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AMERICAN FOOTBALL LEAGUE (AFL) 1960 - 1969 |
For various reasons, this is not a "typical" Guest Book. Please
send your posts in an ordinary e-mail to nospam.RemembertheAFL@aol.com. (First, remove
the leading characters 'nospam.'). Entries are not
automatically posted. E-mail me; I will format messages and post them here.
The "rules of encounter" are: 6) If you weren't an AFL fan, but your father was (but he doesn't do the internet), tell him about this page and show him how to submit his thoughts. 7) Generally, I can't e-mail you, to acknowledge your comments. Just check back here periodically. |
Note:
To discourage spam, I have inserted "nospam." in front of e-mail addresses. |
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nospam.COULTERYORK@aol.com 1/8/2007 Ange, This week's Charger- Patriot matchup brings back many fond memories of '63 when they met for the AFL title. Chargers were favored but not by much. I was in fourth grade at the time and playing my first year of Pee-Wee football for Good Shepherd in Camp Hill PA. Our area was a mix of Colts, Eagles, Steelers and I was one of only 3 people that knew much about the AFL. In the neighborhood pickup games, I was either playing for the Oilers or the Chargers. Keith Lincoln was the preferred. Even made up a jersey with magic marker and the #22 and some lightning bolts. Can't forget the name on the back either. Loved the playoff the week before, Bills- Pats, and have acquired a copy of the highlights of that game and the 63 Bills. I really think that if there was a Super Bowl that year, the Chargers would have won, BIG . . Great offense, Lincoln, Lowe, Hadl, Rote, Mix, Norton etc. But especially the defense with Ladd, Faison, Emil Karas, Westmoreland etc. No Contest. Agreed ????? Yours in the AFL Paul B York Jr. More soon. |
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nospam.webmaster@buffpics.com 1/8/2007 Makes me want to switch my Time Warner Cable subscription to the dish even more. I'd love to see Super Bowl III in it's entirety. I was eight years old in '69. I remember the ecstasy on my Dad's face when the Jets won. "I thought we didn't like the Jets, Dad?" "We do today, son, we do today." Only the NFL could get away with owning their own network. I could see them starting up more networks in the future, one to cover NFC games and one to cover AFC games and eliminating ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX broadcasts altogether. We'll all have to pay the NFL just to watch their games from home, a privilege we all enjoyed for free. ~ Chuck Maley |
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nospam.hookem2000@hotmail.com
1/10/2007 Dear Sir, just to clarify on the recent email I sent - - while I would be fine with you opting to put my kudos on your guest book, mainly I wanted to email you to simply show appreciation for the obviously large amount of "fun work" you put into it. I hope you intend to keep this site up for a long, long time.
I kinda feel like I know ya, as
much as you're obviously into the old-school stuff, particularly
the greatness of the AFL. Though just a young child thru the
60's, I grew to love it all so much, and enjoy "time-warping"
back to it.
With the baby boomer generation
being the largest by far of any other, I know there's bound to
be several others who enjoy such recollections.
Just wanted to give you major kudos
on a wonderful site. I've placed
it even as a link on my blog. Speaking
of old school, you may want to check it out a sec if time
permits. It's not solely AFL, though, but it covers that era.
http://boomerball.blogspot.com/
Take care, Bert Hancock |
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nospam.crush687@sbcglobal.net
1/11/2007 My name is Brian Wittkop Sr. and I live in Rapid City Michigan (near Traverse City) . . . I came across your web site and loved it. I too love the AFL and was and still am a Chargers fan. My son and I are also big Electric football fans and players. We collect old teams and also play seasons . . . in honor of the AFL we are going to play an AFL season with teams painted in the original colors and uniforms. We will play a 6 game season (I have lots of time since I'm retired and on dialsyis).
Your site is an invaluable resource for
the way some of the uniforms looked, and some
of the players' numbers.
Thanks so much for your hard work.
If you have any interest in looking in
on our season . .
you can go to
miggle.com and go to the chat board and see any post under Old AFL
season . .
