August 14, 1959: The American Football League Is Founded

AFL Founder Lamar Hunt

August 14, 1959: The founding meeting of what was soon named the American Football League is held in Chicago. That city would not have a team in this league, the 4th to assume the name. (Previous AFLs operated in 1926, 1936-37 and 1940-41.)

The 8 founding teams that would begin play in September 1960 were, in alphabetical order:

* The Boston Patriots, founded by Billy Sullivan. With their move to suburban Foxborough, Massachusetts in 1971, they were renamed the New England Patriots.
* The Buffalo Bills, founded by Ralph Wilson. A team with that name had played in the All-America Football Conference from 1946 to 1949.
* The Dallas Texans. They were moved and renamed the Kansas City Chiefs in 1963. The team was owned by the League's founder, Lamar Hunt. Today, the AFC Championship trophy is named for him.
* The Denver Broncos, founded by Bob Howsam.
* The Houston Oilers, founded by Bud Adams. They were moved to Memphis and renamed the Tennessee Oilers in 1997, moved to Nashville in 1998, and renamed the Tennessee Titans in 1999.
* The Los Angeles Chargers, founded by Barron Hilton. They were moved to San Diego in 1961, and back to the Los Angeles market in 2016.
* The New York Titans, founded by Harry Wismer, before being taken over by Sonny Werblin and Leon Hess. They were renamed the New York Jets in 1963.
* The Oakland Raiders, founded by Wayne Valley, before being taken over by Al Davis. They were moved to Los Angeles in 1982, moved back to Oakland in 1995, and moved to Las Vegas for the 2020 season.

In 1966, the AFL would add the Miami Dolphins. In 1968, it would add the Cincinnati Bengals. From 1966 to 1970, having made peace in their wild war with the established National Football League, the process of merging the 2 leagues into the modern NFL was undertaken.

The 1960s AFL was the most successful "rebel league" in U.S. sports history. You could argue that the NHL was, but it was an all-Canadian league at the start. In baseball, the National League wasn't really a "rebel league." The American League did get to make peace with the National League in 1902.

But people didn't really think of "Major League Baseball" as a single entity at that time. It can be argued that MLB didn't become such an entity until the establishment of the Office of the Commissioner of Baseball in 1920, or even until 2000, when the AL and the NL were rendered team groupings only, with a single baseball and a single set of umpires for both Leagues.

Compare the number of teams that were absorbed into the established league:

* 1926 AFL: None.
* 1936-37 AFL: 1, the Cleveland (later Los Angeles) Rams.
* 1940-41 AFL: None.
* 1946-49 AAFC: 3, the Cleveland Browns, the San Francisco 49ers, and the original Baltimore Colts, who soon failed.
* 1960-69 AFL: 10, all of them.
* 1961-62 American Basketball League: None. It had 8 teams, including in 6 cities that didn't then have NBA teams. Cleveland, the San Francisco Bay Area and Washington would get NBA teams; Kansas City had one, but lost it.
* 1967-76 American Basketball Association: 4, the New York (now Brooklyn) Nets, the Denver Nuggets, the Indiana Pacers and the San Antonio Spurs. It had 12 franchises in all. Of these cities in which those teams played, the following now have NBA teams, in addition to the preceding: Charlotte, Dallas, Houston, Memphis, Miami, Minneapolis, New Orleans, Salt Lake City and Washington. Kansas City and San Diego got teams, but lost them.
* 1972-79 World Hockey Association: 4, the Edmonton Oilers, the original Winnipeg Jets (now the Arizona Coyotes), the Quebec Nordiques (now the Colorado Avalanche) and the Hartford Whalers (now the Carolina Hurricanes). Besides the preceding, the NHL would also put teams in Calgary, Cleveland (failed), the Miami area, New Jersey, Ottawa and Phoenix.
* 1974-75 World Football League: None. It had teams in 8 cities that did not then have NFL teams. Only 2 of those cities now have them: Charlotte and Jacksonville.
* 1983-85 United States Football League: None. It had teams in 10 cities that did not then have NFL teams. 3 of those cities would get NFL teams long-term: Baltimore, Jacksonville and Phoenix; 2 others would get them temporarily: Memphis and Oakland.
* 2001 XFL: None.
* 2019 Alliance of American Football: None.

