, the team began play in 1960 as a charter...
(formerly the Oilers) play in the AFC South
AFC South
The AFC South is a division of the National Football League's American Football Conference. It was created before the 2002 season when the league realigned divisions after expanding to 32 teams...
.
AFL playoffs
From 1960 to 1968, the AFL determined its champion via a single-elimination playoff game between the winners of its two divisions.The home teams alternated each year by division, so in 1968 the Jets hosted the Raiders, even though Oakland had a better record (this was changed in 1969). In 1963, the Buffalo Bills and Boston Patriots finished tied with identical records of 7-6-1 in the AFL East Division. There was no tie-breaker protocol in place, so a one game playoff was held in War Memorial Stadium in December. The visiting Patriots defeated the host Bills 26-8. The Patriots traveled to San Diego as the Chargers completed a three game season sweep over the weary Patriots with a 51-10 victory. A similar situation occurred in the 1968 season, when the Oakland Raiders and the Kansas City Chiefs finished the regular season tied with identical records of 12-2 in the AFL West Division. The Raiders beat the Chiefs 41-6 in a division playoff to qualify for the AFL Championship Game. In 1969, the final year of the independent AFL, Professional Football's first "wild cardWild card (sports)
The term wild card refers broadly to a tournament or playoff berth awarded to an individual or team that has not qualified through normal play.-International sports:...
" playoffs were conducted. A four-team playoff was held, with the second-place teams in each division playing the winner of the other division. The Chiefs upset the Raiders in Oakland 17-7 in the league's Championship, the final AFL game played. The Kansas City Chiefs were the first Super Bowl champion to win two road playoff games and the first wildcard team to win the Super Bowl, although the term "wildcard" was coined by the media, and not used officially until several years later.
AFL Championship Games
| Eastern Division | Western Division |
| Season | Date | Winning Team | Score | Losing Team | Venue | Attendance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1960 | January 1, 1961 | Houston Oilers Tennessee Titans The Tennessee Titans are a professional American football team based in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. They are members of the South Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League . Previously known as the Houston Oilers, the team began play in 1960 as a charter... |
24–16 | Los Angeles Chargers San Diego Chargers The San Diego Chargers are a professional American football team based in San Diego, California. they were members of the Western Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League... |
Jeppesen Stadium | 32,183 |
| 1961 | December 24, 1961 | Houston Oilers Tennessee Titans The Tennessee Titans are a professional American football team based in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. They are members of the South Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League . Previously known as the Houston Oilers, the team began play in 1960 as a charter... (2) |
10–3 | San Diego Chargers San Diego Chargers The San Diego Chargers are a professional American football team based in San Diego, California. they were members of the Western Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League... |
Balboa Stadium Balboa Stadium Balboa Stadium is a football and soccer stadium located in San Diego, California. The original stadium was built in 1914 as part of the many buildings erected for the 1915 Panama-California Exposition located in Balboa Park. Originally called City Stadium, and designed by the Quayle Brothers... |
29,556 |
| 1962 | December 23, 1962 | Dallas Texans Kansas City Chiefs The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. They are a member of the Western Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League . Originally named the Dallas Texans, the club was founded by Lamar Hunt in 1960 as a... |
20–17 (2OT) | Houston Oilers Tennessee Titans The Tennessee Titans are a professional American football team based in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. They are members of the South Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League . Previously known as the Houston Oilers, the team began play in 1960 as a charter... |
Jeppesen Stadium (2) | 37,981 |
| 1963 | January 5, 1964 | San Diego Chargers San Diego Chargers The San Diego Chargers are a professional American football team based in San Diego, California. they were members of the Western Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League... |
51–10 | Boston Patriots New England Patriots The New England Patriots, commonly called the "Pats", are a professional football team based in the Greater Boston area, playing their home games in the town of Foxborough, Massachusetts at Gillette Stadium. The team is part of the East Division of the American Football Conference in the National... |
Balboa Stadium Balboa Stadium Balboa Stadium is a football and soccer stadium located in San Diego, California. The original stadium was built in 1914 as part of the many buildings erected for the 1915 Panama-California Exposition located in Balboa Park. Originally called City Stadium, and designed by the Quayle Brothers... (2) |