. by 'wolverine'.
Again thanks so much .
. . .
Yours truly Brian D.
Wittkop Sr.
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nospam.brooks.davison@tx.rr.com 1/14/2007 Hello, my name is Brooks Davison. My friend, Mark Kelly and I own and operate the website www.maddenhistoric.com. We do the historic rosters for the popular video game John Madden football. I have used your site many times as a research tool to help build not only the regular rosters but also the All Time Teams. I also plan on building these custom teams not included in the game: 1962 Broncos 1963 Chargers 1964 Bills 1964 Patriots Mark Kelly is a two time Emmy award-winning researcher for ESPN network and I have been an amateur pro football historian/nut since the early seventies. Your site is truly awesome and I visit it often. I am currently reading "Going Long". It is a fantastic book about the AFL that is hard to put down and I highly recommend it. I hope it is okay that I posted a link to your website on my personal page on our website. It is sites like yours that will help educate fans on the history of this great game of professional football. ~ S. Brooks Davison, www.maddenhistoric.com |
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From
Thomas Flynn: nospam.twflynn66@yahoo.com 1/30/2007 I came across a link for your site on the AFL article on wikipedia and I must say that I regret not visiting it before! What a wonderful experience! I am a lifelong Chiefs fan from New York City. (The Bills are my #2 team -- I developed a warm spot in my heart for them when I attended the University at Buffalo from 1984-1988.) If you are interested, I've attached a letter that I wrote to the late Lamar Hunt a few years ago that tells the whole story on how I became a Chiefs fan at the tender age of seven. Sadly, I did not receive a reply. Throughout my life, I've been a rabid collector of Chiefs memorabilia. My greatest achievement just might be that I own 180 different Chiefs caps. I can send you a picture if you like. And since the glory days were the 60s, I've amassed quite a few AFL items. I own every AFL yearbook except 1961. The 1960 issue is one of my prized possession -- as is an old Spalding signed by the 1966 Chiefs team. Ebay has been a godsend: I just won a little commemorative plate from the 1970 AFL All Star game. I own just about every book you have highlighted on the site and am proud to say that I can easily rattle off the winners and losers from each AFL Championship Game. Not that anyone seems to care! It always amazes me when I ask a Jets fan when New York joined the NFL and they say 1960. I have not yet managed to explore your entire site yet but I must commend you on what you have written about Johnny Robinson. Simply a crime that he is not in the Hall of Fame. The same for Otis Taylor: he was a man among boys. Again, I thank you for the work you have put into remembertheAFL.com. I'm not sure exactly what I could do, but let me know if you need any help keeping it going. ~ Sincerely, Tom Flynn |
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nospam.KLBJAB@aol.com February 15, 2007 Mr. Coniglio: Thank you so VERY MUCH for this website honoring the memories of the American Football League. I am very disillusioned with today's National Football League. It (the NFL) has become an institution for the rich & beautiful while pushing away the real blue collar fans who built it up ($3200 for a cheap seat at Super Bowl XLI? $5000 for the best seats in Miami? $200,000 for a luxury box suite at Dolphins Stadium? No tailgating allowed either? THAT IS ABSURD!). In short, the National Football League is TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE! I was born in 1965, so by the time I started watching football as a kid all that I was exposed to was the National Football League and the AFC and NFC that is underneath their wings. And I have followed many teams over the course of time. But no team has captured my imagination quite like the OAKLAND RAIDERS! Oakland . . . Los Angeles . . . Oakland . . . IT IS ALL GOOD! And the fact that the Silver & Black were charter members of the American Football League makes it EVEN BETTER! I consider the Raiders-Chiefs rivalry to be the real deal in my mind. I feel that their battles in the 1960's are CLASSICS! Not even a writer in Hollywood could have wrote a better script. "The Patriarch" of the AFL (Lamar Hunt) versus "The Godfather" (Al Davis) in the most heated football games ever played. Once again . . . they were CLASSICS! I think that the Raiders have gotten such a bad rap