This season marks the 50th anniversary for the eight original American Football
League teams. As part of the anniversary celebration, the Pro Football Hall of Fame
has created a special exhibit that pays tribute to the league’s charter teams.
The AFL, which merged with the National Football League in 1970, played its first
season in 1960 with eight teams. The original AFL teams were the Buffalo Bills,
Denver Broncos, Kansas City Chiefs (played as the Dallas Texans), New England
Patriots (played as the Boston Patriots), New York Jets (played as the New York
Titans), Oakland Raiders, San Diego Chargers (played as the Los Angeles Chargers)
and Tennessee Titans (played as the Houston Oilers). The Miami Dolphins became
the ninth AFL franchise and played its first game in 1966. The Cincinnati Bengals
followed as the tenth AFL team playing its first game during the 1968 season.
The Remember the AFL exhibit opens at the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Saturday
May 23 and will run through February 2010. Included in the exhibit are one-of-akind
game-worn artifacts, photos, documents and a video history that pays tribute
to the league’s owners, players and coaches, circumstances of play and milestone
events. One artifact featured that represents the single most important milestone of
the league’s history is the pen that on November 8, 1966, President Lyndon
Johnson used to sign Public Law 89-800 that carried the rider approving the merger
of the AFL and NFL.
Also featured in the exhibit are artifacts from some of the league’s stars including
Hall of Famers Jim Otto, George Blanda, Billy Shaw, and Kenny Houston. Artifacts
from several other AFL stars like Floyd Little, George Saimes, Ed Budde, Gino
Cappelletti, and Lionel Taylor are also presented. Mementos from the careers of
AFL Hall of Fame coaches Hank Stram, Weeb Ewbank and Sid Gillman are also
displayed.
Many of the elements that contribute to making pro football the world's most
popular sport can be traced to the AFL and the changes its presence brought to the
sport. By the time the fierce war between the competing AFL and NFL of the 1960s
was over and the merger was complete, the expanded NFL stretched from coast-tocoast
and from border to border. As a result, full stadiums and dramatically
increased television coverage introduced pro football to hundreds of millions of new
fans.
In addition to the exhibit, the Hall of Fame’s website Profootballhof.com will feature
a season’s worth of flashbacks to the AFL. Initial content on the league’s history will
be posted on the site to coincide with the exhibit’s opening and new features will be
added through the 2009 NFL season.
