Editing American Football League (section)

===Crisis and success (1960–61)===
In November 1959, Minneapolis-Saint Paul owner Max Winter announced his intent to leave the AFL to accept a franchise offer from the NFL. In 1961, his team began play in the NFL as the [[1961 Minnesota Vikings season|Minnesota Vikings]]. [[1960 Los Angeles Chargers season|Los Angeles Chargers]] owner Barron Hilton demanded that a replacement for Minnesota be placed in California, to reduce his team's operating costs and to create a rivalry. After a brief search, [[Oakland, California|Oakland]] was chosen and an ownership group led by [[F. Wayne Valley]] and local real estate developer [[Chet Soda]] was formed. After initially being called the Oakland Señors,<ref>"Grid Team Named-- They're Senors", ''Oakland Tribune'', April 5, 1960, p37. Soda said, "My own personal choice would have been Mavericks, but I believe we came up with a real fine name." The selection committee narrowed the choices down to Admirals, Lakers, Diablos, Seawolves, Gauchos, Nuggets, Señors Dons, Costers, Grandees, Sequoias, Missiles, Knights, Redwoods, Clippers, Jets and Dolphins.</ref> the rechristened [[1960 Oakland Raiders season|Oakland Raiders]] officially joined the AFL on January 30, 1960.

The AFL's first major success came when the [[1960 Houston Oilers season|Houston Oilers]] signed [[Billy Cannon]], the All-American and 1959 [[Heisman Trophy]] winner from [[1959 LSU Tigers football team|LSU]]. Cannon signed a $100,000 contract to play for the Oilers, despite having already signed a $50,000 contract with the NFL's [[1960 Los Angeles Rams season|Los Angeles Rams]]. The Oilers filed suit and claimed that Rams general manager [[Pete Rozelle]] had unduly manipulated Cannon. The court upheld the Houston contract, and with Cannon the Oilers appeared in the AFL's first three championship games (winning two).<ref name="loup">{{cite news |first=Rich |last=Loup |title=The AFL: A Football Legacy (Part One) |url=http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/news/2001/01/22/afl_history_1/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010602195035/http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/news/2001/01/22/afl_history_1/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=June 2, 2001 |publisher=CNNSI.com |date=2001-01-22 |access-date=2007-02-08 }}</ref><ref name="cannon">{{cite news |first=Al |last=Carter |title=Oilers leave rich legacy of low-budget absurdity |url=http://texnews.com/texsports97/oilers063097.html |work=[[The Dallas Morning News]] |date=1997-06-30 |access-date=2007-02-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070106015329/http://texnews.com/texsports97/oilers063097.html |archive-date=6 January 2007 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

On June 9, 1960, the league signed a five-year television contract with [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]], which brought in revenues of approximately $2.125 million per year for the entire league. On June 17, the AFL filed an antitrust lawsuit against the NFL, which was dismissed in 1962 after a two-month trial.<ref name="loup" /> The AFL began regular-season play (a night game on Friday, September 9, 1960) with eight teams in the league – the [[Boston Patriots]], [[Buffalo Bills]], [[Dallas Texans (AFL)|Dallas Texans]], [[Denver Broncos]], [[Houston Oilers]], [[Los Angeles Chargers]], [[New York Titans (football)|Titans of New York]], and [[Oakland Raiders]]. Raiders' co-owner [[F. Wayne Valley|Wayne Valley]] dubbed the AFL ownership "[[Foolish Club|The Foolish Club]]", a term Lamar Hunt subsequently used on team photographs he sent as Christmas gifts.<ref name="herskowitz">{{cite news |first=Mickey |last=Herskowitz |title=The Foolish Club |url=http://www.kcchiefs.com/media/misc/5_the_foolish_club.pdf |work=Pro Football Weekly |year=1974 |access-date=2007-02-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070605071618/http://www.kcchiefs.com/media/misc/5_the_foolish_club.pdf |archive-date=2007-06-05 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The Oilers became the first-ever league champions by defeating the Chargers, 24–16, in the AFL Championship on January 1, 1961. Attendance for the 1960 season was respectable for a new league, but not nearly that of the NFL. In 1960, the NFL averaged attendance of more than 40,000 fans per game and more popular NFL teams in 1960 regularly saw attendance figures in excess of 50,000 per game,<ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.profootballresearchers.org/archives/Website_Files/Coffin_Corner/13-04-430.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.profootballresearchers.org/archives/Website_Files/Coffin_Corner/13-04-430.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |title=The American Football League Attendance, 1960–69 |last=Carroll |first=Bob |magazine=The Coffin Corner |volume=13 |number=4 |date=1991 |access-date=May 24, 2022}}</ref> while [[Canadian Football League]] (CFL) attendances averaged approximately 20,000 per game.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://stats.cfldb.ca/league/cfl/attendance/1960|title=Canadian Football League 1960 Attendance on CFLdb Statistics}}</ref> By comparison, AFL attendance averaged about 16,500 per game and generally hovered between 10,000 and 20,000 per game. Professional football was still primarily a gate-driven business in 1960, so low attendance meant financial losses. The Raiders, with a league-worst average attendance of just 9,612, lost $500,000 in their first year and only survived after receiving a $400,000 loan from Bills owner Ralph Wilson.<ref name="dvd">{{cite video |people=[[Steve Sabol]] (Executive Producer) |date=2004 |title=Raiders – The Complete History |medium=DVD |publisher=NFL Productions LLC}}</ref> In an early sign of stability, however, the AFL did not lose any teams after its first year of operation. In fact, the only major change was the Chargers' move from Los Angeles to nearby [[San Diego, California|San Diego]] (they would return to Los Angeles in 2017).

On August 8, 1961, the AFL challenged the CFL to an exhibition game that would feature the [[Hamilton Tiger-Cats]] and the [[Buffalo Bills]], which was attended by 24,376 spectators.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/touch-down-in-to/article18147971/?page=all|title=Touch down in T.O.|newspaper=The Globe and Mail|language=en-ca|access-date=2017-01-19}}</ref> Playing at [[Ivor Wynne Stadium|Civic Stadium]] in [[Hamilton, Ontario]], the Tiger-Cats defeated the Bills 38–21 playing a mix of AFL and CFL rules.