1967: First AFL/NFL Combined Draft Convenes

A key issue in bringing about the merger of the American and National Football Leagues was the cost involved in competing for talent coming out of college each year. Thus, a major step in the process that would culminate with full merger in 1970 was the first combined AFL/NFL draft that commenced on Tuesday, March 14, 1967. The draft was conducted in New York under the direction of NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle and a total of 445 players were chosen, with the first seven rounds held on the opening day.

The New Orleans Saints, as a NFL expansion team for 1967, had the first and last selections at the end of each round plus one additional at the end of the second, third, and fourth rounds. However, they had already traded away the first overall pick, which went to the Baltimore Colts in exchange for backup QB Gary Cuozzo. The Colts used the selection to take Michigan State All-American DE Bubba Smith (pictured above).

The first round took four hours and 16 minutes to complete and several trades were part of it, in addition to deals that had already been struck. With a choice obtained from the New York Giants a week earlier in the trade of QB Fran Tarkenton, the Minnesota Vikings, who ended up with three picks in the first round, had the second overall selection and took HB Clint Jones, also an All-American from Michigan State.

Atlanta held the third pick but, disappointed that Bubba Smith was no longer available, dealt it to the San Francisco 49ers for flanker Bernie Casey, G Jim Wilson, and DE Jim Norton. The 49ers chose QB Steve Spurrier, the Heisman Trophy winner from Florida, with an eye toward grooming a successor to 31-year-old QB John Brodie.

Future Hall of Fame QB Bob Griese of Purdue (pictured at left) was chosen by Miami, which was also the first AFL team to select, with the fourth overall pick. Other eventual Hall of Famers chosen in the first round were HB Floyd Little of Syracuse by the Denver Broncos (sixth overall), Notre Dame DE Alan Page by the Vikings (15^th), and guard Gene Upshaw from Texas A & I by the Raiders (17^th).  Those selected in the second round were Jackson State CB Lem Barney by the Detroit Lions (34^th overall) and LB Willie Lanier of Morgan State by the Kansas City Chiefs (50^th). OT Rayfield Wright of Ft. Valley State was taken by the Dallas Cowboys in the seventh round (182^nd overall) and DB Ken Houston from Prairie View was a ninth-round selection of the Houston Oilers (214^th).

Among the NFL trades that occurred, the Steelers sent flanker Gary Ballman to Philadelphia for FB Earl Gros, G Bruce Van Dyke, and a third-round draft choice that was used to take C Rockne Freitas of Oregon State. The Los Angeles Rams dealt TE Marlin McKeever and their first draft choice to Minnesota for HB Tom Mason, TE Hal Bedsole, and a second-round draft pick (the Vikings used their draft choice to take Page and the Rams chose HB Willie Ellison from Texas Southern). The Giants traded LB Jerry Hillebrand to St. Louis for HB Bill Triplett. In a significant AFL transaction, Buffalo dealt QB Daryle Lamonica, split end Glenn Bass, and its third and fifth draft picks to Oakland for split end Art Powell and QB Tom Flores.

Another Michigan State player, LB George Webster, was taken by Houston with the fifth overall selection, one of four Spartans to go in the first round. Among other noteworthy selections, the Chiefs helped revamp their corps of linebackers by not only selecting Willie Lanier in the second round, but Jim Lynch of Notre Dame three spots earlier with the 47^th pick . In addition to Bubba Smith, who spent five seasons in Baltimore and was twice named to the Pro Bowl, the Colts selected another player who would star on defense in DB Rick Volk from Michigan, also in the second round, who was chosen to his first of three Pro Bowls as a rookie. Baltimore also took a chance on DB Preston Pearson, a basketball player from Illinois who did not play college football, in the 12^th round. Used on offense as a halfback, he went on to a 14-season career with the Colts, Steelers, and Cowboys.

Later in the second round, the Saints took WR John Gilliam from South Carolina State, who became the first player in franchise history to score a regular season touchdown on the opening kickoff of the first game. He went on to have his best seasons with the Cardinals and Vikings.

HB Travis Williams of Arizona State was chosen by the NFL Champion Packers in the fourth round and made a significant impact as a kickoff returner during his rookie season, averaging a record 41.1 yards and scoring four touchdowns. Another halfback, the undersized (5’9”, 190) Dickie Post of Houston, was picked by the Chargers right after Williams and led the club in rushing in his first year with 663 yards. He led the entire AFL in 1969.

The Lions did well with UCLA HB Mel Farr in the first round, Lem Barney in the second, and LB Paul Naumoff of Tennessee in the third round, who started six games as a rookie and kept on going for 12 seasons in Detroit.