over the years because Al Davis (just like David fighting Goliath) showed incredible bravery in his brief term as Commissioner of the AFL in 1966. The AFL clearly won in the AFL-NFL merger and Al Davis has forever paid the price for standing up to the NFL and its monopolistic ways. How ironic that the NFL claims to be "America's Game" and yet in a country that has been built on competition and a free market economy, nobody is more socialistic and HATEFUL of another league than the NFL. Some of the "good old boys" of the NFL may look at Al Davis as "Jimmy Hoffa" and Pete Rozelle as "Bobby Kennedy" . . . but we know better! Thank you for honoring Al Davis (and the rest of the brave American Football League pioneers) the way they should be honored. Thank you for telling the truth about the real deal in professional football in the 1960's. Thank you for educating so many people about the bellwether called the American Football League. This website has to be the best "Mom & Pop Shop" website that I have ever seen on the Internet. The very best of fortune to you and your family in the future! ~ Sincerely, Karl L. Brown Hunt was a good man, the best, and without him there would be no AFL, nor pro football as we know it today. But he was "born with a silver spoon in his mouth", while Al Davis had to claw and fight for what he got. Hunt was just too nice, and didn't realize that the AFL would have buried the NFL if Al Davis had been allowed to fight the fight. - Remember the AFL |
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nospam.JEJohnson73@aol.com February 22, 2007 Hi, I want you to know, I visit your site often. I think it is a wonderful dedication to football from yesteryear. Personally, I feel football of today is such a washed out game that it is hard to remain enjoyable anymore. So it is refreshing to see websites dedicated to the games history, and in fact, to the AFL. As I have always felt the AFL was and is, what is the best about the NFL today. If it was not for the AFL merging with it, I do not think the NFL would have the success that it has. And who knows, if there was never a merger, the AFL could have taken the NFL out of existence. We will never fully know about that. But I enjoyed your site a lot and I visit it as often as I can. It is a great reflection of a great league, that showcased what football is all about and what it stood for. ~ TC, Jennifer |
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nospam.richmary@iw.net |
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Note: The next writer
is referring to a recent Buffalo News article that stated that no Buffalo
team had ever won a major championship. . nospam.jsgnannies@tampabay.rr.com 3/14/2007 What a great site, my dad who still lives in Buffalo sent me a copy of First Sunday with the article “Did the Bills Win a World Championship”--- Damn Right they did. I have many great memories of going to the Bills games at the old rockpile as a young child. I still remember trying to catch balls that were kicked into the end zone stands box seats (pre-net era). Going to watch Cookie, Kemp, Paul Costa, Sestak, Maguire (which included a trip to Sestak & McGuire’s for chicken wings), I could go on with all the great players I watched growing up. It was always a treat to go to the Saturday night games while they lasted. The Browns used to be on local TV every Sunday and my favorite player was Jimmy Brown, but once the Bills beat the Chargers for the AFL championship in '64, I was forever an AFL fan 1st and foremost. One of my fondest memories was going to the Bills/Chiefs Championship with my older brother (tickets were $10) our bond was forever formed. We were even lucky enough to go to the Bills/Giants Superbowl; to this day we still talk about the Bills losing to KC and missing out on going to the 1st SB game (at that time The World Championship Game). To this day our families go for the original AFL teams in the Superbowls; we're half & half if the Steelers, Colts, Ravens or possibly the Browns make it. We were just as proud as the Jets fans when Broadway Joe beat the Colts and then the following year the Chiefs beat the Vikings --- Go AFL!!!! ~ Sincerely, Jim “Goose” Siragusa |
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What an absolutely great site... Growing
up in
Boston, I will never forget the great battles we had with the
Bills.
Have some bad news to relay to you this
evening.
Ernie Wright a former Ohio State great and original member of
the
LA Chargers (and personal friend of mine) passed
away last month in San Diego.