Despite being the son of oil baron H.L. Hunt and the brother of Nelson Bunker Hunt and William Herbert Hunt, some real pieces of work, Lamar Hunt was universally admired. He was also a key figure in American soccer, having attended the 1966 World Cup in England. He helped to found the North American Soccer League in 1967, trying and failing to save it in 1985, helping to found Major League Soccer in 1996, and using his clout to save MLS in 2001. He was also a minority owner of the NBA’s Chicago Bulls from their 1966 founding until his death.

The American Football Conference’s championship trophy and the U.S. Open Cup, America's answer to England’s FA Cup, are named for him. He died in 2006, having been elected to the Pro Football, National Soccer and International Tennis Halls of Fame.

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August 14, 1959 was a Friday. Basketball legend Earvin "Magic" Johnson and actress Marcia Gay Harden were born. And these baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Boston Red Sox, 11-6 at Yankee Stadium. The Yankees led 6-0 after 3 innings, but the Sox scored 9 runs in the top of the 8th, off Whitey Ford and then Ryne Duren. Vic Wertz and Gary Geiger hit home runs, while Ted Williams went 0-for-3 with 2 walks. Mickey Mantle went 0-for-2 with 2 walks.

This was the one season in his career that Williams did not bad at least .316, finishing at .254; and the one season between 1947 and 1964 in which the Yankees were out of the American League Pennant race before the 2nd week of September.

* The Cincinnati Reds swept a doubleheader from the Philadelphia Phillies, 15-13 and 5-4 at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia. Over the 2 games, Frank Robinson went 6-for-10 with a home run and 4 RBIs.

* The Washington Senators beat the Baltimore Orioles, 7-3 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Harmon Killebrew went 3-for-4 with a home run and 3 RBIs. Brooks Robinson went 1-for-2 with 2 walks.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Milwaukee Braves, 2-1 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Roberto Clemente and Hank Aaron both went 1-for-4, and Clemente also had an RBI.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Cleveland Indians, 11-1 at Briggs Stadium (renamed Tiger Stadium in 1961) in Detroit. Al Kaline went 1-for-4 with a walk and an RBI. Harvey Kuenn went 3-for-5 with a home run and 2 RBIs. For the Indians, Tito Francona hit a home run, and Rocky Colavito went 1-for-4. Just before the next season started, Kuenn and Colavito would be traded for each other.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the San Francisco Giants, 7-5 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Ernie Banks, Walt "Moose" Moryn and Dale Long hit home runs for the Cubs. For the Giants, Willie Mays went 2-for-5, and Willie McCovey went 3-for-4 with a home run and 3 RBIs.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Kansas City Athletics, 5-1 at Kansas City Municipal Stadium.

* And the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 2-1 at the 1st Busch Stadium (formerly the last Sportsman's Park) in St. Louis. Alex Grammas singled Bill White home with the winning run in the bottom of the 11th inning. This made a winning pitcher of Lindy McDaniel, in a game where the starting pitchers were Bob Gibson for the Cards and Don Drysdale for the Bums. Neither of them hit a batter. Stan Musial appeared only as a pinch-hitter, and did not reach base. Duke Snider went 3-for-4, including a home run.

June 8, 1966: The NFL-AFL Merger Is Announced

The AFL's logo, and the logo the NFL was using at the time

June 8, 1966: After 6 years of "war," the established National Football League and the upstart American Football League reach an agreement on a merger.

The process began 2 months earlier, when Al Davis, head coach of the AFL's Oakland Raiders, was named Commissioner of the AFL, replacing Joe Foss, who had been Commissioner since the league's founding in 1959. Davis' approach, much like the pirate on his team's helmet, was "Take no prisoners." That spooked the NFL team owners, who were tired of the rising salaries that the bidding war between the leagues was producing.

So Tex Schramm, general manager of the NFL's Dallas Cowboys, contacted Lamar Hunt, founder of the AFL and owner of the Kansas City Chiefs. Hunt, more respected by the AFL team owners than Davis was, went behind Davis' back, and undercut Davis in his desire for all-out war. This resulted in Raiders vs. Chiefs being a very nasty rivalry that lasts to this day, in spite of the Raiders' moves.

