All-America Football Conference

The All-America Football Conference (AAFC) was a professional American football league that challenged the established National Football League (NFL) from 1946 to 1949. One of the NFL’s most formidable challengers, the AAFC attracted many of the nation’s best players, produced one of pro football’s greatest teams, and introduced many lasting innovations to the game. However, the AAFC was ultimately unable to sustain itself in competition with the NFL. Three of its teams were admitted to the NFL, of which two survive today.

The AAFC was one of two American professional sports leagues (along with AFL III) to have its teams play in a double round robin format in the regular season: each team had a home game and an away game with each of its AAFC "brethren."

Infobox sports league

pixels = 110px
caption = AAFC Official Logo
sport = American football
founded = 1944
inaugural = 1946
folded = 1949
country = USA
champion = Cleveland Browns
teams = 8

Founding

The AAFC was founded by "Chicago Tribune" sports editor Arch Ward on June 4, 1944. Ward was also the originator of baseball’s All-Star Game and football’s College All-Star Game.

Ward brought together a number of wealthy pro football enthusiasts, some of whom had previously attempted to purchase NFL franchises. Ward had previously encouraged the NFL to expand, but now he hoped to bring about a permanent second league and a championship game with the NFL, similar to baseball’s World Series.

On November 21, 1944 the AAFC chose Jim Crowley, one of the "Four Horsemen of Notre Dame", as its commissioner. Not coincidentally, the NFL commissioner at this time was Elmer Layden, another of Knute Rockne's legendary 1924 backfield.

During the next months, the AAFC’s plans solidified. The league initially issued franchises for Buffalo, Chicago, Cleveland, Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco. Brooklyn and Miami were later added. A group representing Baltimore was considered for admission, but could not secure a stadium. The league planned to begin play in 1945, but postponed its opening for a year as World War II still raged.

As the eight franchises built their teams, no move was more far-reaching than Cleveland's choice of Paul Brown as its head coach. Brown had won six Ohio state championships in nine years at Massillon High School and the 1942 national championship at Ohio State, and had also coached successfully at the military’s Great Lakes Naval Station. In Cleveland, Brown would emerge as one of the game's greatest innovators.

NFL Reaction

As might be expected, the NFL did not welcome its new rival. In 1945, Layden remarked that the AAFC, still a year from its first game, should “first get a ball, then make a schedule, and then play a game.” The NFL's Official Encyclopedic History of Professional Football, 1977: "The AAFC", pgs. 245-251] This insult, often paraphrased as "Tell them to get a ball first," would be long remembered.

Washington Redskins owner George Preston Marshall was perhaps the NFL's hardest-liner regarding the AAFC. In 1945, he commented “I did not realize there was another league, although I did receive some literature telling about a WPA project”. America’s Game: The Epic Story of How Pro Football Captured a Nation, by Michael MacCambridge, 2005, pg. 13] Later he declared, “The worst team in our league could beat the best team in theirs.” After the AAFC put a team in Baltimore, Marshall’s opposition to it would be a major obstacle to interleague peace. Not coincidentally, his team was badly hurt by the AAFC. A top team from 1936 to 1945, the Redskins began a decades-long title drought after coach Ray Flaherty and many key players defected in 1946.

Layden’s successor, Bert Bell, pursued a policy of official non-recognition, generally answering “no comment” to queries about the other league. In 1947, "Pro Football Illustrated" previewed both leagues in its annual publication and was banned from NFL stadiums. MacCambridge, pg. 50]

Competition

The AAFC posed a formidable challenge. In most interleague sports wars, the established league has major advantages over the challenger in prestige, finance, size, and public awareness. The NFL-AAFC war differed in several respects.

The NFL was just emerging from its wartime retrenchment. The Cleveland Rams had suspended operations for 1943, and on three occasions teams merged for a season.The Philadelphia Eagles and Pittsburgh Steelers in 1943, the Chicago Cardinals and Pittsburgh Steelers in 1944, and the Boston Yanks and Brooklyn Tigers (Dodgers) in 1945.] The Boston Yanks had played only one season as an independent entity.

Meanwhile, the AAFC had advantages not enjoyed by many challengers:
* The AAFC was founded by a key figure at a major newspaper, so it enjoyed ample attention in the press.

* The AAFC owners (dubbed "the millionaires' coffee klatch") Total Football II: The Official Encyclopedia of the National Football League, 1999, "Chapter 27: The All-America Football Conference, by Phil Barber"] were wealthier than their NFL counterparts. Among them were Cleveland’s Arthur B "Mickey" McBride (a real estate and taxi magnate), San Francisco’s Anthony Morabito (lumber), Chicago’s John L. Keeshin (trucking), and Los Angeles’ group of racetrack owner Benjamin Lindheimer, actor Don Ameche and MGM's Louis B. Mayer. The NFL owners were generally men whose primary assets were their teams.