I worked in football for the past 34 years as a talent scout
(three leagues), but like you, most fondly remember the AFL
All my best, ~
Tom Marino
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nospam.barry@deafdigest.com 4/27/2007 I only just found out about your web site, despite loving football all my life. What I remember the most about the AFL was the New York Titans' first night game at the Polo Grounds in 1960. I was at the game with a group of friends. The Titans were leading the Boston Patriots with just a few seconds left. The Titans had to punt; the punter fumbled the snap and in a wild melee one of the Patriots picked up the loose ball and ran for the winning touchdown as time expired. There was no screen replays to analyze what went wrong. It was just a blur, pretty much left to our aging memories. I do not remember the sequence of plays that led to the punt; I've often thought about the game and wondered if the Titans used smart time management strategy then they would have trotted off the field with the victory in hand. I sort of rooted for the Titans for the following few seasons even though owner Harry Wismer was a turn off. I remember Al Dorow's scrambling passes, Art Powell's leaping pass receptions, hard nosed tackling of Larry Grantham. I do miss the ugliness of the Polo Grounds; never would there be a stadium like the Polo Grounds. There is beauty in this ugliness. Barry Strassler, Washington, DC, but a native of New York. In the second week of the 1960 season, on Saturday night, September 17, before 19,220 fans (Wismer's count) at the Polo Grounds, the Titans were leading 24 - 21 in the fourth quarter. Their punter was Rick Sapienza, who fumbled late in the game, and the Patriots' Chuck Shonta picked it up and ran 52 yards for the TD. Cappelletti kicked the extra point, and the Patriots won 28 - 24. The next game, the Titans then had Al Dorow do the punting, and later gave the job to Joe Pagliei. - Remember the AFL |
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nospam.spammy4295@yahoo.com 5/6/2007 Dear Angelo, This is a great site. I am a New York Jets fan since 1972 (I was born in 1968) and attended every game from 1972 until 1978 or there abouts. I also watched them practice at Hofstra University numerous times. I have only seen them play three times since they moved to Giants Stadium, but I am still a fan. It's just that seeing them anywhere but Shea Stadium just isn't the same for me. ~ Ian |
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nospam.bsmackey89@yahoo.com 5/14/2007 Dear Angelo, Thanks for the great site. I have wonderful memories of the Jets and the AFL. My husband, Dee Mackey, was a player in that great league. He never made the All-Pro Team, or the HOF; however, his career is one to be envied. Dee was drafted by the 49'ers in 1959 where the great quarterbacks, Y.A. Tittle and John Brodie were field generals. Dee was traded to the Baltimore Colts in 1961, and was on the receiving end of Johnny Unitas passes. When Weeb Ewbank made the move to New York, Dee also made the move, giving him the opportunity to perform at the infamous Polo Grounds. Then came the move to Shea Stadium, making him a part of the Sonny Werblin/Joe Namath dynasty. Unfortunately, his career ended in 1967; and we all know what happened in 1968. It was sad, but the knowledge that he had a career alongside the greatest quarterbacks in pro football history eased the pain. Dee's legacy also includes being on the short list of father/son players in professional football. Our son, Kyle Mackey, also wore the green and white of the Jets. Dee died February 26, 2001 in Gladewater, TX. How we miss the big guy! My major project is spearheading an exhibit for the East Texas Museum in Gladewater. We will be honoring professional athletes from Gladewater, White Oak, Big Sandy, Winona, and Sabine. Our list includes the famous Jet, Winston Hill, Coach Lovie Smith, ,Max McGee, and Deb Mohon of rodeo fame. Our athletes are from many sports - if any fan has memorabilia to donate, we would appreciate the offer. Thanks for the platform, ~ Barbara Mackey |
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nospam.jbeach@stx.rr.com
6/19/2007 Growing up in San Diego in the 1960's, I'll always have fond memories of the AFL. Thanks for your great web site . . . Jim Beach, Kerrville, Tx. |