In addition to Clint Jones and Alan Page, who was shifted inside to defensive tackle, the Vikings picked WR Gene Washington, the fourth Michigan State player chosen in the first round (eighth overall) who was selected to two Pro Bowls in an injury-shortened career (and not to be mistaken for the wide receiver of the same name who was drafted two years later and played with distinction for the 49ers). DB Bobby Bryant of South Carolina was taken in the seventh round and became a stalwart in the defensive backfield.

John Elliott was chosen as a guard out of Texas by the New York Jets in the seventh round and went on to distinguish himself at defensive tackle. Another player who paid dividends for the Jets was G Randy Rasmussen from Kearney State (now Univ. of Nebraska at Kearney), an unheralded pick in the 12^th round who remained with the team until 1981.

Kicker Don Cockroft of Adams State, picked by the Browns in the third round, filled a need both for a successor to the great but fading PK Lou Groza and as a punter. After a year on the taxi squad due to injury, he handled the punting and placekicking as one of the last of the straight-ahead kickers through 1980. Cleveland also made a good pickup in the 17^th (and last) round (439^th overall) with Ben Davis from Defiance College, who proved valuable as a kick returner and cornerback.

Another notable player chosen in the 17^th round was WR Dan Abramowicz from Xavier of Ohio (pictured at right) by the Saints (420^th overall). He not only made the fledgling club but started at split end and led the team with 50 catches for 721 yards as a rookie. A fine possession receiver, he topped the NFL with 73 receptions in 1969 and put together a 105-consecutive game pass receiving streak that was the league record at the time.

Oddly enough, the last player chosen was Jimmy Walker of Providence, picked as a wide receiver by the Saints, who also ended up being the first overall selection in the NBA draft in May. Not surprisingly, he chose to play pro basketball, and did so for ten years. Another draftee who chose basketball over pro football was Pat Riley, a flanker out of Kentucky taken in the 11^th round by the Dallas Cowboys who signed with the San Diego Rockets of the NBA and, following his playing career, became a successful coach and team executive.

Also as a footnote, tackle Richard Sligh from North Carolina College was picked by the Raiders in the tenth round. He failed as a defensive tackle and lasted just a year, but at 7’0” was the tallest player in AFL or NFL history.

The combined draft had the intended effect of ending competition between AFL and NFL teams for top talent coming out of college. It also helped the AFL clubs to improve their rosters as full merger with the NFL neared. Both the Jets and Chiefs, who won Super Bowls in addition to league titles following the 1968 and ’69 seasons, respectively, added players who would be in the starting lineup for those contests. The Dolphins, who went to three Super Bowls from 1971 to ’73 and won the last two not only started the process of assembling the necessary talent by drafting Bob Griese in 1967 but made good use of the 1968 and ‘69 combined drafts as well.

1967: Broncos Stun Lions in First Preseason Game Between AFL-NFL Teams

The merger between the NFL and AFL that was agreed to in 1966 was implemented in phases. In the first, following the ’66 season, a game was played between the champions of the two leagues (now known as Super Bowl I). For 1967, there was a common draft of college talent between the two leagues, and while they would still play separate schedules until 1970, interleague preseason games could be scheduled. While at one level the contests were mere exhibition games that counted for nothing in the standings, to the participants they meant a great deal. In particular, the AFL players were determined to prove their mettle against the clubs from the older NFL.

Such was the case as the AFL’s Denver Broncos hosted the NFL’s Detroit Lions at University of Denver Stadium on August 5, 1967. The Broncos, a club that had never produced a record above .500 in any season and had gone 4-10 in ’66, hardly seemed likely to fare well against any NFL team. Under new Head Coach Lou Saban, who had led Buffalo to back-to-back championships in 1964 and ’65 before coaching for a year at the University of Maryland, the team was in the process of being revamped. Gone were key veterans that Saban deemed unfit for taking part in a rebuilding effort like split end Lionel Taylor, safety Goose Gonsoulin, and guard Jerry Sturm. Most notable among the newcomers was the rookie first draft choice out of Syracuse, halfback Floyd Little. Denver had lost its first preseason game, against the second-year Miami Dolphins by a score of 19-2.

The Lions also had a new head coach in Joe Schmidt, at age 35 only two years removed from his Hall of Famer career as a linebacker. Detroit had gone 4-9-1 in 1966 and was also in transition. Defense had long been the team’s strong suit, and they still had a strong veteran core of defensive tackles Roger Brown and Alex Karras, linebackers Mike Lucci and Wayne Walker, and safety Dick LeBeau. Veteran QB Milt Plum was recovered after missing half of the season due to injury and was being challenged by Karl Sweetan, who had performed creditably as a rookie in his absence. The top three picks in the draft had added HB Mel Farr from UCLA, CB Lem Barney of Jackson State, and Tennessee LB Paul Naumoff.