On June 8, Hunt and Schramm called a press conference in New York, and announced that they'd agreed upon these points:

* The AFL's 8 teams, which would be 10 teams by the time the process was completed, would join the NFL and its 14 teams, which would soon grow to 16, and the combined 26-team league would keep the NFL name.

* All existing teams would remain in their respective metropolitan areas for the time being. Some teams soon built new stadiums out in the suburbs of their anchor cities, including the AFL's Boston Patriots and Buffalo Bills; and the NFL's New York Giants, Detroit Lions and Dallas Cowboys. But no team in the combined NFL would move to a different metro area until the Raiders moved to Los Angeles in 1982. (That, however, began a new era in which several teams moved, and others at least threatened to do unless their current cities built them new stadiums.)

* Each league's champion would meet in an "AFL-NFL World Championship Game," starting with the end of the upcoming season. As it turned out, it would be informally nicknamed "the Super Bowl" at the time, officially so for the one at the climax of the 1968 season, and, for the 1970 season, officially named that with a Roman numeral added: Super Bowl V.

* Starting in 1967, there would be a common draft between the two leagues.

* Also starting in 1967, there would be preseason exhibition games between teams in the two leagues. So the first "AFL-NFL World Championship Game," retroactively renamed Super Bowl I, became, in Hunt's words, "the only time a pure AFL team played a pure NFL team."

* Starting in 1970, with everybody in one league, the National Football Conference would be made up of "original NFL" teams, while 3 such teams -- the Baltimore Colts, the Cleveland Browns and the Pittsburgh Steelers -- were moved over to join the AFL teams in the American Football Conference.

* Each Conference would be divided into Eastern, Central and Western Divisions. Each Division's champion, plus a "wild card" team, would go into the Playoffs, resulting in 4 Playoff teams in each Conference, competing to be the Conference Champions, who would then face each other in the Super Bowl.

* Each league would keep its current television contract: CBS would keep the NFL/NFC games, and NBC would keep the AFL/AFC games. For interconference games, whichever was the visiting team would decide it: If an NFC team was visiting an AFC team, CBS would televise it; if it was the other way around, it was on NBC. This would hold until 1993, when new contracts were signed. (CBS ended up broadcasting so many Dallas Cowboys games that people joked that their initials stood for "Cowboys Broadcasting System.")

* And Pete Rozelle, currently the Commissioner of the NFL, would remain in charge of the combined league.

That last point ticked Davis off: He wanted to be Number 1 in everything he did, from running the Raiders to football competition. He resigned as AFL Commissioner in July, replaced by Milt Woodard, who had been Assistant Commissioner under both Foss and Davis, and served until the merger was completed in March 1970.

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June 8, 1966 was a Wednesday. Actress Julianna Marguiles was born.

Football was out of season. So were basketball and hockey. These games were played in Major League Baseball:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Cleveland Indians, 2-1 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris and Joe Pepitone each got 2 hits, but Gary Bell outpitched Mel Stottlemyre. Jim Bouton, Bell's future roommate on the 1969 Seattle Pilots, and chronicler of that team in his book Ball Four, did not get into this game. I guess Bell smoked them inside.

* The New York Mets lost to the Atlanta Braves, 7-6 at Shea Stadium. Hank Aaron went 4-for-5 with 2 home runs and 6 RBIs. Joe Torre went 2-for-5. The starting pitchers were Jack Fisher for the Mets and Hank Fischer for the Braves -- obviously, no relation. Jack Fisher was the losing pitcher, and the winning pitcher, in relief, was Clay Carroll.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Cincinnati Reds, 10-6 at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia. The Phils got home runs from Dick Allen, Tony Gonzalez and Clay Dalrymple. Pete Rose went 1-for-5.

* A doubleheader was played at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Well, sort of. In the opener, the Baltimore Orioles beat the Washington Senators, 6-5. Cam Carreon doubled home the winning run in the bottom of the 14th inning, making a winning pitcher of Stu Miller in relief of Jim Palmer. The nightcap was interrupted in the 8th inning, because the American League then had a curfew: No inning could start after 1:00 AM. The game was completed the next day, and the Orioles won, 8-7. 

