Tales from the American Football League
Preserving the legacy of the AFL
Billy Neighbors, an offensive lineman from the University of Alabama who starred in the AFL, passed away this afternoon due to complications from a heart attack that he suffered last Wednesday. Neighbors was an offensive guard who played with the Boston Patriots (1962-1965) and Miami Dolphins (1966-1969). He was an AFL All-Star in 1963, and was named to [...]
Tom Louderback was a linebacker, center and guard out of San Jose State. He was drafted by the Washington Redskins in the 10th round of the 1955 NFL Draft, and played two seasons with the Philadelphia Eagles before signing with the Oakland Raiders in 1960. He played two full seasons in Oakland, and then spent the beginning [...]
Prior to the AFL and NFL coming to an agreement on a merger in 1966, the two leagues held independent drafts for players coming out of college. That meant that a given player would often be drafted by one team from the NFL and another team from the AFL. This gave certain players something of a [...]
I had a thought-provoking inquiry recently by Tex Noel, the Executive Director of the Intercollegiate Football Researchers Association. Tex was working on a massive project in which he had compiled a list of all First Round Draft Choices, from every professional football league that held a draft (AFL, NFL, AAFC, WFL, USFL, XFL and CFL – the [...]
There is a feeling amongst fans of the American Football League that players from the AFL get overlooked by the voting committees of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Everyone has their own favorite player that they feel has been shorted in the voting process. Typically fans argue the hardest for a player from their [...]
There are several places that one can go on the internet to find quality information on the American Football League. First and foremost, www.remembertheafl.com, which is run by Ange Coniglio, has been an old standby for years. Chris Holmes’s site documenting AFL game programs is another nice place to go. One of my favorite places [...]
In 1969, two men were chosen as Most Valuable Players of the American Football League. Both were quarterbacks, and oddly enough, they had individually been selected for the same honor in the previous two years as well. Quarterbacks Daryle Lamonica (MVP – 1967) and Joe Namath (MVP – 1968) split the honor in 1969, the [...]
Joe Namath. 1968. AFL champions. Super Bowl III. The Guarantee. What more is there to say? Joe Namath played his college ball for the legendary Bear Bryant at Alabama, and then became a legend in his own right as quarterback of the New York Jets. Namath, in white high-top cleats, hobbled around Shea Stadium on [...]
Daryle Lamonica began his career in professional football when the Buffalo Bills selected him out of the University of Notre Dame with their 24th-round pick in the 1963 AFL draft. At 6’3″ and 215 lbs, Lamonica was a prototypical passer, who possessed keen maneuverability and a cannon for a right arm. In fact, there was [...]
> These days Syracuse University is better-known for it’s outstanding lacrosse teams than for putting out top-flight football players. Paul and Gary Gait, and more recently the Powell brothers, have been the stars of the athletic department. But back in the 1950s & ’60s, Syracuse produced a line of running backs to rival any college, [...]
