American Football League

The American Football League was a professional league of American football which operated from 1960 to 1969 . (There were three earlier, unrelated, and unsuccessful football leagues with the name of "AmericanFootball League", one in 1926 , one in 1936 - 1937 , and one in 1940 - 1941 . See bottom of page) The American Football League, or AFL, was the brainchildof founder Lamar Hunt . Of all the leagues that have attempted to challenge thedominance of the NFL , it was the only one to betruly successful. In 1970 , the NFLmerged with the American Football League to form into a single league. The American Football League is theonly league ever to have merged with another and have all its teams continue to exist.

The AFL benefited from having been formed just at a time when professional football was beginning to catch up with (andeventually, in the 1960s , overtake) baseball as the most popular spectator team sport in the United States . It took advantage of this burgeoning popularity by locating teams in major cities that lackedNFL franchises, and by using the growing power of televised football games (bolstered with the help of major network contracts,first with ABC and later with NBC ). It featured many outstanding games, such as the classic 1962 double-overtime American FootballLeague championship game between the Dallas Texans and thedefending champion Houston Oilers . At the time it was the longest, andit is still one of the best professional football championship games ever played.

The American Football League also began recruiting from small colleges, which the NFL had avoided. Drawing on this previouslymainly untapped resource, it signed such stars as Elbert Dubenion (Bluffton), Lionel Taylor (New Mexico Highlands), Tom Sestak (McNeese State), CharlieTolar (Northwestern State of Louisiana), Abner Haynes (North TexasState), and a host of others. For black players , the AFL's recruitment from small colleges opened a door thatthe NFL had cracked only grudgingly. Meanwhile, the AFL also successfully engaged the NFL in competition for talented playersfrom major schools: LSU's Billy Cannon , Notre Dame's Daryle Lamonica , Kansas' JohnHadl , Alabama's Joe Namath , and many more.

The bidding war, which was financially draining both leagues, and the rapidly rising popularity of the AFL were factors thateventually led to the merger.

The AFL appealed to fans by offering a flashier alternative to the more conservative NFL. Team uniforms were bright andcolorful. Long passes ("bombs") were commonplace in AFL offenses, led by such talented quarterbacks as John Hadl , Daryle Lamonica , and Len Dawson . Some innovative rules changes were also put into place, such as thetwo-point conversion (later adopted by the NFL in 1990s ); the use of the scoreboard clockas the official game clock (adopted by the NFL when the leagues merged—prior to this time, the official game clock wasmaintained by an official on the sidelines, and often did not match the scoreboard clock very closely); the use of player nameson jerseys (also adopted by the NFL); the sharing of gate and television revenues between home and visiting teams (also adoptedby the NFL); and in 1960, the first network television coverage of all games, by ABC-TV (adopted two years later by the NFL withCBS-TV).

The AFL achieved its success in spite of sparse coverage by the print and electronic media. CBS-TV, which then carried NFLgames, refused to give AFL game scores on its football broadcasts. Sports Illustrated ridiculed the new league, and even afterthe AFL was established, SI gave full page color action shots of the NFL, while it used black and white photos in its AFLcoverage. In turn, each of the NFL teams in the first four Super Bowls, the Packers, the Colts, and the Vikings were heralded as"the greatest football team in history" by the "establishment media". Yet, two out of three of those teams were defeated by theirAmerican Football League opponents.

In 1966 , the two leagues paved the way for a merger by agreeing to operate a commondraft, and to carry out a championship game between the two league champions. The title game has come to be known officially asthe Super Bowl , but originally this was just a nickname (coined by AFL founderLamar Hunt, whose daughter had a toy called a "super ball"); the game was, at first, officially called the AFL-NFL WorldChampionship Game . The NFL champions in both 1966 and 1967 , the Green Bay Packers , decisively defeated the AFL champions in the first twoSuper Bowls, thus confirming the view of many NFL supporters that the NFL was the superior league. However, the AFL champions wonthe last two Super Bowls before the merger was completed in 1970. The first of these two victories was carried out by the New York Jets over the heavily favored Baltimore Colts , and was one of the most heralded upsets in sports history.

When the two leagues merged, the AFL had 10 teams, the NFL 16. These formed the basis for the National and American FootballConferences of the newly merged NFL. Three teams from the NFL (the Baltimore Colts , Cleveland Browns , and the Pittsburgh Steelers ), joined the ten AFL teams in theAmerican Football Conference so that both conferences would have the same number of teams. In order to produce an eight-team playoff tournament with six divisions, the NFL once again copied an AFL innovation,the wild card playoff concept, where the best second-place finishers in eachconference qualified. This innovation was later imitated by Major League Baseball .