There were 21,288 fans in attendance for the Saturday evening contest. Neither team was able to mount much offense in the first half. Playing inspired football, the Broncos defense kept the Lions offense out of the end zone; the closest Detroit penetrated was to the Denver 36 yard line. Safety Lonnie Wright made two big plays, intercepting a Sweetan pass at his own 20 and then batting down a long Detroit pass in the end zone to stop another drive.

Following a 56-yard pass play from QB Scotty Glacken to flanker Al Denson, Errol Mann kicked a 35-yard field goal that staked the Broncos to a 3-0 lead (while Mann failed to make it to the regular season with Denver, ironically, he eventually ended up kicking for the Lions for 7 ½ years).

The key play of the game occurred on a 4th and 11 situation at the Detroit 44 in the third quarter. Denver punter Bob Scarpitto (pictured at top) ran instead of kicking and picked up 28 yards and a first down at the Lions 16 yard line. Six plays later, FB Cookie Gilchrist bulled into the end zone from a yard out and the Broncos led by 10-0.

Detroit finally scored in the fourth quarter as Plum threw a 15-yard touchdown pass to WR Bill Malinchak. That was it for the Lions, and Mann’s second field goal of the game from 32 yards out capped the scoring at 13-7 in favor of Denver.

On the bus after the game, Roger Brown of the Lions moaned “The Denver Broncos…it didn’t happen!” But Coach Schmidt summed up by saying, “I want to pay tribute to the Denver team. And, if the other AFL teams show as much desire, there will be many other surprises in the preseason inter-league competition.”

While the Broncos went on to defeat the Vikings, 14-9, and the defending champion Kansas City Chiefs thrashed the Chicago Bears by an astounding score of 66-24, the NFL teams won the remaining contests and had an overall record of 13-3 in the 1967 interleague preseason games.

For all of the excitement and heightened expectations, the Broncos still ended up at the bottom of the AFL’s Western Division with a 3-11 record. Detroit finished the ’67 regular season with a 5-7-2 tally that ranked third in the Central Division of the NFL’s Western Conference.

1966: Merger of NFL and AFL Announced

By 1966, it was becoming increasingly apparent that the American Football League was not going to fold like its three predecessors of the same name and that, most significantly to the owners of National Football League teams, it would continue to drive up the cost of new talent. In 1965, Alabama QB Joe Namath had been signed to a stunning (for the time) three-year, $426,000 contract by the New York Jets (he had also been drafted by the NFL’s Cardinals). 1966 saw LB Tommy Nobis, first draft choice of the expansion Atlanta Falcons, sign a $600,000 deal, and it cost the Green Bay Packers approximately a million dollars to sign HB Donny Anderson and FB Jim Grabowski, the presumed heirs to the aging Paul Hornung and Jim Taylor, respectively.

In April, the first discussions regarding a possible merger of the leagues commenced between Tex Schramm, the president/general manager of the Dallas Cowboys, and Lamar Hunt, founder of the AFL and owner of the Kansas City Chiefs. These background talks occurred while tumult broke out. First came the resignation of AFL Commissioner Joe Foss and his replacement by Al Davis, Oakland’s head coach/general manager who was far more inclined to engage in a no-holds-barred conflict with the older league. Then the NFL’s New York Giants signed veteran free agent placekicker Pete Gogolak away from the AFL’s Buffalo Bills, an act that now put competition for veterans on the table along with the ongoing and costly battle for talent coming out of the colleges.

The escalating strife nearly derailed the merger efforts. But on June 8, 1966 at the Warwick Hotel in New York City the NFL’s Commissioner Pete Rozelle (pictured at top), flanked by Schramm and Hunt, announced that a merger between the two leagues had been reached. Due to contractual issues, the merger was to be phased and reach completion in 1970.

- First, a game would be held between the champions of the two leagues following the 1966 season. This, more than any other provision, immediately excited pro football fans. It was decided later that the game, which of course would eventually come to be called the Super Bowl, would be played at a pre-determined neutral setting.

- Second, beginning in 1967 a common draft would be held among the teams of the two leagues (this may have dismayed college players looking forward to competing bids for their services, but came as a relief to owners looking to get player costs back under control). Also in ’67, there would be interleague preseason games.

- Finally in 1970, the AFL would be completely absorbed into the NFL, with teams playing a common schedule. Pete Rozelle would be commissioner of the entire edifice – much to the chagrin of Al Davis, who had been kept out of the merger negotiations (and, as a result, felt betrayed by his fellow owners).

In addition to the phased merging of the leagues, other points were agreed to:

- All existing franchises were to be kept, and in their current locations. While initially there had been discussion regarding the relocation of the Jets and Raiders, it was decided that there would be less danger of legal repercussions if they remained where they were, in proximity to NFL teams.

