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Sport	American Professional Football American football American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
Founded	1942 1942 in sports 1942 in sports describes the year's events in world sport.Note — many sporting events did not take place because of World War II-American football:...
First Season	1942 1942 in sports 1942 in sports describes the year's events in world sport.Note — many sporting events did not take place because of World War II-American football:...
Last Season	1944 1944 in sports 1944 in sports describes the year's events in world sport.Note — many sporting events did not take place because of World War II-American football:* Green Bay Packers defeats 14-7 New York Giants in New York City for the NFL title...
Claim to Fame	competitor of Pacific Coast Professional Football Conference
No. of teams	8 - -
Merged with PCPFL	1944

The Northwest War Industries League, later renamed the American Football League, was a professional football

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 based on the West Coast of the United States

West Coast of the United States

West Coast or Pacific Coast are terms for the westernmost coastal states of the United States. The term most often refers to the states of California, Oregon, and Washington. Although not part of the contiguous United States, Alaska and Hawaii do border the Pacific Ocean but can't be included in...

 that played for two nonconsecutive seasons during 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...

.

The Northwest Industries league began play in 1942, with the Seattle Bombers, Portland Rockets, and teams in Spokane, Washington

Spokane, Washington

Spokane is a city located in the Northwestern United States in the state of Washington. It is the largest city of Spokane County of which it is also the county seat, and the metropolitan center of the Inland Northwest region...

 and Vancouver, Washington

Vancouver, Washington

Vancouver is a city on the north bank of the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Washington. Incorporated in 1857, it is the fourth largest city in the state with a 2010 census population of 161,791 as of April 1, 2010...

. Information on this league has mostly been lost to time, as the records of this league are incomplete. What is known is that only Seattle played in 1943, and that plans to append to the Pacific Coast Professional Football League

Pacific Coast Professional Football League

The Pacific Coast Professional Football League , also known as the Pacific Coast Football League and Pacific Coast League was a professional American football league based in California, USA, and competed from 1940 through 1948 in sports...

 as a semiautonomous Northern Division fell through.

In 1944, Portland returned to play. Meanwhile, the league received a significant overhaul: the Pacific Coast Professional Football League

Pacific Coast Professional Football League

The Pacific Coast Professional Football League , also known as the Pacific Coast Football League and Pacific Coast League was a professional American football league based in California, USA, and competed from 1940 through 1948 in sports...

 revoked the membership of the Los Angeles Mustangs to protest owner Bill Freelove’s raiding of Jerry Corcoran’s Los Angeles Bulldogs roster. Freelove responded by reorganizing the old Northwest Industries league into a "new" league, the American Football League (with famous Hollywood lawyer Jerry Giesler

Jerry Giesler

Jerry Giesler was an American criminal defense lawyer.For more than half a century, Jerry Giesler was a household name across the United States. He was the first president of the Criminal Courts Bar Association in Los Angeles.-Early career:Giesler was born in Iowa...

 as president). In 1944, an unprecedented five Los Angeles area teams were competing in either of the rival leagues.

Both leagues had undefeated champions (the PCPFL Bombers had won their third consecutive title). AFL members San Diego Gunners, Los Angeles Wildcats (no relation to the 1926 AFL team

Los Angeles Wildcats

The Los Angeles Wildcats was a traveling team of the first American Football League that was not based in its nominal home city but in Chicago, Illinois...

), and Oakland Hornets folded before the end of the season. All three San Francisco Clippers losses were to the Rangers.

On December 21, 1944, PCPFL league president J. Rufus Klawans announced a merger between the two leagues. Immediately afterward, the AFL champion Hollywood Rangers and PCPFL champion San Diego Bombers scheduled two games, one at each team’s home, to decide the “unified” Pacific Coast championship. Hollywood swept San Diego, winning 42-7 and 21-10, for the bragging rights.

However, what was trumpeted as a merger was in fact not much of a merger at all. Seattle and Portland declined to play in the new league. The PCPFL also demanded that the Rangers merge with the PCPFL's Hollywood Bears, something the Rangers were unwilling to do since the Bears hadn't even played football in two years. Nonetheless, the Bears ended up restocking themselves mostly on the Rangers' players. One major point of contention between the two leagues went unaddressed: even though the leagues had agreed on a merger, they again refused entry to the Los Angeles Mustangs. In the end, of the five teams in the AFL at the end of the season, only one team ever played in the PCPFL, the San Francisco Clippers. The Rangers and Mustangs, having their league (that they organized) ripped out from under them, continued play as independents for 1945 and quietly folded.

1944 AFL Standings

Team	W	L	T	Pct.	PF	PA
Hollywood Rangers	11	0	0	1.000	376	83
San Francisco Clippers	7	3	0	.700	193	120
Seattle Bombers	5	5	1	.500	200	157
Portland Rockets	3	6	0	.333	165	205
Los Angeles Wildcats	2	4	2	.333	133	171
San Diego Gunners	2	4	1	.333	42	161
Los Angeles Mustangs	3	7	0	.300	105	201
Oakland Hornets	0	4	0	.000	14	128