AFL Teams

The original eight AFL teams were as follows:

Eastern Division

Boston Patriots (now New England Patriots)

Buffalo Bills

Houston Oilers (now Tennessee Titans)

New York Titans (now New York Jets)

Western Division

Dallas Texans (now Kansas City Chiefs)

Denver Broncos

Los Angeles Chargers (now San Diego Chargers)

Oakland Raiders

The eight-team format led to a type of scheduling that matched the league's fourteen-week schedule, such that each team playedevery other team exactly twice. Thus, every team had an identical schedule.

The league added a ninth team, the Miami Dolphins , in 1966 , and a tenth team, the Cincinnati Bengals in 1968 .

From 1960 to 1968, the AFL determined its champion via a single playoff game between the winners of its two divisions. In1969, a four team tournament was instituted, with the second place teams in each division also participating.

AFL Championship Games

• 1960 - Houston Oilers 24, Los Angeles Chargers 16
• 1961 - Houston Oilers 10, San Diego Chargers 3
• 1962 - DallasTexans 20, Houston Oilers 17 (double OT)
• 1963 - San DiegoChargers 51, Boston Patriots 10
• 1964 - Buffalo Bills 20, San Diego Chargers 7
• 1965 - Buffalo Bills 23, San Diego Chargers 0
• 1966 - Kansas CityChiefs 31, Buffalo Bills 7
• 1967 - Oakland Raiders 40, Houston Oilers 7
• 1968 - New York Jets 27, Oakland Raiders 23
• 1969 - Kansas CityChiefs 17, Oakland Raiders 7

AFL All Star Games

The AFL did not play an All-Star game after its first season in 1960 but did stageAll-Star games from 1962 to 1970 . All-Star teams fromthe Eastern and Western divisions played each other every year except 1966 . In 1966, theleague champion Buffalo Bills played all stars from the other teams. Note year reflects the calendar year the game was played(example January 1962 game followed the 1961 season). See : Boycott of the 1965 American Football League All-star game .

• 1962 West, 47-27
• 1963 West, 21-14
• 1964 West, 27-24
• 1965 West, 38-14
• 1966 All-Stars 30-19 Buffalo
• 1967 East, 30-23
• 1968 East, 25-24
• 1969 West, 38-25
• 1970 West, 26-3

Playing sites: BalboaStadium in San Diego (1962-64); Jeppesen Stadium in Houston(1965, moved from New Orleans ); Rice Stadium in Houston (1966); Oakland Coliseum (1967); Gator Bowl in Jacksonville (1968-69) and Astrodome in Houston (1970).

Players, Coaches, and Contributors

• List of AmericanFootball League players
• American Football LeagueHall of Fame

Commissioners/Presidents of the American Football League

• Joe Foss ........... November 1959-April 1966 Commissioner
• Al Davis ........... April 1966-July 1966 Commissioner
• Milt Woodard ...... July1966-March 1970 President

External link

• Un-official American Football League Website fan-created site

Earlier AFL's

American Football League 1926

• Boston Bulldogs
• Brooklyn Dodgers
• Chicago Bulls
• Cleveland Panthers
• Los Angeles Wildcats
• Newark Bears
• New York Yankees (joined the NFL in 1927)
• Philadelphia Quakers (Champions)
• Rock Island Independents (former NFL team )

American Football League 1936-37

• Boston Shamrocks (1936-1937)
• Brooklyn/Rochester Tigers (1936)
• Cleveland Rams (1936) joined the NFL in 1937 today's Saint Louis Rams
• New York Yankees (1936-1937)
• Pittsburgh Americans (1936-1937)
• Syracuse/Rochester Braves (1936)
• Cincinnati Bengals (1937)
• Los Angeles Bulldogs (1937)

Syracuse Braves move to Rochester in midseason and disband during the season. Brooklyn Tigers move to Rochester after theRochester Braves disbanded.

AFL Championships

• 1936 Boston Shamrocks
• 1937 Los Angeles Bulldogs

American Football League 1940-41

• Boston Bears (1940)
• Buffalo Indians (1940) /Buffalo Tigers (1941)
• Cincinnati Bengals (1940-1941)
• Columbus Bullies (1940-1941)
• Milwaukee Chiefs (1940-1941)
• New York Yankees (1940)/ New York Americans (1941)

Champions

• 1940 Columbus Bullies
• 1941 Columbus Bullies

See List of leagues ofAmerican football