30,127 |
| 1964 | December 26, 1964 | Buffalo Bills Buffalo Bills The Buffalo Bills are a professional football team based in Buffalo, New York. They are currently members of the East Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League... |
20–7 | San Diego Chargers San Diego Chargers The San Diego Chargers are a professional American football team based in San Diego, California. they were members of the Western Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League... |
War Memorial Stadium War Memorial Stadium (Buffalo) War Memorial Stadium is the name of a stadium that formerly stood in Buffalo, New York. The stadium was on a rectangular block near the downtown area. Its main entrance was at Jefferson Avenue to the east and Best Street to the south... |
40,242 |
| 1965 | December 26, 1965 | Buffalo Bills Buffalo Bills The Buffalo Bills are a professional football team based in Buffalo, New York. They are currently members of the East Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League... (2) |
23–0 | San Diego Chargers San Diego Chargers The San Diego Chargers are a professional American football team based in San Diego, California. they were members of the Western Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League... |
Balboa Stadium Balboa Stadium Balboa Stadium is a football and soccer stadium located in San Diego, California. The original stadium was built in 1914 as part of the many buildings erected for the 1915 Panama-California Exposition located in Balboa Park. Originally called City Stadium, and designed by the Quayle Brothers... (3) |
30,361 |
| 1966 | January 1, 1967 | Kansas City Chiefs Kansas City Chiefs The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. They are a member of the Western Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League . Originally named the Dallas Texans, the club was founded by Lamar Hunt in 1960 as a... (2) |
31–7 | Buffalo Bills Buffalo Bills The Buffalo Bills are a professional football team based in Buffalo, New York. They are currently members of the East Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League... |
War Memorial Stadium War Memorial Stadium (Buffalo) War Memorial Stadium is the name of a stadium that formerly stood in Buffalo, New York. The stadium was on a rectangular block near the downtown area. Its main entrance was at Jefferson Avenue to the east and Best Street to the south... (2) |
42,080 |
| 1967 | December 31, 1967 | Oakland Raiders Oakland Raiders The Oakland Raiders are a professional American football team based in Oakland, California. They currently play in the Western Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League... |
40–7 | Houston Oilers Tennessee Titans The Tennessee Titans are a professional American football team based in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. They are members of the South Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League . Previously known as the Houston Oilers, the team began play in 1960 as a charter... |
Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum | 53,330 |
| 1968 | December 29, 1968 | New York Jets New York Jets The New York Jets are a professional football team headquartered in Florham Park, New Jersey, representing the New York metropolitan area. The team is a member of the Eastern Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League... |
27–23 | Oakland Raiders Oakland Raiders The Oakland Raiders are a professional American football team based in Oakland, California. They currently play in the Western Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League... |
Shea Stadium Shea Stadium William A. Shea Municipal Stadium, usually shortened to Shea Stadium or just Shea , was a stadium in the New York City borough of Queens, in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park. It was the home baseball park of Major League Baseball's New York Mets from 1964 to 2008... |
62,627 |
| 1969 | January 4, 1970 | Kansas City Chiefs Kansas City Chiefs The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. They are a member of the Western Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League . Originally named the Dallas Texans, the club was founded by Lamar Hunt in 1960 as a... (3) |
17–7 | Oakland Raiders Oakland Raiders The Oakland Raiders are a professional American football team based in Oakland, California. They currently play in the Western Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League... |
Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum (2) | 53,561 |
Italics – Super Bowl Appearance
Bold - Super Bowl Victory
AFL All-Star games
The AFL did not play an All-Star game after its first season in 1960, but did stage All-Star games for the 1961 through 1969 seasons. All-Star teams from the Eastern and Western divisions played each other after every season except 1965. That season, the league champion Buffalo Bills played all-stars from the other teams.After the 1964 season, the AFL All-Star game had been scheduled for early 1965 in New Orleans' Tulane Stadium. After numerous black players were refused service by a number of area hotels and businesses, black and white players alike called for a boycott
Boycott
A boycott is an act of voluntarily abstaining from using, buying, or dealing with a person, organization, or country as an expression of protest, usually for political reasons...
