|
The 1969 Season
American
Football League
ALL-STAR GAME |
 |
AFL
West 47
East 27
January 17, 1970
The Astrodome, Houston |
 |
 |
The 1969 AFL All-Stars took
the field at the Houston
Astrodome on January 17,
1970. It was the
final game in the history of
the American Football
League. The AFL-NFL merger
became effective with the
1970 season. Many of the
stars of the AFL were
unavailable due to injury
including quarterbacks Len
Dawson, Daryle Lamonica and
Joe Namath. A crowd of
30,170 looked on as the
coaches were George Wilson
of Miami for the East and
Lou Saban of Denver for the
West.
.
John Hadl of the San Diego
Chargers led the West to two
first quarter scores. Both
of the scores were produced
by fellow Chargers. Dick
Post scored on a one yard
touchdown slant and Hadl hit
Lance Alworth for 21 yards
and a touchdown. That was
all the scoring in the first
half. Boston’s Mike
Taliaferro and Buffalo’s
Jack Kemp alternated
quarters at quarterback for
the East, but were basically
ineffective.
.
In
the third quarter, Jan
Stenerud of Kansas City
kicked a 38 yard field goal
which was matched by Jim
Turner of the Jets who
followed with a kick of 44
yards. Early in the fourth
period, Stenerud kicked a 30
yarder. The score was 19-3.
Kansas City backup
quarterback, Mike
Livingston, replaced Hadl in
the final stanza and led the
West on one more drive.
Livingston scored the last
touchdown in AFL history on
a 12 yard run. The final
score was 26-3
. |
|
John Hadl was
voted the MVP.
Hadl completed
18 (which tied
an All-Star Game
record) of 26
passes for 224
yards, but was
intercepted
three times.
There was no
defensive player
chosen in 1970. |
|
|
 |
|
O.J. Simpson carries for the
East
in the last AFL All-Star
Game, at the Astrodome. |
|
AFL
All-Star
Squads (to be added) |
|
1969 |
West Squad |
East Squad |
|
|
|
SUMMARIES OF
EACH AFL ALL-STAR GAME |
|
The American Football League did not play an
All-Star game after its first season in 1960,
but did stage All-Star games for the 1961
through 1969 seasons. All-Star teams from
the Eastern and Western divisions played each
other after every season except 1965. That
season, the league champion Buffalo Bills played
against a team made up of all-stars from the
other teams.
Because the games were played at the
end of the season, they occurred in the next
calendar year. Thus, the 1961 AFL All-Star
game (with players selected as all-stars for the
1961 season) was played on January 7, 1962; the
1962 game was played in January 1963, etc.
The links below will take you
to summaries of each game, originally created by
Mark Bolding.
Most
of the content of this and the other AFL
All-Star Games was retrieved from the 'Internet
Archive Wayback Machine' at archive.org/web/web.php,
which claims copyright for the work.
*Other than the final score and
the image of the game program, his summary of
the 1964 season all-star game incorrectly gave
the report of the previous year's game.
Bolding's original site
classified the games by the calendar year they
were played in. Since they were played at
the end of AFL seasons and the All-Stars
involved were so chosen for their play in those
seasons, I classify them by the AFL season which
they represented. Thus the AFL
All-Star Game that featured stars of the 1961
season was played in January 1962, etc. |
|
|
|
Perhaps the greatest highlight of AFL All-Star Game history
came not on the field of play, but in the actions of black
players, supported by their white teammates and owners, when
the best players in the AFL boycotted the City of New
Orleans because of the disrespect black players were given
when they arrived there for the scheduled 1964 season AFL All-Star
Game, scheduled for January 1965.
The game was moved to
Houston in a seminal action in the early civil rights
movement in America. It is still recognized as such,
as recently as a March, 2007 article by Evan Weiner on
MSNBC. Another description of the incident is at
my
AFL Clippings page. |
|
|
|
|
|
