1941 American Football League Season - After The 1941 Season

After The 1941 Season

Precisely one week after the last regular season AFL game --- Sunday, December 7, 1941 --- Pearl Harbor was attacked by Japanese military forces. The euphoria of a successful season gave way to the realization that the military demands of the American participation in World War II would put the continued success of the AFL (and the NFL, for that matter) into question. As both major football leagues were losing personnel to military service, both made plans for a 1942 season (the AFL as a six team loop with a new Detroit franchise). Ironically, the NFL came close to suspending operations, but continued as a ten-team league, but on September 2, 1942, the AFL suspended operations “until the end of the war.” AFL president William Cox announced the suspension, stating “We do not have the time to go into the football business this fall. I want to stress that there is no financial problem involved. Each team definitely has enough finances to continue.”

The league did not return after the end of World War II. In 1946, a minor league, the American Association, appropriated the American Football League name for itself, and the All America Football Conference replaced the suspended league as the primary rival of the National Football League.