How the ‘Foolish Club’ fooled them all
Two books depict history of the AFL
If you’re under 50, you probably don’t remember the American Football League. Here’s a chance to catch up.
We’re talking about the real AFL — Harry Wismer and the New York Titans, Buster Ramsey’s Bills, Butch Songin and the Boston Patriots, the Los Angeles Chargers, the Dallas Texans, those crazy Denver Broncos socks, Youell Field in Oakland.
Two books published in time for the 2008 season offer reminiscence about the league that existed from 1960 to ’69 before the AFL-National Football League merger was consummated in 1970. Both books have a Western New York connection.
The first, “The Birth of the New NFL — How the 1966 AFL/NFL Merger Transformed Pro Football” comes from a familiar voice — longtime Buffalo News sports editor, columnist and Bills beat reporter Larry Felser.
The other is an offering from a fan, Dave Steidel, a high school counselor and coach in Pennsylvania who fell in love with the upstart league as a youngster and never let go. An inspiration for Steidel’s work, “Remember the AFL,” is Ange Coniglio of Amherst, who has devoted much of his life and passion to preserving the memory of the old league and defending its place in the pro football universe.
Felser and Steidel approach the subject differently.
Felser’s book is chock-full of anecdotes and tales of experiences from a reporter who was on the scene from the AFL’s opening in 1960 until the merger. He knows firsthand most of the principals in the story.
For this reporter, it’s hearing again many stories shared by Felser over Saturday night road trip dinners while covering the Bills from 1981-90. Delightful tales of personalities such as Wismer, Sid Gillman, Commissioner Joe Foss, Lou Saban, Al Davis and countless others. There’s even some interesting perspective on the great Vince Lombardi, an AFL nemesis in leading the Green Bay Packers to victories over Kansas City and Oakland in the first two Super Bowl games.
Felser weaves these stories masterfully in a narrative that not only tells the story of the AFL’s founding in 1959, but also traces it back to the first pro football amalgamation in 1950 when the NFL swallowed up the remains of the old All-American Football Conference, leaving Buffalo out. The NFL’s attitude was just as smug then as it was before Joe Namath and the Jets upset the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III. In 1950, the haughty NFL believed that its champion Philadelphia Eagles would hold sway over the four-time AAFC champion Cleveland Browns. They were wrong. The Browns won in a rout, a portent of what was to come in the ’60s.
The eight original AFL owners, the so-called “Foolish Club,” took a flyer on the future of pro football. Felser describes how the league survived — barely at times — in the early years, and the role that Bills owner Ralph Wilson played as a behind-the-scenes figure in events that led up to the 1966 merger. That agreement between the leagues resulted in the first AFL-NFL championship game (later to be known as the Super Bowl) and the first common draft in 1967. There were more skirmishes before the two leagues became one realigned entity in 1970 with Baltimore, Cleveland and Pittsburgh moving over from the NFL to form two balanced conferences, the AFC and NFC.
Wilson was a key negotiator in the AFL’s landing a national television contract with NBC, which threw the league an important lifeline. Also his secret negotiations with Colts owner Carroll Rosenbloom helped lead to the full-blown merger talks.
Steidel’s output is more of a source book. He writes a wrap-up for each AFL team in each season of the league’s operation. The wrap-ups are accompanied by individual statistics and generously sprinkled with photos and other illustrations.
Steidel’s interest in the AFL began by accident. As a youngster he purchased some bubble gum cards that he expected would depict NFL heroes such as Norm Van Brocklin, Jim Brown, Bart Starr, Paul Hornung and others. Instead, he found himself being introduced to the stars of the new league — Abner Haynes, Paul Lowe, Ernie Ladd, Jack Kemp and Gino Cappelletti. Steidel was hooked.
Many of the illustrations are reproductions of cards from the collections of Steidel and others. There are also artist renderings of original team logos and depictions of each season’s uniform design of the AFL teams. The original uniforms (1960 and ’61) of the Bills, for example, were copies of the Detroit Lions’ Hawaiian Blue and Silver motif and not the familiar red, white and blue.
“Remember the AFL” also includes many pages of trivia contests and rankings of AFL players and stadiums. Buffalo’s War Memorial Stadium tops Steidel’s list of the AFL’s worst facilities. “The Rockpile” was no gem, but it seems there were other facilities in the league that were just as primitive though they may have been lacking in fans as passionate as the Buffalo crowds.
Felser is a professional reporter and writer, while Steidel is admittedly an amateur. Still, Steidel’s work could have used some thorough editing. Nothing damages the credibility of a book more than errors in fact and spelling.
For example, in Steidel’s reports on the Bills, Buffalo quarterback Warren Rabb (1961-62) is referred to as Rabb and Raab and quarterback Kay Stephenson (1968), later the head coach, is referred to as Stevenson.
Picky. Picky.
If you just want to jog your own memories from those AFL years or want to visit a more innocent era in the history of the game, either book should hold your interest and feed your football appetite.