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nospam.soxrock-wikipedia@hotmail.com 7/11/2007 Ange: I must say that your site is one of the best sites, if not the best, that I have ever visited. I think that when you were creating those player articles [on Wikipedia] last July, you should've been allowed to keep your links to remembertheafl.com up and not have Cholmes75 remove them as "linkspam". I think they should go back up because your site is the only site I know with detailed information into the AFL. Yeah, I know about profootballreference.com and databasefootball.com, but your site gives expert information from someone who loved and watched the AFL. I think that you deserved better then. Anyway, getting back to the likes of Sestak and Robinson (I read your comparison of Robinson and Larry Wilson in the New York Times link you have on your website, I like the picture of you as well), I think that you have valid points on why they should be in the hall of fame. If I were the NFL, here is what I would do: I would make a section dedicated to the AFL and have Sestak and Robinson and Cappelletti there if they can't make it in the January vote. It would be justice, and, even being posthumous for Sestak, it would be a great honor for the players who played in the AFL to know that they were hall-of-famers. I love your reasoning for the NFL to be called the AFL. The NFL is everything the AFL was. Only if the AFL played hardball for a couple more years, and the NFL might have merged into the AFL, not vice-versa. The AFL changed football forever in a great way. And they had just as good players as the NFL did. Thanks for the response. ~ Troy |
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nospam.BLC0322@ecu.edu July 14, 2007 Thank you very much for placing Bud Adams in the AFL Hall of Infamy. You are so very correct when you say he has turned his back on the AFL and all it once represented. It is a shame that someone that did so much for the AFL style game would slap all the fans in the face, especially the great city of Houston. What he did, refusing to allow Houston the name rights of the Oilers, is an atrocity that no Houstonian, Texan, or AFL fan should ever forget or forgive. Additionally, his lobbying with the NFL, in an attempt to deny Houston a team should be considered a grievous and petty crime against professional football. It is because of Bud Adams and his actions that I no longer tune into or even follow professional football. It's only high school and college for me. I'm sure in time the wonderful city of Nashville will see Bud Adams for what he truly is, a man with a great and glorious past that has been corrupted by the all mighty dollar and lust for power in the NFL's elitist circles. The hard working citizens of Cleveland once felt the same embarrassing sense of misfortune when their team was stolen away from them. However, they again have the Browns and all the history that is associated with the name. After many more years people will not remember that George Blanda once roamed the sidelines in Houston, or that Earl Campbell smashed through defenses under the glass-roofed Astrodome. Certainly few will remember that it was with the Oilers that a new high flying offense called the Run-N-Shoot was first brought to the NFL through the AFL/AFC Oilers. Again, I just want to thank you for the opportunity to voice my disgust of Bud Adams and where professional football has gone due to people much like him. Thank you very much for your insight in placing Bud Adams' name where it rightly belongs: THE HALL OF INFAMY! Cleveland got its team and their name back because they were an NFL city. The league didn't care that the city that hosted the AFL's first two champions got screwed. - Remember the AFL |
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nospam.Jeffrey.Evans@med.navy.mil July 17, 2007 Mr. Coniglio, Thank you for your great site. I, too, am a big fan of the AFL and have enjoyed your site for sometime. I am from Buffalo and was a big fan as a young boy going to the Rock Pile to see the 67, 68, 69 and 70 Bills playing there on Sundays. I am still a big football fan but my greatest memory of football is the old AFL and the Buffalo Bills. I collect whatever I can about the AFL, books, pictures, whatever. It's good to know someone else has the passion that I have for this great time in football history. I just finished reading your article on the net under Buffalo.com and enjoyed it tremendously. I love your idea of a 50-year anniversary and would like to help if I could. Please don't hesitate to ask if you need some support. I am just an individual but would like to help in whatever way I could. Thank you for your time and this great site. Fellow AFL Passionist ~ Jeffrey T. (JT) Evans |
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The following was sent at Eastertime. I was remiss in not
publishing it sooner.
