November 30, 1999
Chapter 2:
The AFL Catches Up
by Bob Hulsey
HoustonProFootball.com
The early years of the American Football League featured some solid franchises and some teams on shaky ground. It was believed that, for the AFL to survive, it had to establish teams in the two largest markets – New York and Los Angeles. Barron Hilton moved the Chargers after just one year down the road to San Diego. In New York, Harry Wismer’s Titans played their games in the near-empty Polo Grounds. The Dallas Texans moved to Kansas City. The Oakland Raiders, knee-deep in debt, were bought by their aggressive young coach, Al Davis, who began to build a winner. The Denver Broncos also had financial woes.
By contrast, the Houston Oilers were a model franchise. Three Eastern Division titles in the first three seasons and solid fan support gave them advantages found nowhere else in the league.
But those advantages faded as other teams strengthened. A new TV deal with NBC helped the cash-poor teams while Sonny Werblin bought the Titans, renamed them the New York Jets, and signed a marquee player in Joe Namath that gave the league’s biggest market its most heralded star. By the end of the decade, the Jets’ upset of the NFL Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III symbolized how fast the upstart league had reached parity with their older rival.
Age and injuries took their toll on the 1963 Oilers. George Blanda was now 36 and many thought he was through despite another 3,000 yard season. Houston fell to 6-8, the first time they did not win the division. Blanda was not missing the competitive fire. After a Boston Patriot celebrated a blocked kick too excitedly, an angry Blanda ran up behind him and punted him in the butt.
Bud Adams replaced head coach Pop Ivy with football legend Sammy Baugh in 1964. One of the initial inductees into the Pro Football Hall of Fame the year before, “Slingin’ Sammy” had a brilliant 15-year NFL career as both a quarterback and a punter for the Washington Redskins. The TCU great was lured into coaching by Wismer but his gruff style did not produce victories in New York. Baugh tried to add youth to the lineup, trading Billy Cannon to Oakland, playing rookie Sid Blanks in his place. Defensive tackle Scott Appleton, defensive back W.K. Hicks and tight end Willie Frazier were other rookies that started for Baugh.
Charley Hennigan had the most noteworthy season, setting a pro record with 101 catches – a mark that lasted for 20 years. The record-setter came in Houston’s final game at Jeppesen Stadium, a 34-15 win over Denver. But the slide continued and the Oilers fell to 4-10, last in the East.
The Oilers had expected to begin 1965 in the new Astrodome that was built for both baseball and football. Adams balked, however, at the amount Judge Roy Hofheinz wanted the Oilers to pay in order to use the new ballpark. Instead, Adams signed a deal with Rice University to play their home games there. The Rice Stadium debut was memorable. Almost 53,000 fans came to watch the Oilers play the Jets in Namath’s first AFL game. The crowd saw little of “Broadway Joe” but they did see the Oilers win, 27-21. The Oilers then stomped the Patriots the next week.
Hugh “Bones” Taylor was the new head coach after Baugh was fired. After that 2-0 start, Houston dropped ten of their final twelve games and finished with another 4-10 mark. Blanks missed the season with a knee injury so the offensive star became Ode Burrell who led the team in both rushing and receiving.
Like other AFL clubs, the Oilers entered bidding wars with the NFL for graduating college seniors.
Each league drafted players with an eye not only on who played the best but who each team thought they could sign. The Oilers jousted with the NFL Dallas Cowboys for the services of offensive tackle Ralph Neely in 1965 – a war that deepened the animosity between the two clubs. The Cowboys sued and won. The next year, Houston sparred with the NFL expansion Atlanta Falcons for linebacker Tommy Nobis. The bidding became national news when a Gemini astronaut urged the Oilers to sign Nobis while orbiting the globe. Again, the Oilers lost.
