American Football League (1934) - Formation

Formation

In 1933, Goodman stated "We don’t want a Southern league, nor a secondary league." Yet by the summer of 1934, his new league was to have teams representing Memphis (Tigers), St. Louis (Gunners), Oklahoma City (Chiefs), Tulsa (the newly renamed Oilers), Charlotte (Bantams), Louisville (Bourbons), Dallas, and Houston. Even then, plans for the league had to be altered as neither Dallas nor Houston had organized teams at that point… and the Gunners did not want to join the embryonic league as they had aspirations for joining the NFL (in fact, the team bought the NFL’s Cincinnati Reds franchise for $20,000 on August 8, 1934, but the sale was vetoed by the NFL team owners).

In August, Oklahoma City was expelled from the league because their home stadium (a minor league baseball park) could hold only 2000 people in the grandstands (the Chiefs would continue as an independent team for two more months before folding); at the same time, Houston was dropped from the lineup as there was no progress in organizing a football team in time for the start of the season. On the other hand Dallas was successful in forming a new team, the Rams. Also in August, Bud Yates (founder of the St. Louis Gunners in 1931 and the St. Louis Veterans in 1932) was enlisted to organize a third St. Louis team, this time called the St. Louis Blues, which featured former Gunners Dick Frahm and John Breidenstein.

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