* Peace produced a surplus of talent and an opening for a new league, as many pro and college players (some of whom had played on military teams) returned to civilian life. Many college-eligible players were signable despite longstanding tradition because their original classes had graduated.The Best Show in Football: The 1946-1955 Cleveland Browns, by Andy Piascik, 2007, pg. 16] The AAFC took its share: its 1946 rosters included 40 of the 66 College All-Stars, two recent Heisman Trophy winners (Frank Sinkwich and Angelo Bertelli), and more than 100 players with NFL experience.

* Air travel was now viable. Like Major League Baseball, all NFL teams still played in the Northeast and Midwest, but the AAFC seized the opportunity to place teams in open cities in Florida and California.

Yet it remained to be seen if there was a market for this much pro football. Since achieving stability in the early 1930s, the NFL had never fielded more than 10 teams.There were 11 franchises in 1944-45, but only 10 teams actually played.] No competitor had endured for more than two years. In 1946, there would be 18 teams, including three in Chicago, three in New York, and two in Los Angeles.

Baseball and college football were substantially more popular. Longtime NFL president Joe Carr had said, "No owner has made money from pro football, but a lot have gone broke thinking they could." MacCambridge, pg. 53] At a time when the World Series had long been a national institution, and the Rose Bowl drew crowds of 90,000, the NFL's title game typically drew about 35,000 fans. Most pro teams sharedstadiums (and sometimes names) with the local baseball team, and both leagues saw fit to choose college football legends as their commissioners.

There was even a sense that collegians could defeat pros. 1946 saw the famous Army-Notre Dame scoreless tie in Yankee Stadium. At season's end, Arch Ward (the AAFC founder!) opined that both teams were superior to either pro champion.Piascik, pg. 222]

It was in this landscape that the AAFC prepared to compete with the NFL.

Maneuvers and intrigue

Early events in the NFL-AAFC war favored the AAFC.

Dan Topping, owner of the NFL’s Brooklyn Tigers,Known as the Dodgers from 1930-43.] wished to move his team from Ebbets Field to the much larger Yankee Stadium. New York Giants owner Tim Mara used his territorial rights to block the move. He had good reason: the Yankees had displaced the Giants as New York’s premier baseball team after moving into The House That Ruth Built, three rival football leagues had planted teams there hoping to duplicate that feat, and Topping (of Anaconda Copper) was significantly wealthier than Mara.

Topping responded by buying into the baseball Yankees and transferring his club to the AAFC. Most of his players followed. His renamed New York Yankees were rewarded with $100,000 from each of the other seven AAFC teams while the AAFC's initial New York investor withdrew. (Note that the AAFC Brooklyn Dodgers were a separate entity never associated with Topping's team.)

Shortly after Topping defected, the NFL owners fired Commissioner Layden, replacing him with Pittsburgh Steelers co-owner Bert Bell. Bell had already made a major contribution to the league: the NFL draft, begun in 1935, was his idea.

Meanwhile, Dan Reeves' Cleveland Rams had consistently lost money, despite winning the 1945 NFL title. Compounding his problems, the local AAFC competition already looked strong: Arthur McBride was aggressively marketing the Browns, and coach Paul Brown was an Ohio icon. Accordingly, Reeves proposed to move the Rams to Los Angeles.

With two teams planned for California, the AAFC had national aspirations. The NFL's thinking was more modest: it rejected Reeves' move because of travel expenses. After the NFL refused to consider his second choice (Dallas), Reeves threatened to withdraw from the league. Having already lost Topping, the NFL reconsidered and approved the Los Angeles move. MacCambridge, pg. 16]

It was unprestigious for the NFL champion to move at all, let alone partly to avoid an unproven rival. On the other hand, the NFL would now face the AAFC as a national rather than regional league, and the AAFC would not have a West Coast monopoly.

Initial alignment

For 1946, the AAFC began play with 8 teams playing a record 14 games (a double round-robin). The NFL's 10 teams played 11 games, its standard since 1937.The NFL had played 12 games in 1935-36 and 10 games during the wartime 1943-45 seasons.]

Again acting ambitiously, the AAFC chose stadiums larger than the NFL's in Chicago, New York, and Cleveland.In Cleveland, the Rams had played in League Park.]

The two leagues’ franchises and home fields for 1946 were:

NFL

AAFC