But the Oilers played one large part in saving the AFL that season. The league’s post-season All-Star Game was scheduled to be held in New Orleans, a city being wooed by both leagues for expansion. In a year where “civil rights” became a household word, black players voiced displeasure at the segregated facilities being provided for them in the Big Easy. If the accommodations weren’t improved, blacks threatened to boycott the game – a decision that might have crippled the league in their future acquisitions of young talent. Adams stepped in and agreed to host the game in Houston on short notice. Although promotion was limited and the gate was small, the AFL avoided a Jim Crow label it did not want.
The 1966 season was the beginning of a new era in pro football. Oakland’s Al Davis was named AFL Commissioner. He hammered out a deal with his NFL counterpart, Alvin “Pete” Rozelle, to merge the two leagues beginning in 1970. The bidding wars had drained the resources of both leagues. Now NFL teams were beginning to sign AFL players just as the AFL had done to the NFL. The two leagues agreed to hold a joint draft for college talent and stage an AFL-NFL Championship Game, which would later be dubbed the Super Bowl.
The Oilers lured away from the NFL veterans Bernie Parrish and Pittsburgh star running back John Henry Johnson. They signed Charger tackle Ernie Ladd, a mammoth 6-9, 295-pounder to anchor the defensive line. Also in the fold were quarterback Don Trull and receiver Lawrence Elkins.
The coaching carousel continued and Wally Lemm, the coach of the 1961 Oilers, would be the first repeat rider. The Oilers came out blazing in the opening week, holding Denver without a first down in a 45-7 thrashing (the Broncos’ lone touchdown came on a kickoff return). They then blanked Oakland, 31-0. But Lemm’s magic wore off and the Oilers crashed and burned, finishing 3-11, which included two losses to the first-year expansion Miami Dolphins. Blanda was benched during the season and released afterward, presumed to be washed up at age 39. He later signed with the Raiders and continued to play through the 1975 season (including a miraculous 1970 season where he won or tied five straight games in the closing seconds).
The first draft choice by the Oilers in the AFL-NFL draft was linebacker George Webster. He was the instant hit of the 1967 campaign in a class of fifteen rookies that included defensive back Ken Houston, a future Hall-of-Famer. Houston was joined in the secondary by Miller Farr, acquired in a deal from the Chargers, and rookie Zeke Moore. The new-look Oilers began to win with defense instead of offense, surrendering a league-low 199 points.
Quarterback Pete Beathard (the brother of fabled GM Bobby Beathard) was acquired from Kansas City and his best weapon became fullback Hoyle Granger (as in “All the Way With Hoyle Gran-JAY”) who exploded for 1,194 rushing yards, 300 receiving yards and 9 TDs. Houston surprised the league with a 9-4-1 mark that captured the Eastern Division title. Unfortunately, the Raiders ended any hopes of a Super Bowl appearance with a 40-7 whipping in Oakland. The pass-happy Raiders actually won on the ground with 100-yard performances by both Hewritt Dixon and Pete Banaszak. Blanda booted four field goals.
Adams bought out his lease at Rice Stadium and moved to the Astrodome to start the 1968 season. Lemm led the Oilers to a lackluster 7-7 mark, good for second in the Eastern Division.
The AFL’s final campaign saw 20 players last all ten seasons, including ex-Oilers Blanda, Cannon and Jacky Lee. Jim Norton, the last remaining original Oiler, had quit the previous spring. The Oilers would later retire Norton’s #43 jersey. Houston’s offense continued to sputter in 1969 but the defense kept things close, aided by converted offensive lineman Elvin Bethea, who would last 15 seasons on the Oiler defensive line.
Houston crept into the last week of the season with a 5-6-2 record and a chance at a playoff berth. The Oilers came from behind to nip Boston, 27-23, to advance. The Raiders, once again, had the pleasure of destroying the Oilers in the post-season. This time it was a 56-7 massacre led by Daryle Lamonica’s six touchdown tosses.
It made for a bitter ending to the Oilers’ AFL years but hope grew that success in the National Football League would soon follow.
Bob Hulsey has a journalism degree from the University of Texas at Austin. He has worked in print and radio covering sports throughout Texas since 1976. He presently works for a telecommunications company in Austin.
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