Over the 2 games, Brooks Robinson went 5-for-10 with a solo home run, while Frank Robinson went 2-for-9 with 2 walks.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 11-5 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Lou Brock went 1-for-5. Roberto Clemente went 1-for-3, and Willie Stargell went 3-for-4 with a 2-run homer.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Boston Red Sox, 5-4 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Don Wert drew a bases-loaded "walkoff walk" in the bottom of the 11th inning, making a winner of Larry Sherry after Denny McLain pitched 10 innings. Al Kaline hit 2 home runs, while Carl Yastrzemski went 1-for-4. The Red Sox got a home run from Tony Conigliaro, and 2 of them from Jim Gosger (who turned out to be another '69 Pilot).

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 8-1 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Randy Hundley hit a home run off Don Drysdale, to help make a winning pitcher out of Dick Ellsworth, who advanced to 2-8 on the season. (He finished at 8-22. With the Cubs in 1963, he went 22-10.) Ernie Banks went 2-for-3. 

* The Kansas City Athletics beat the Minnesota Twins, 5-4 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. Harmon Killebrew went 2-for-4 with an RBI.

* The Houston Astros beat the San Francisco Giants, 6-1 at the Astrodome in Houston. Mike Cuellar outpitched Juan Marichal. Willie Mays went 1-for-3 with an RBI double.

* The California Angels beat the Chicago White Sox, 1-0 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim). George Brunet (who turned out to be another '69 Pilot) pitched a 2-hit shutout.

March 27, 1980: Silver Thursday

Herbert (left) and "Bunkie"

March 27, 1980: Nelson Bunker Hunt, William Herbert Hunt and Lamar Hunt -- sons of right-wing fanatic oil billionaire H.L. Hunt -- try to corner the silver market. A subsequent steep fall in silver prices leads to panic on the commodity and futures exchanges.

They used their family fortune, over $5 billion at the time their father died in 1974, to jack the price of silver up to $50 an ounce. There was a silver frenzy: People who had all-silver U.S. dimes, quarters, half-dollars and dollar coins minted up until 1964, before the switch to a silver-copper mix, sold them for far above their face value.

But the Federal Reserve then took an unusual step: It strongly encouraged banks to stop making loans for speculative activity. When it became clear that the government was after the Hunts' scalps, their credit dried up. Concerns that the Hunts might not be able to meet margins with new loans and would go under, pulling several brokerages and banks with them, put further downward pressure on the price of silver. The price dropped to $11 an ounce.

The economy, already hurt by high inflation and high interest rates, soon went into recession. The brothers lost nearly everything, although they were able to rebuild their fortunes. "Bunkie" Hunt later admitted, "A billion dollars ain't what it used to be."

Lamar -- yes, that's the Lamar Hunt who founded the AFL and the Kansas City Chiefs -- died in 2006, Bunkie in 2014. As of March 27, 2022, Herbert is still alive. (UPDATE: He died in 2024.)

This event, known as "Silver Thursday," inspired the scheme in the film Trading Places of the Duke brothers to try to corner the market for frozen concentrated orange juice. Sabotaged, they ended up losing $394 million, or about half of what the Hunt brothers lost. The $1.1 billion they lost in 1980 is worth about $3.95 billion in 2022 money. (The Duke brothers' $394 million loss in 1983? About $1.15 billion.)

It took until 2019 for the price of silver to get back to where it was in 1980.

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March 27, 1980 was, as stated, a Thursday. Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. There were 6 games played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks lost to the Philadelphia 76ers, 103-101 at Madison Square Garden.

* The New Jersey Nets lost to the Atlanta Hawks, 117-100 at The Omni in Atlanta.

* The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Washington Bullets, 118-111 at The Coliseum in the Cleveland suburb of Richfield, Ohio.

* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Denver Nuggets, 143-95 at the Milwaukee Exposition & Convention Center Arena, a.k.a. The MECCA. (It's now the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena.)

* The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Utah Jazz, 97-95 at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City, Utah.

* And the Portland Trail Blazers beat the San Diego Clippers, 96-93 at the San Diego Sports Arena (now the Pechanga Arena).

And there were 4 games in the NHL:

* The Boston Bruins beat the St. Louis Blues, 7-1 at the Boston Garden.

* The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Quebec Nordiques, 5-2 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.

* The Buffalo Sabres beat the Detroit Red Wings, 10-1 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium. Don Luce and Danny Gare each had 2 goals.

* And the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Los Angeles Kings played to a tie, 2-2 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.