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Fifty years ago today the American Football League and the National Football League announced that peace had come to the football world. The two leagues would become one.
The merger had been years in the works, with owners from both leagues scuttling it at various times previously. In the end, it just made too much financial sense for all 24 owners (15 NFL, 9 AFL) at the time.
Beginning immediately, the league champions would meet in a postseason championship game (then with the scintillating name of American Football League-National Football League World Championship Game). Beginning in 1967 they would hold a common draft and begin playing preseason games against each other. Beginning in 1970 the AFL would be dissolved and the ten teams it would have by then would be absorbed into the NFL.
One interesting tidbit:
The newly-created NFC could not agree on an alignment. Finally, five proposals were put into a hat, with this one being drawn:
NFC East
Dallas
NY Giants
Philadelphia
St. Louis
Washington
NFC Central
Chicago
Detroit
Green Bay
Minesota
NFC West
Atlanta
Los Angeles
New Orleans
San Francisco
Of the five plans, that was the only one that had Dallas in the East and the only one that had Minnesota in the Central. From a strictly geographic standpoint, Atlanta should have been in the East, St. Louis in the Central, and Dallas in the West.
Of the five plans, that was the only one that had Dallas in the East and the only one that had Minnesota in the Central. From a strictly geographic standpoint, Atlanta should have been in the East, St. Louis in the Central, and Dallas in the West.
Never understood that alignment either, however if they had to pick proposals out of a hat, that was their first mistake. Apparently, too many of the power players were at odds, and the bottom lines just didn't sync up correctly for everybody!
Having Dallas and Washington in the East is strictly for historical rivalry. The only reason why Dallas got into the league was because the Dallas owner held rights to the Redskins' fight song. I think if I remember correctly, George Preston Marshall (Redskins original owner) wanted to keep the Dallas franchise out of the league. Geographically, it doesn't make sense for the Cowboys to be in the East. They should be in the South and at least Carolina should be in the East. That won't ever happen though.
I think it would actually do wonders for the rivalry if the two teams were not in the same division, but always played each other in one game each year, no matter what. They could take turns on who hosts the game.
Having Dallas and Washington in the East is strictly for historical rivalry. The only reason why Dallas got into the league was because the Dallas owner held rights to the Redskins' fight song. I think if I remember correctly, George Preston Marshall (Redskins original owner) wanted to keep the Dallas franchise out of the league. Geographically, it doesn't make sense for the Cowboys to be in the East. They should be in the South and at least Carolina should be in the East. That won't ever happen though.
I think it would actually do wonders for the rivalry if the two teams were not in the same division, but always played each other in one game each year, no matter what. They could take turns on who hosts the game.
Now, sure. But in 1970 this made no sense.
Dallas joined the NFL in 1960 and played that season in the NFL's Western Conference (division). When Minnesota joined in 1961 the Viking were assigned to the West and Dallas was moved to the Eastern Conference. Through 1965 both Dallas and Washington teams always had losing records, except in 1965 when Dallas managed to claw its way all the way up to .500. In fact, Washington only had a single winning season in the 1960s, a rather mediocre 7-5-2 record in 1969.
So there was no notable Dallas-Washington rivalry in 1970 when the new alignment was created - which is why only 1 of 5 proposals had Dallas and Washington in the same division, and that one was chosen not because of that supposed rivalry but literally by pure chance.
The only logical alignment in 1970 for the NFC would have been this (which wasn't even one of the final five under consideration):
EAST
Atlanta
NY Giants
Philadelphia
Washington
CENTRAL
Chicago
Detroit
Green Bay
Minnesota
St. Louis
WEST
Dallas
Los Angeles
New Orleans
San Francisco
This alignment would preserve the obvious NYG/PHI/WAS grouping, and join it to ATL, which was in the Eastern Time Zone but nowhere near any other franchises. Besides, it made sense to include ATL and WAS together, since before 1960 when the NFL started to add teams down there, WAS had been the most popular team of the South.
The CHI/DET/GB/MIN/STL grouping is obvious - it's the most geographically compact five-team grouping possible, with all the teams being in a state that borders at least one other state of the group.
And out west? Well, western divisions are almost always far-flung, but this one would have a pair of natural rivalries in LA/SF and DAL/NO.
As a side note, Tampa Bay would have fit nicely into the Eastern Division come 1976.
The Seattle NFL franchise, then slated to begin play in 1976, announces the team's nickname - the Seahawks.
This moniker won out over such contenders as Aardvarks, Crabs, Hammerheads, Killer Whales, Running Salmon, Salamanders, Sea Urchins, Toads, Vampires and Woodpeckers.
I've always thought 'Seahawks' was just an average name. Not bad, really - just kind of boring. But definitely better than 'Sea Urchins', I'll give it that!
The last of the Chicago College All-Star Games was played on this date forty years ago. Begun in 1934 (a match which ended in a 0-0 tie), the game featured the NFL/Super Bowl champions playing a team made up of college standouts and was played annually - except for in 1974, when it was cancelled due to a preseason players strike.