. Led by Bills players such as Cookie Gilchrist
Cookie Gilchrist
Carlton Chester "Cookie" Gilchrist was a gridiron football player in the American Football League and Canadian Football League.-Career:...
, the players successfully lobbied to have the game moved to Houston's Jeppesen Stadium.
All-Time AFL Team
As chosen by 1969 AFL Hall of Fame Selection Committee Members:| All-Time AFL Team | |||||
| Offense | Defense | Special Teams | |||
| Position | Player | Position | Player | Position | Player |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Flanker | Lance Alworth Lance Alworth Lance Dwight Alworth is a former American collegiate and Professional Football wide receiver. He is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame and the Pro Football Hall of Fame... |
End | Jerry Mays | Kicker | George Blanda George Blanda George Frederick Blanda was a collegiate and professional football quarterback and placekicker... |
| End | Don Maynard Don Maynard Donald Rogers Maynard is a former American football player who played collegiately for Texas Western College and professionally with the National Football League's New York Giants and the American Football League's New York Jets and the World Football League's Shreveport Steamer.After having been... |
Gerry Philbin Gerry Philbin Gerald John Philbin is a former American collegiate football defensive tackle and four year starter from the University at Buffalo where he earned several honors including Second- team All-American, Little All-America, and All-American Academic team... |
|||
| Tight end | Fred Arbanas Fred Arbanas Frederick Vincent Arbanas is an American former college and professional football player. Drafted out of Michigan State by the American Football League's Dallas Texans in 1961, he missed the 1961 season with injuries... |
Tackle | Houston Antwine Houston Antwine Houston J. Antwine is a former college and professional American football player from Southern Illinois University. He was drafted by the American Football League's Houston Oilers, then traded to the Boston Patriots in 1961. He is in the Southern Illinois University Athletic Hall of Fame... |
||
| Tackle | Ron Mix Ron Mix Ronald Jack Mix , in Los Angeles, California was an American football player.Mix attended USC, and upon graduation played right tackle and guard for the American Football League's Los Angeles/San Diego Chargers and the NFL Oakland Raiders .- College career :A graduate of the University of Southern... |
Tom Sestak Tom Sestak Thomas Joseph Sestak was an American collegiate Professional Football defensive lineman for the Buffalo Bills of the American Football League.... |
|||
| Jim Tyrer Jim Tyrer James Efflo Tyrer was an American football offensive tackle in the American Football League for the Dallas Texans/Kansas City Chiefs... |
Linebacker | Bobby Bell Bobby Bell Bobby Lee Bell, Sr is a former professional American football linebacker/defensive end. He is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the College Football Hall of Fame, and was a member of the Chiefs' team that won Super Bowl IV against the Minnesota Vikings.- High school career :He excelled in... |
|||
| Center | Jim Otto Jim Otto James Edwin Otto is a former Professional Football center for the Oakland Raiders of the American Football League.-Wausau High School and University of Miami:... |
George Webster | |||
| Guard | Ed Budde Ed Budde Edward Leon Budde , a product of Denby High School in Detroit, Michigan and later Michigan State University, was the number one draft pick of the American Football League's Kansas City Chiefs in 1963.... |
Nick Buoniconti Nick Buoniconti Nicholas Anthony Buoniconti is a former American Football League and NFL Hall of Fame middle linebacker, who played for the Boston Patriots and Miami Dolphins.... |
Punter | Jerrel Wilson Jerrel Wilson Jerrel "Thunderfoot" Wilson was an American football player. He was a punter who spent sixteen professional seasons, fifteen of them with the Kansas City Chiefs, in the American Football League and then the National Football League. He was selected to three AFL All-Star Teams and three AFC-NFC... |
|
| Billy Shaw Billy Shaw William Lewis "Billy" Shaw is an American former college and professional football player.Drafted in 1961 by the American Football League's Buffalo Bills, Billy Shaw of Georgia Tech was the prototypical "pulling guard" who despite his size held his own against much bigger defensive linemen like... |