-
Remember
the
AFL
nospam.mssbh@msn.com April 8, 2007 My father knew some of the founders of the AFL and was able to get access to all of the statistics from an entire season. These included about 7000 plays and recorded line of scrimmage, results, the type of play and the results. My dad used this data to invent a board game and was given the rights to label it as the "official" football game of the AFL. I have the original mock-up of the board, a few copies of the play book, which were typed as well as some correspondence between my dad and some game manufacturers. This game never reached the market, but a manufacturer did produce something similar a year or so after Dad went to New York and showed them his game. He was convinced they took his idea. Anyway, I have been working on a plan to produce the game with a new board design, etc, but to leave it as a board game instead of trying to re-cast is as a video game or computer game. I was only going to produce enough to give to my brothers. My brothers and I went to every Oiler game in Houston with our dad between 1960 and 1965, including the longest game. I remember that one because it was so bitter cold. I also remember the day a player from the Titans was killed during a game in Houston due to a closeline tackle on a kick return. Fights in the stands during the 3rd and 4th quarters were the routine at Oiler home games. Until the team moved to the Astrodome, they played in the University of Houston stadium on the UH campus and it was not legal to sell beer in a college stadium at the time. The parking lot was on the grounds just outside the stadium itself and people would go to their cars at half-time and get boozed up in their cars. At some point in the last half of the game, someone would get rowdy and start a fight. As kids, we just could not wait to see the police go up in the upper level seats and drag some guy out.
Anyway, I found your site when I did a search for
Bob Talamini. His son called me the other day as a wrong
number but I recognized the name on caller ID and spent a few minutes on
the phone telling him about seeing his dad play in the "old days".
Enjoy your Easter day. ~
Robin Harrison
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August 10, 2007 |
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August 17, 2007 nospam.Larry_Hillman@contractor.amat.com I am an old time AFL fan and very pleased with your website. I was 11 years old when the AFL started and was and still am a Houston Oilers fan. Blanda, Cannon, Tolar and Hennigan were my boyhood heroes. Thanks for promoting the AFL which was so much more exciting and colorful than the boring old NFL of old timey 3 yards and a cloud of dust football. When Namath showed them up in the Super Bowl, it was a trium ph for all AFL fans because we had been telling them that the NFL style was out of date. The AFL really was a reflection of youth and the Sixties. The merger should never have taken place in my opinion. We should have had two leagues just like MLB. Many of the stars of the AFL should be in the Hall of Fame. I remember attending an Oiler game in the late 1970's and the Oiler Championship players of the early sixties were honored. You should have heard the crowd cheer for Hennigan and Tolar in particular. We still loved them and the AFL. I wish the NFL Texans could approach that magic. God Bless you ~ LH |
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August 18, 2007 nospam.bissond@mail.belmont.edu What a great site! I am a lifelong Dolphins fan and remember the inaugural season of 1966 as if it were yesterday. I grew up in Ft. Lauderdale and participated in the contest to name the franchise. Mine was one of 600 entrants who suggested "Dolphins" as the team name. Could you imagine a team called the Miami Mariners, or heaven forfend, the Miami Moons! I remember fondly even those early hapless teams when the "stars" were George Wilson, Jr., Joe Auer, and Wahoo McDaniel. I commend your efforts to see the great AFL players inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. It is incredible to me that Jim Tyrer, Jerry Mays, Jim Nance, Cookie Gilchrist, the late George Webster and so many other worthy players have not been enshrined. Almost forty years after the merger and the AFL still gets no respect! Cheers, ~ Doug Bisson I can still picture Joe Auer, one of my favorite former Bills, running back the opening kickoff for a Miami touchdown in the Dolphins' first game. - Remember the AFL |