- As a result of not moving franchises, the AFL agreed to pay the NFL $26 million dollars (split between the Giants and 49ers) for the right to impinge on their territory.

- Each league agreed to add an expansion franchise no later than 1968 (the New Orleans Saints joined the NFL in 1967 and the Cincinnati Bengals rounded out the AFL in ’68).

- Television coverage would continue to be split between CBS (for the NFL) and NBC (the AFL), an arrangement which continued beyond the merger.

There had been dissenting voices among owners from both leagues – not surprisingly, teams that shared the same territory (the Giants and Jets in New York City, and the 49ers and Raiders in the Bay Area). The NFL clubs wanted the AFL teams to relocate, and the AFL teams objected to paying for the right to remain where they were.

Whatever the feelings of the dissenters at the time, the agreement reached in 1966 set the framework that continues to exist. From 13 teams in 1960, the NFL grew to 26 clubs with the merger in 1970 (the enlarged entity was broken up into the National Conference – the existing NFL – and the American Conference – the absorbed AFL).

In order to maintain equilibrium, since there were 16 NFL teams and 10 in the AFL by 1969, three existing NFL teams – the Browns, Colts, and Steelers - transferred to the American Conference. While the AFL lost its identity, there was satisfaction in that, unlike when the All-America Football Conference merged with the NFL in 1950, all of the franchises were accepted into the older league. And after losing badly in the first two Super Bowls, the AFL won the last two prior to the merger so as to make a statement that the younger teams were fully ready to compete with the older clubs.

1966: Pete Gogolak Jumps From AFL to NFL

Pete Gogolak had a place in American football history just by being the first to use the soccer-style approach to kicking the ball that is now standard practice. His success at Cornell led to him being drafted by the AFL’s Buffalo Bills in 1964 and in two seasons he made good on 47 of 75 field goal attempts (62.7 %) including an AFL-leading 28-of-46 record in ’65.

However, on May 17, 1966 Gogolak took a pivotal step in the battle between the AFL and NFL when, having played out his option in Buffalo, he signed a contract with the NFL’s New York Giants.

No player had jumped leagues since offensive end Willard Dewveall went from the Bears to the Oilers in 1961, and there had been an unofficial understanding in place that, while rookies were fair game, no veteran would be signed by a team from the other league until it was clear that no other club in his own circuit was interested. That was hardly the case with Gogolak, who had shown that soccer-style kicking was effective and thus helped Buffalo to back-to-back AFL titles.

It was no surprise that the Giants would be interested in Gogolak as they certainly had a need to upgrade the kicking game - their placekickers in 1965 were successful on a woeful 4 of 25 field goal attempts. But it was stunning that they would abrogate the understanding between the leagues and that Commissioner Pete Rozelle would approve the deal.

For Al Davis, the head coach/GM of the Oakland Raiders who had succeeded Joe Foss as AFL commissioner just five weeks before, the Gogolak signing was an unquestioned declaration of war by the NFL. As he told a sportswriter, “It was a declaration of war all right. And we had to do what the generals do in a way. Go after the supply lines. Hit the enemy where it hurts most.”

It didn’t take long for the repercussions to be felt. The day after Gogolak switched leagues, the Associated Press reported that two AFL teams had been in contact with at least four members of the Giants. Rumors spread very quickly thereafter that several NFL veterans had expressed interest in entertaining offers from the rival league, and that AFL teams were actively pursuing veteran NFL players.

Commissioner Davis promoted a strategy of signing select NFL quarterbacks to future contracts, and in the next few weeks it was reported that Roman Gabriel of the Rams had come to an agreement with Oakland and San Francisco’s John Brodie had accepted a significant offer from the Houston Oilers.

The war was escalating quickly, but in fact negotiations between the two leagues that had already been occurring behind the scenes reached fruition a short time later. While there was plenty of bad feeling and suspicion between officials of the NFL and AFL, they came to a merger agreement less than a month after Pete Gogolak became a member of the New York Giants. Of course, the player raiding came to an abrupt end.

The pairing of Gogolak and the Giants proved lasting. The Hungarian refugee, who had originally signed a one-year contract with Buffalo, received a four-year deal at significantly more money from the Giants. He ended up staying nine seasons (he missed a few games in 1967 due to military duty) and connected on 57.5 % of his field goal attempts (126 of 219).

Gogolak never matched his best season in Buffalo, and didn’t have great range. Reliable inside of 30 yards but spotty from beyond, he connected on just one kick longer than 50 yards – it was a then-team record 54-yard boot during the 1970 season in which he reached his high for field goals in a Giants uniform (25). Still, he stabilized the placekicking game and was generally consistent. And by his last season, 1974, nearly half of the teams in the league were using soccer-style kickers.