Cornerback | Willie Brown Willie Brown (football player) William Ferdie Brown is a former American Football cornerback. He is currently on the coaching staff of the Oakland Raiders.-Playing career:... |
|||
| Quarterback | Joe Namath Joe Namath Joseph William "Joe" Namath , nicknamed "Broadway Joe" or "Joe Willie", is a former American football quarterback. He played college football for the University of Alabama under coach Paul "Bear" Bryant and his assistant, Howard Schnellenberger, from 1962–1964, and professional football in the... |
Dave Grayson Dave Grayson David Lee Grayson is a former American football defensive back in the American Football League and the National Football League .-College career:... |
|||
| Running back | Clem Daniels Clem Daniels Clemon C. Daniels Jr. is an American former Professional Football star in the American Football League who also played in the NFL.-College career:... |
Safety | Johnny Robinson | ||
| Paul Lowe Paul Lowe Paul Edward Lowe is a retired American football running back who played for the Los Angeles/San Diego Chargers and Kansas City Chiefs of the American Football League from 1960 to 1969.-College career:... |
George Saimes George Saimes George Thomas Saimes is a former American football defensive back and fullback for Michigan State University and the Buffalo Bills of the American Football League, which produced American Football League Championships in 1964 and 1965... |
||||
AFL records
The following is a sample of some records set during the existence of the league. The NFL considers AFL statistics and records equivalent to its own.- Yards passing, game - 464, George BlandaGeorge BlandaGeorge Frederick Blanda was a collegiate and professional football quarterback and placekicker...
(Oilers, October 29, 1961) - Yards passing, season - 4,007, Joe NamathJoe NamathJoseph William "Joe" Namath , nicknamed "Broadway Joe" or "Joe Willie", is a former American football quarterback. He played college football for the University of Alabama under coach Paul "Bear" Bryant and his assistant, Howard Schnellenberger, from 1962–1964, and professional football in the...
(Jets, 1967) - Yards passing, career - 21,130, Jack KempJack KempJack French Kemp was an American politician and a collegiate and professional football player. A Republican, he served as Housing Secretary in the administration of President George H. W. Bush from 1989 to 1993, having previously served nine terms as a congressman for Western New York's 31st...
(Chargers, Bills) - Yards rushing, game - 243, Cookie GilchristCookie GilchristCarlton Chester "Cookie" Gilchrist was a gridiron football player in the American Football League and Canadian Football League.-Career:...
(Bills, December 8, 1963) - Yards rushing, season - 1,458, Jim NanceJim NanceJames Solomon "Big Jim" Nance was an American collegiate and Professional Football fullback with the Boston Patriots during their days in the American Football League...
(Patriots, 1966) - Yards rushing, career - 5,101, Clem DanielsClem DanielsClemon C. Daniels Jr. is an American former Professional Football star in the American Football League who also played in the NFL.-College career:...
(Texans, Raiders) - Receptions, season - 101, Charlie HenniganCharlie HenniganCharles Taylor Hennigan, Sr., known as Charlie Hennigan , is a retired American football player with the former Houston Oilers who resides in Shreveport, Louisiana. Born in Bienville in Bienville Parish in north Louisiana, Hennigan grew up in nearby Minden, the seat of Webster Parish, located...
(Oilers, 1964) - Receptions, career - 567, Lionel TaylorLionel TaylorLionel Thomas Taylor is a former American football wide receiver who led the American Football League in receptions each year for the first six years of the league's existence.-College football:...
(Broncos) - Points scored, season - 155, Gino CappellettiGino CappellettiGino Cappelletti is a former American collegiate and Professional Football player. He played at the University of Minnesota, and was a star in the American Football League for the Boston Patriots...
(Patriots, 1964) - Points scored, career - 1,100, Gino CappellettiGino CappellettiGino Cappelletti is a former American collegiate and Professional Football player. He played at the University of Minnesota, and was a star in the American Football League for the Boston Patriots...
