AAFC

In this episode of our study of early professional football teams, we look at the origins of the All-American Football Conference, what it was, who thought of it and the initial 8 franchises.

In 1944 World War II was the news of the day. The stories of men lost, battles won and the fight against evil filled the headlines in America daily. Just a couple days before the great D-Day invasion of continental Europe by the Allies though, there were a group of men with large bank accounts that met in St. Louis. This collective group of millionaires was called together by a sports visionary, a man we have talked about before in other segments, named Arch Ward.

Ward if you remember was a former sportswriter and editor of the Chicago Tribune. This man had a thirst and real talent for expanding and marketing sports in America. The selfmade promoter has a bunch of very popular ideas that came to fruition and are well known in the annals of American sports history. The MLB All-Star game, the Chicago All-Star football game, Golden Gloves boxing tournament and founded countless charity events around Chicagoland. Arch was so popular and organized that he was even offered the position of NFL Commissioner twicebut turned it down on both occassions.

The promoter gathered these affluent individuals together near the Gateway to the West, to further discuss an idea he had of creating an alternative professional football league to compete with the National Football League. Ward figured that when the war would end that there would be a large talented pool of potential gridiron players who had competed not only on the battlefield but on the gridiron as well. They had played beside former pros and collegians alike and iron had sharpened iron like no other time in sports history. Other servicemen returning home would be primed for watching sports, as it was one of the few activities they had during their down time overseas. The demographic that Arch Ward targetted were getting primed and would be ready to go he felt.

The Professional Football Researchers Association published a great story in their publication,  The Coffin Corner back in 1980 had a great piece written by Stan Grosshandler on the history of the AAFC. I encourage you yo take a look at it by following the link found in the preceeding sentence.

In attendance at this St Louis meeting were potential franchisee representatives from New York, Los Angeles, Buffalo, San Francisco, Chicago and some interest by proxy from Cleveland. Grosshandler shares with us the following from his 1980 article:

"a second organizational meeting on September 3, 1944 in Chicago. John Keeshin, a trucking executive, represented Chicago; oilmen James Breuil and Ray Ryan were from Buffalo and New York respectively; boxer Gene Tunney sought a team for Baltimore; actor Don Ameche wanted one for L.A.; Tony Morabito, a lumber executive, was from San
Francisco,; and Arthur McBride, a Cleveland taxi man, came from that city. Also present was Mrs. Eleanor Gehrig, widow of the baseball Hall of Famer, who later became a
league executive. It was reported that Detroit, Philadelphia and Boston were also interested in the new league. "

The AAFC was intruiguing and now had financial support from folks with wealth that wanted to become franchise owners. The group signed contracts that stipulated that under no corcumstances was any franchise to sign on players, coaches or executives that still were under contract with an NFL club. They wanted to be on the up and up with no shady tactics that would smear the reputation of validity they sought. The vision was that they could gain a relationship with the established NFL and possibly have a World Series of Football that matched the best from each League much like the Major Leagues of Baseball had done so brilliantly.

The year of 1945 saw some obstacles arise that needed to be handled by the fledgling League. The original Baltimore contingent withdrew their seat of fielding a team, Cleveland signed Paul Brown as their coach eventhough he was still serving in the Navy as influential people from Notre Dame asked that Frank Leahy be taken off the table so that he could remain at the helm of the Fighting Irish. Ward who was a South Bend Alum, granted the wish and that is one reason Brown was recruited to fill in for their first choice in Cleveland of Leahy as coach. What a fortunate series of events that was for the future Browns organization. They even had the NFL's former Brooklyn franchise defect for the senior league to come and join the AAFC to have a second team to take foothold in the Big Apple area.

The AAFC would be putting big time professional football on the map West of the Mississippi, something that even the NFL was just trying to attempt. Everything was coming together and in January of 1946 the league had its franchises all ready to go with owners, coaches and home venues;

In the Eastern group would be:

• New York Yankees, Dan Topping as the owner, Ray Flaherty coach, while playing at Yankee Stadium.
• Buffalo Bisons, owned by James Breuil, Head Coach Sam Cordovano, and a contract to play at the Civic Stadium. 
• Brooklyn Dodgers, led by franchise owner Bill Cox, Mal Stevens was in charge of the sidelines,  and a home venue of Ebbets Field. 
• Miami Seahawks, owned by Harvey Hester, Coached by Jack Meagher, in the home setting of the Orange Bowl. 

The Western Conference would consist of:

• San Francisco 49ers,  owned by Tony Morabito, the Coaching expertise of Buck Shaw, at the legendary Kezar Stadium.
• Los Angeles Dons, headed  by an ownership group of Ben Lindheimer's expertise, the coachong prowess of Dudley DeGroot, in the friendly confines of the L.A. Coliseum.
• Cleveland Browns, with Arthur McBride as owner, the legrndary Paul Brown as coach, at Cleveland's Municipal Stadium. 
• Chicago Rockets, led by John Keeshin, the Head Coach signed was Dick Hanley, and a home track of Soldiers Field.

The stage was set for history to be made and a great boost of comptition that pro football so desperately needed. We will get more into each of the seasons and teams in future individual franchise episodes so stay tuned.

Not to be a spoiler for those upcoming posts and podcasts but when you look at the franchises above there are only a few names that you can recognize. The AAFC lasted only four seasons, but the NFL absorbed three of them (one was not an inagural AAFC member) with two still going strong to this day. Hint Hint: the Browns and the 49ers are still going. The Colts well they dissolved and then a new Balltimore Colts team started. Look back in the coming weeks as we will focus our teams of early pro football to those of the AAFC.

The photograph in the banner above is courtesy of the Wikimedia Commons collection of public Domain pictures. It is a cropped version of the 1946 - Football Program Allentown vs Minersville High School drawn by a very talented Unknown author.

Special thanks to the Professional Football Researchers Association and its great story in their publication,  The Coffin Corner by Stan Grosshandler in 1980.