Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

The NFL website says 1957 but I'm watching that Documentary the NFLN produced 5 years ago and claims that Mr. Bell was still in charge in 1959-1960 when the AFL was being formed.

I mean Rozelle.

Sorry.

Bert Bell died at an Eagles Steelers game in 1959 and the league had a interim Commissioner for a year and it took dozens of ballots before Rozelle's name came up and he was elected in 1960. At the time he was elected he was the GM of the Rams and was 33 years old and the owners thought he was very bright and understood the potential of television and after going thru a couple of dozen other names the owners were running out of people that everybody could agree on.

Rupert Patrick wrote:Bert Bell died at an Eagles Steelers game in 1959 and the league had a interim Commissioner for a year on.

10/11/1959 to be exact, and Austin Gunsel, his temporary replacement, was only on the job for a little over three months before Rozelle was elected.

I imagine that the documentary did say that Bert Bell was still Commissioner when the American Football League was being formed, which is true. I doubt that they even suggested that he was around in 1960, when the league was preparing for its first season.

However, Lamar Hunt and other AFL owners had talked to Bell about their intentions right before they made the announcement of their new league in August 1959, and Bell mentioned the conversation in a vague way (said that he was aware of one, and maybe two proposed leagues) when he was testifying before a Congress subcommittee that same month. Unfortunately, Bell died during that 13 month period between first announcement and first kickoff. I sometimes wonder whether the Dallas Cowboys would have existed as an NFL team at all, had it not been for Bell's death. Max Winter would still have founded the Minnesota Vikings, albeit as an AFL team in 1960 rather than an NFL team in 1961.

Mark L. Ford wrote: Max Winter would still have founded the Minnesota Vikings, albeit as an AFL team in 1960 rather than an NFL team in 1961.

Which would have meant that the Oakland Raiders (or Senors as originally known) were, at best, an expansion team in 1966(?)

BD Sullivan wrote:

Mark L. Ford wrote: Max Winter would still have founded the Minnesota Vikings, albeit as an AFL team in 1960 rather than an NFL team in 1961.

Which would have meant that the Oakland Raiders (or Senors as originally known) were, at best, an expansion team in 1966(?)

That fountain of all that is true and accurate - Wikipedia - says that Barron Hilton was lobbying for a second West Coast team right at the outset, threatening to abandon the Chargers if they didn't come up with one. So it would seem that an Oakland franchise would have been created by 1961 if the Vikings had stayed in.

I can imagine that Oakland might have been a 1962 addition. The original six franchises were Dallas, Houston, New York, Los Angeles, Minneapolis and Denver, and Boston and Buffalo got added in to balance the east coast. It was only because Minneapolis suddenly left that Barron Hilton had the leverage to insist on another west coast team. My understanding is that most of the AFL owners would have preferred Atlanta as the replacement, but Hilton made them the offer that they couldn't refuse. Newspaper reports from the time show that the AFL required the unanimous consent of the owners to expand, so Harry Wismer's visions of Chicago and Philadelphia franchises for 1962 and 1963 failed, but I think that Hilton probably would have forced the issue if Oakland hadn't come in for 1960.

I wonder what names were rejected before they decided on Rozelle for NFL Commissioner.

Rupert Patrick wrote:I wonder what names were rejected before they decided on Rozelle for NFL Commissioner.

Don Kellett, Baltimore GM
Marshall Leahy, SF legal counsel
Austin Gunsel, NFL Interim Commissioner/Treasurer

Leahy came the closest to getting elected, garnering seven of the 12 votes--nine were needed for election.

Mark L. Ford wrote:I imagine that the documentary did say that Bert Bell was still Commissioner when the American Football League was being formed, which is true. I doubt that they even suggested that he was around in 1960, when the league was preparing for its first season.

However, Lamar Hunt and other AFL owners had talked to Bell about their intentions right before they made the announcement of their new league in August 1959, and Bell mentioned the conversation in a vague way (said that he was aware of one, and maybe two proposed leagues) when he was testifying before a Congress subcommittee that same month. Unfortunately, Bell died during that 13 month period between first announcement and first kickoff. I sometimes wonder whether the Dallas Cowboys would have existed as an NFL team at all, had it not been for Bell's death.

How come?