(Patriots)
Players, coaches, and contributors
- List of American Football League players
- American Football League Most Valuable PlayersAmerican Football League Most Valuable PlayersDuring its ten-year existence , the American Football League's best player for each year was called the Most Valuable Player by some sports-news sources and the Player of the Year by others...
- American Football League Rookies of the YearAmerican Football League Rookies of the YearIn each year of its ten-year existence , numerous sports-news services named their choice for the American Football League's best first-year player...
- American Football League DraftAmerican Football League DraftThe American Football League stocked its teams in two ways:# Signing free agents ....
- American Football League Officials
Commissioners/Presidents of the American Football League
- Joe FossJoe FossJoseph Jacob "Joe" Foss was the leading fighter ace of the United States Marine Corps during World War II and a 1943 recipient of the Medal of Honor, recognizing his role in the air combat during the Guadalcanal Campaign...
, commissioner (November 30, 1959–April 7, 1966) - Al DavisAl DavisAllen "Al" Davis was an American football executive. He was the principal owner of the Oakland Raiders of the National Football League from 1970 to 2011...
, commissioner (April 8, 1966–July 25, 1966) - Milt WoodardMilt WoodardMilt Woodard was an American sports writer and sport executive. He attended the College of Puget Sound in Washington, where he played baseball. He graduated in 1933....
, president (July 25, 1966–March 12, 1970)
See also
- American Football League DraftAmerican Football League DraftThe American Football League stocked its teams in two ways:# Signing free agents ....
- American Football League win-loss records
- American Football League seasonsAmerican Football League seasonsThe following is a list of American Football League seasons since the inception of the league in 1960 to 1969, the year before it merged with the National Football League .-1960 :*AFL Championship Game...
- American Football League playoffsAmerican Football League playoffsFrom 1960 to 1968, the American Football League determined its champion via a single playoff game between the winners of its two divisions ....
- American Football League Most Valuable PlayersAmerican Football League Most Valuable PlayersDuring its ten-year existence , the American Football League's best player for each year was called the Most Valuable Player by some sports-news sources and the Player of the Year by others...
- American Football League Rookies of the YearAmerican Football League Rookies of the YearIn each year of its ten-year existence , numerous sports-news services named their choice for the American Football League's best first-year player...
- American Football League Officials
- AFL-NFL mergerAFL-NFL MergerThe AFL–NFL merger of 1970 was the merger of the two major professional American football leagues in the United States at the time: the National Football League and the American Football League...
- List of leagues of American football
- American Basketball AssociationAmerican Basketball AssociationThe American Basketball Association was a professional basketball league founded in 1967. The ABA ceased to exist with the ABA–NBA merger in 1976.-League history:...
- World Hockey AssociationWorld Hockey AssociationThe World Hockey Association was a professional ice hockey league that operated in North America from 1972 to 1979. It was the first major competition for the National Hockey League since the collapse of the Western Hockey League in 1926...
Further reading
- Jack HorriganJack HorriganJack Horrigan was a sportswriter for the Buffalo Evening News and American Football League Public Relations Director who went on to serve in public relations for the Buffalo Bills...
and Mike Rathet, The Other League/The Fabulous Story of the American Football League - Jack Orr, We Came of Age/A Picture History of the American Football League
- George Sullivan, Touchdown!/The Picture History of the American Football League
- Sal Maiorana, If You Can't Join 'Em, Beat 'Em: A Remembrance of the American Football League, ISBN 1-4107-4942-8
External links
- RemembertheAFL.com Website
- afl-football.50webs.com
- American Football League week-by-week box scores, 1960-1969
- The Summer of the Little Super Bowls
- KU story on Hadl and McClinton signings with the AFL
- PFRA article about the 1926 seasons of both the NFL and AFL
- PFRA article about the 1930s and 40s AFL
- Pro Football Hall of Fame American Football League Legacy Game
- Official Titans website story on the AFL's 50th Anniversary Celebration
- Schedule of American Football League Legacy Games
- ESPN.com article on AFL Legacy Games
- New York Times article on AFL "Legacy" gear