Broncos win 13-10 First AFL Game
On a Friday night in Boston, the AFL (American Football League) was officially launched. The game was played on September 9, 1960 at Boston University Stadium (formerly Braves Field), between the Denver Broncos and the Boston Patriots, who of course are widely recognized now as the New England Patriots.
Some NFC-AFC History
Before 1960, the NFL held a monopoly on pro football in America (as it does now). Then in 1959, Lamar Hunt, the son of oil magnate H.L Hunt, got together with several of his very rich friends and colleagues, and they formed the American Football League as a direct competitor to the National Football League.
The two leagues battled for audience share and for talent. Players’ salaries sky rocketed. A few curmudgeons scoffed at the upstarts, but most fans who watched the AFL games on nationally televised broadcasts, were delighted by faster, wide open style of play. The executives at ABC who had signed the AFL to a five year contract had to have also been pleased.
By 1966, the owners of the NFL teams decided that they preferred monopoly t0 competition, so on June 8 of that year, they signed a merger agreement with the AFL. That led to the first Super Bowl (Everybody called it that from the start, but officially it was called the NFL-AFL Championship Game.) The game was played on January 15, 1967, between the Green Bay Packers and the Kansas City Chiefs. To the surprise of no one, the Packers manhandled the Chiefs, 35-10. Green Bay delivered an encore performance the following year when they won “the big game” against Oakland 33-14.
In 1969, the NFL decided to officially call the championship game “The Super Bowl.” (Now days, they fiercely protect their trademark of this “brand”, to the point of absurdity.)
Joe Namath of course, delivered on his outrageous guarantee that the New York Jets would defeat the Baltimore Colts. The owners of the old NFL teams were embarrassed all the way to the bank. Namath’s brash personality and lifestyle set off a media frenzy, and won the league more attention and free publicity than they could have ever dreamed of prior to the merger.
Bye bye AFL. Hello AFC.
Beginning in 1970 the AFL ceased to exist. There was now one league, the old NFL. It had two conferences the NFC and the AFC. In order to maintain the old rivalry, the NFC was stocked with all but three of the old time NFL franchises. All of the AFL teams played in the AFC along with the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Baltimore Colts, and the Cleveland Browns.
Back to Boston – September 1960
It’s hard to believe that before the Pats, Boston and the rest of New England could not support a major league football team. Prior to the opener, John Ahern, wrote in the Boston Globe, “Four times professional football has been tried in our town, four times it folded. Huge sums were lost and Boston was consigned to the sticks, the limbo of broken football dreams. Friday night at Boston University (old Braves Field), the town’s fifth pro venture breathes new life. It’s as welcome as the flowers in May and it will be greeted enthusiastically by a populace that has not seen good football since Boston College’s Sugar Bowl team of 20 years back.”
The four previous attempts that Ahern referred to were:
• The Boston Bulldogs 1929
• The Boston Braves 1932
• The Boston Redskins 1933-1936 (Yes, before Washington they were the Boston Redskins.)
• The Boston Yanks 1944-1948
During the 1960 pre-season the Patriots compiled a 4-1 record that included a 43-6 drubbing of the Broncos. The Broncos lost all five of their pre-season games. But that was practice. In front of 21,597 fans (How many saved their programs?) and a large local radio audience on Boston’s WEEI, the Broncos defeated the Pats in a squeaker, 13-10.