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August 22, 2007 nospam.greg.gorecky@sympatico.ca Angelo, although I have visited this site before I have just returned because the AFL was one of the reasons I watched American football to begin with. I began watching in 1965 at the age of six having only watched the previous season in the NFL and watched Jim Brown and Cleveland win the title, and I had only watched the CFL prior to that beginning at age three, as well I totally agree with you about those that you believe should be included in the Hall of Fame. My favorite players back in the day were Lance Alworth and Daryle Lamonica, and I loved your addition of the players who previously played in the Canadian Football League. Also I haven't watched the NFL since 1985. Keep up the the Great Work ~ Greg |
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October 28, 2007 nospam.richard.henning@cox.net I just wanted to write in to tell you what a wonderful site this is and how special it is for folks like me. I was a young child growing up in Chicago in the 1960s. My father was from Kansas City and used to tell me how thrilled he was when pro football came to his hometown. Some of my earliest childhood memories are of my father and I watching AFL games on NBC. The Chiefs became my favorite team. When I went to school the other kids would tell me how great the Bears were. I caught more than my share of grief but my hero was not Gale Sayers or Dick Butkus but Len Dawson. My dad had a love-hate relationship with the Oakland Raiders and with Joe Namath. He loved to root against the Jets and the Raiders but when the two teams met for the AFL Championship in January of 1969, I remember us rushing over to my uncle’s house to watch one of the greatest games in history on their big, color TV. My father passed away in 1986. When I think back and remember my childhood and Sunday afternoons with him listening to Curt Gowdy call all those wonderful games, I am taken back to an era that was truly a magic moment in history that can never be repeated. Those of us who remember the AFL sometimes have a hard time explaining to others why it was so special, but if you were lucky enough to have caught the bug, it is for life. In spite of the fact that many games were played on raw, cloudy days in spartan, rusty stadiums, the AFL is a warm place to return in our memories. Professional sports today seem so packaged and sterile. It is a far cry from those days when the uniforms were muddy and men like George Blanda or Babe Parilli would draw up plays in the dirt to outsmart Johnny Robinson or Ron McDole (the same plays that today are called by computers to counter defenses, a testimony to the unique ingenuity of those players and coaches). Unlike today, teams back then stayed together for years and each franchise in the AFL developed a unique flavor. If it were not for Sid Gilman, Lance Alworth and the rest of the Chargers, there would be no “vertical” passing game in modern football. I know we cannot wake up tomorrow and watch a game on NBC in glorious peacock color from sunny San Diego of 1965, and see that California field that seemed SO green set against those powder blue uniforms, but your site takes us all back to those days. Speaking of the fields….George Toma, the groundskeeper extraordinaire of the Chiefs, was yet another innovator that you might want to consider for the AFL Hall of Fame. He was the father of the modern sports playing field. As a kid used to watching black and white TV growing up, I mentioned earlier how my dad would always try to find us a color TV for AFL games (sometimes parking ourselves in the electronics section of the department store….you had to know how friendly my dad was to understand why the salesmen never minded seeing a smiling George Henning and his son show up on Sunday afternoons for big games). Those colorful Municipal Stadium fields painted by Mr. Toma (with the Chiefs’ logo and helmet at midfield and the endzones painted up in red and gold) were a real treat for the eyes (and the forerunner of all modern football filed designs). It was a shame that Arrowhead Stadium was built with artificial turf. I cried after the Chiefs lost on Christmas Day in that last game ever played at Municipal Stadium. It was perhaps a final nail in the coffin of the old days in the post-merger world. Those red uniforms never quite looked the same without grass stains and mud. Thanks again…..Long live the 52-49 final scores, 235 pound linemen playing without steroids, Sherill Headrick fixing his compound fracture by sticking the bone back into his thumb and staying in the game … etc ….. etc …. Rich Henning Thanks for the great letter, Rich. Good suggestion about George Toma. Sherrill Headrick is now fighting liver cancer, but I know he'll be as tough against that disease as he was against his AFL opponents. - Remember the AFL |
