The history of sports is always fun to look at and as we get ready for this weekend’s big NFL Playoff match-ups knowing a little about the heritage of the franchises is quite interesting.
Assisting me in this exercise is Evan Weiner sports historian.
Arizona at New Orleans – The Cards were Chicago’s original football team and are the oldest professional team in football starting in 1898. The Bears came to town 1921 after starting as the Decatur Staley’s. The NFL Bears became top team in town and the Cards moved to St. Louis and then later to Phoenix. The Saints are a team built by Congress. In 1965 to secure enough votes to pass the merger of the NFL and the AFL the league [The NFL] granted a team to New Orleans. The expansion it largely thought helped to secure the votes of Senator Russell and Congressman Hale Boggs of Louisiana – two key men the passage of the NFL/AFL merger legislation.
Ravens at the Colts – This Colts might be the most traveled NFL franchise. Their roots start in the old All American Football League. The franchise started in Miami as the Seahawks and they moved to Baltimore in 1947 and entered the NFL in the 1950 season but folded after one season in “Charm City.” In 1951 they moved up I-95 to play in Yankee Stadium as the New York football Yankees, but folded after only one season. In 1952 the team was moved to Dallas where once again after only one year they folded. Finally in 1953 they settled back in Baltimore rebranded by new owner Carroll Rosenbloom as the Colts. We all know that the Colts moved to Indy in 1984. The Browns began in the All American Football Conference. They announced their move to Baltimore in the fall of 1995 where of course they became the Ravens.
Cowboys-Vikings – The Cowboys were established rather hastily in 1960 by the NFL to go head to head with the Dallas Texans of the AFL. In 1961 Lamar Hunt would move his AFL team to Kansas City to become the Chiefs. Dallas would struggle until success came their way in the 1970’s. The Vikings were an original AFL team but they never played a game choosing to set out a season and then joining the NFL in 1961.
Jets and the Chargers – The New York AFL franchise was known as the Titians from1960-62. There were sold and in 1963 they were renamed the Jets. Lastly we have the Chargers who after their opening season in Los Angeles moved down the coast to San Diego. The team’s owner Barron Hunt named them after the Dinners Club charge card. Not exactly a lightning bolt but still a great name.