By the 1970s, the NFL was dominating the game even more than in the early days of the series (the college team hadn't won since defeating the Packers in 1963) and NFL teams increasingly disliked releasing their newly-drafted players to join in the game.
The final game ended in a fiasco. High winds, rain and lightning during the third quarter led to play being suspended with the Pittsburgh Steelers leading 24-0. NFL officials eventually determined that the flooded field would not allow play to be resumed. The game was called.
And that was the end of the Chicago College All-Star Game.
When Baltimore came back into the NFL in '53, they put them in the Western Conference along with LA, San. Fran., Green Bay, Chi. Bears, and Detroit.
The East had NY Giants, Phila., Pitt., Cle., Wash., and Chi. Cardinals.
Always wondered why they didn't place the Balt. Colts in the East and move Chi. Cards to the West. That way, Balt. and Wash could play each other twice and the two Chicago teams play each other twice. In those days with 12 games, each team played a conference rival twice, and played two teams in the other conference.
Still, it all worked out well. I tell ya, with only 12 teams, there were some really nice, nasty, vicious rivalries.
On this day fifty-seven years ago, the fourth - and by far the most influential - American Football League was founded.
Lamar Hunt, long frustrated by his inability to purchase an existing NFL team and by the refusal of the NFL to grant him an expansion franchise, decided to take matters into his own hands - he found found a new league, in which he would own a team. Throughout the first few months of 1959 he met with other prospective owners and the league began to take shape. Finally, in August, the first league meeting was held.
Initially, there were six franchises - Lamar Hunt's own team in Dallas (the Texans), Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, Minneapolis and New York. Soon after two more franchises were awarded, to Boston and Buffalo.
The NFL, at first unconcerned about the potential rivalry, soon decided that the AFL had to be stopped. They hurriedly awarded an expansion team to Dallas in order to compete directly with Hunt's franchise. It worked - the Texans only lasted for three years in Dallas, after which Hunt moved them to Kansas City and renamed them the Chiefs. And the NFL was able to entice the Minneapolis ownership group to instead join the NFL (though they would have to wait until 1961 to begin play, which they did as the Minnesota Vikings). In its place, the AFL arranged for a team to be located in Oakland - thus, 17 years later, the Vikings would lose a Super Bowl to a team that only came into existence because the Vikings bolted from the AFL.
The AFL began playing games in 1960. And the rest, as they say, is history.
Having Dallas and Washington in the East is strictly for historical rivalry. The only reason why Dallas got into the league was because the Dallas owner held rights to the Redskins' fight song. I think if I remember correctly, George Preston Marshall (Redskins original owner) wanted to keep the Dallas franchise out of the league. Geographically, it doesn't make sense for the Cowboys to be in the East. They should be in the South and at least Carolina should be in the East. That won't ever happen though.
The reason why Dallas got an NFL team was because the AFL had announced it was starting up and league founder Lamar Hunt was putting a team in his hometown of Dallas. The Cowboys were created (and owned by the son of another very rich oil man, Clint Murchison Jr.; both H.L. Hunt and Clint Murchison Sr. were among the richest men in north Texas at the time) in an effort by the NFL to force Hunt to give up his AFL idea before it even began; this occurred after the NFL unsuccessfully tried to give Hunt an NFL team in Dallas after he announced the formation of the AFL. (All of the above occurred after Violet Wolfner, the mother of future Cardinals owner Bill Bidwell, said she wouldn't sell the then-Chicago Cardinals to Hunt, future Houston Oilers owner Bud Adams, or other interests, and the NFL said they wouldn't expand the league to more than 12 teams. Hunt only came up with the idea of creating the AFL after he, Adams, and some of the other original AFL owners were unsuccessful in their attempts to buy existing or new teams in the NFL. Incidentally, Wolfner then moved the Cardinals to St. Louis in 1960, the same year the Cowboys and the original 8 AFL teams played their inaugural seasons.)
As a postscript, neither the Cowboys nor Dallas Texans (Hunt's AFL team) were particularly successful at the gate in their first few seasons due to their competition and the then-relatively small size of the Dallas/Fort Worth market. Hunt could see the continued competition could eventually sink both teams, so in mid-1963 he decided to move his team to Kansas City where they were renamed the Chiefs. (In retrospect, it is interesting to think about what would have happened had Hunt not moved the Texans; he had somewhat deeper pockets than Murchison and his team had been much more successful in its first 3 seasons than the Cowboys had been during the same time, though playing in the more established and higher profile league the Cowboys had a much higher, long-term upside if/when they became successful.) Hunt continued to live in the Dallas area (something that was true the rest of his life), and in a bit of irony, was the key guy on the AFL side in terms of bringing about the AFL-NFL merger, along with (I think) Murchison's first employee with the Cowboys, long-time GM Tex Schramm, who was the key guy on the NFL side.
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