The American Football League: The Foolish Club Turns 50!

As the years have gone by, the news fades from memory. Players retire, owners pass on, and another generation loses a piece of it's history.

This year, 2009, marks the 50th anniversary of the founding of the American Football League. As fate would have it, a number of events had to occur for this entire operation to exist.

The first, came from the man pictured above. Lamar Hunt had plans to buy a team and move them to Texas, his adopted home. He and several other partners had entertained the idea of purchasing the Chicago Cardinals at the time, but they were rebuffed when the present owners were willing to only give up 49 percent of the team, keeping them in Chicago.

With this news, Mr. Hunt and company approached then NFL Head Bert Bell about the idea of a couple expansion clubs. Again, this was refused on the grounds that the league was just now turning a nice profit after the hard years of World War Two.

After this meeting, Mr. Hunt, Bud Adams, Bob Howsam and Max Winter got in touch with each other, and Hunt's idea of another league started to take shape. Hunt wanted to place a team in Texas, as did Adams.

After all, the in-state rivalry would be good and at that time, the NFL had no team in Texas. Bob Howsam, a well-known person in Denver, had been working to bring professional sports to the Mile High City, would set up a team. And Max Winter, former owner of the Minneapolis Lakers, felt a team could work in the Twin Cities, teamed up with Bill Boyer.

These first four owners, started laying the foundations for a new style of Football. As the word started to spread, other owners would make themselves known. Barron Hilton, the same name of Hotel chains, purchased the rights to put a club in Los Angeles.

Harry Wismer, a well-known broadcaster in the New York area, bought the rights for a club in the city. Ralph Wilson, who is still with his club, founded the Buffalo franchise borrowing a name from a team that played 10 years earlier. And a team from Boston was founded, from Billy Sullivan, part of the publicity staff with Boston College and Notre Dame.

The NFL, at first seemed amused at this idea, started tossing out ideas of buying out the new owners. One idea was offering the owners their own NFL franchise, or controlling stake in another team.

The other idea, was to simply let this new league fail on it's own, as the NFL had been in existence since the 1920's, with only a mild challenge in the 1940s. When the offer to join the NFL came along, only one club took the offer, with Max Winter informing the other owners that his club would join the NFL.

About the same time as this announcement was made, the NFL also reported that a new club would be playing in Texas, offering direct competition to the new league. On top of it, the new owners had to figure out a way to replace the departed Minneapolis franchise, as well on what to do with the newly drafted players.

As time went on, one owner did help make a choice to that end. Barron Hilton informed the league that unless a team was placed in California to help offset costs and create a rivalry, he would pull out of the AFL as well. With this in mind, a team was decided on to play in Oakland, California.

As it was, the Oakland franchise was put together completely in reverse. They had no single owner, but instead 8 general partners, ranging from real estate people, to construction engineer, to food service, to sports figures.

The last team to go into place, the team was given its charter on Jan. 30, 1960, and less than two weeks later named it's first head coach in Eddie Erdelatz.

Some of the problems that faced this new league ranged from people's perception that it was a joke, with places like Berkeley University refusing to allow the team to use it's field, to officials in Rochester forcing the Bills to dress for a game in a boiler room, because the principal didn't want the pros using the locker rooms.

Money issues abounded, in those first difficult years. Ticket sales were weak, but slowly the league found bright spots. Teams like the Titans, renamed the Jets found a young quarterback named Joe Namath to rally around. The Raiders found a rugged Center named Jim Otto.

The Chargers, led by Sid Gillman, would develop a passing game that still lives on to this day through the generations.

Some of the teams have changed cities, names, and there is now millions being spent for player contracts. If an expansion franchise comes up for bid, it could be over $150 million to land the rights.

But if not for the owner of the Chicago Cardinals, not selling one percent of his stock...$15,000 worth...the AFL may never have existed.

Happy 50th Birthday, to the Dallas Texans (Kansas City Chiefs), Houston Oilers ( Tennessee Titans), Denver Broncos, Los Angeles Chargers (San Diego Chargers), New York Titans (New York Jets), Buffalo Bills, Boston Patriots (New England Patriots) and Oakland Raiders.

And thank you, Lamar Hunt. If you hadn't had been so stubborn...the NFL would have had a time trying to evolve into this sport we know it as now.