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December 19, 2007 nospam.BA12351@cs.com I'm getting a little bit tired of people criticizing Joe Namath. He is NOT the "most overrated quarterback" of all time. He won the only Super Bowl that counted. The only one people remember. Joe was not surrounded by exceptional talent for most of his career. Still, he had great talent and charisma. Most important, he lived up to his words. How many so-called superstars do? Maybe people don't recall what a tremendous underdog the New York Jets were. But lots of us do. Bill Axtell AFL Fan Strange that BEFORE the third AFL-NFL World Championship Game, the football geniuses were calling the Colts "the greatest team in pro football history". The Jets beat them: how come no one then called the JETS the greatest team in pro football history? - Remember the AFL |
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December 29, 2007
nospam.kdm59@yahoo.com I'm writing as I await the the Patriots' final game of the season against the Giants to see if they will go 16 and 0 and I'm spending that time remembering the fun I had discovering pro football through the Boston Patriots and the AFL, which I began following avidly in 1966, when I was seven years old. My children have labored under the delusion that the Pats have always been great, played in a beautiful stadium and were hated by everyone else in the country. How wrong they were! I'll be the first to agree that the era of Brady, Moss, and Harrison are the best ever, but there was nothing more fun than seeing Parilli, Cappelletti, Buoniconti, etc. play in Fenway Park. Unless it was playing at Boston College and having the stands burn down, as they did during an exhibition game against the Redskins I went to with my father in 1969. We also had the added benefit of rooting for our hometown favorite, Joe Bellino, once he came back from the Navy. I will feel even better watching the Pats stick it to the Giants since the Giants were force fed to us on radio and TV both before and throughout the 60's, and there has always been a significant Giants fan base in New England, though I bet few are willing to stick their heads up right now. As I kid, I watched and appreciated the NFL, but for pure excitement and passion it was the AFL for me. Kind of like the difference between watching the opera and watching Jackie "Mr. Excitement" Wilson. I'm the kind of person who still is disappointed when the Colts or the Steelers go to the Super Bowl because they are not AFL teams. I was thrilled to see so many of the AFL trading cards I still have, reproduced on your site and especially look forward to the day when someone wises up in Canton and makes sure Gino Cappelletti is voted into the Hall of Fame.
Does anyone know of a place where one can get either audio or
video tapes of old AFL games? I have
only one, an audio of the 1968 AFL title game between the Jets and
Oakland and was playing it today in the car for my kids, since all
children should be raised on the classics.
Also, if anyone is in the Boston area, be sure to remember the
old time Boston Pats in the Boston Herald's
poll of all-time Patriots. Yes, Brady will win, and that should be the
case, but make sure Gino,
Babe and the old guys get their props.
Long live the AFL, and long live Ange Coniglio for keeping the
AFL alive!
Happy New Year ~
Kevin McElhinney Brattleboro, VT
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January 27, 2008
nospam.bjantoniak@aol.com Dear Angelo,
Thank you for your time and effort in
creating this resource. Growing up in a small
Western PA town, I was obviously rooted in Black and Gold, and have no
regret in that fact. That being said, I have become a fan of football
in as much as I am a Steeler fan, and this is a fantastic portal to the
history of perhaps the greatest professional league in modern times.
Always a fan of the underdog, the drama of that in real life was not
played out much more than in the AFL days, from on-field competition to
the business and marketing of sports.
I have learned of this time from books my father had found for me, and was absorbed by the evolution of the sport I grew up with as a child of the NFL (post-merger). All these things are already known to you, but my angle is from a different level: from my 6th grade English teacher (Sister Marie Elizabeth) who taught him as a child, to one of the main roads I drive while working named after him, I have earned a huge amount of respect for the Eternal Player: George Blanda. Thank you again for this wonderful page into knowledge. ~ Steve |
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January 31, 2008 nospam.grays61@verizon.net Great news Mr. Coniglio. That league should be remembered in some way. Best logo in sports. Nothing like the old AFL and the original eight. Chargers vs. Chiefs at Balboa Stadium . . . . . now that was football . . . . Lowe, Hadl, Lincoln, Faison, Ladd, Swe | ||||||
