Going Long: The Wild Ten-Year Saga of the Renegade American Football League in the Words of Those Who Lived It FROM THE PUBLISHER
The first oral history of the AFL--from the men who made it happen
"In January of '59 . . . the thought just occurred to me. . . . Why wouldn't it be possible to form a second league? . . . It was like the lightbulb coming on over your head."
--Lamar Hunt, founder of the AFL
From its inauspicious beginnings through its improbable Super Bowl victories and its ultimate demise, the American Football League had a colorful and sometimes bizarre ten-year history that will not soon be forgotten. Going Long takes you back to that thrilling decade with the men who made the AFL--and who made it great. In this unique oral history, 170 voices come together to tell the unbelievable story of that maverick league, a rollicking tale of eight teams that refused to die.
In 1959, the NFL had just a dozen teams, with only two located west of the Mississippi River. For forty years, it had enjoyed total dominance over the gridiron, tackling rival franchises and knocking them out of the game. But a revolution was coming to American football, and it all began with a man named Lamar Hunt, the Texas millionaire who desperately wanted a league of his own. With a team of enthusiastic investors, Hunt fired what he later called "the first cannon shot in what turned out to be the pro football war." It was a war that would rage on for ten rough-and-tumble years.
The AFL officially kicked off with eight teams--derisively dubbed the "Foolish Club"--which included such now-storied franchises as the Oakland Raiders, Miami Dolphins, New York Jets (then the New York Titans), and Kansas City Chiefs. Though laughed at for years, these underpaid underdogs hung on--through the contentious early daysof the league to paychecks bouncing as often as footballs to upset Super Bowl victories--eventually forcing a surrender from the NFL in 1970, changing the face of football forever.
Flavored with wild (and often ribald) anecdotes, inside stories, personal interviews, and never-before-told material, Going Long brings the incredible story of the upstart AFL to life through the words of the players, coaches, owners, and others who lived it--including Joe Namath, Mike Ditka, Bubba Smith, Roger Staubach, Pat Summerall, Curt Gowdy, and many others. Hearkening back to a simpler time in sports, this behind-the-scenes true story reveals the origins of the modern game we know today and how it all began with a fight to the death for professional football supremacy.
In 1960, the maverick American Football League challenged the NFL for gridiron supremacy.
"The idea was, 'We're going to whip the NFL. We're going to wind up as the better of the two leagues.' "
--Val Pinchbeck, AFL staff
Over the next decade, the two opposing leagues battled it out in David-and-Goliath style.
"The NFL was saying the AFL wouldn't last four years. It wouldn't last five years. Six years. . . . Next thing you know, [we] ended up with the Super Bowl trophy."
--Bobby Bell, Kansas City Chiefs 1963-69
In the process, they gave us the game we love today, with wide-open offenses, TV network broadcasts, and Super Bowls we'll never forget.
"They told me to ask Lombardi to kick off again because NBC had missed the second-half kickoff. I said, 'You've got the wrong guy. I ain't doing that.' "
--Pat Summerall, sports broadcaster
Pro football hasn't been the same since.
"Pete Rozelle leaned over to me and whispered, more just to catch my attention: 'This is the best thing that could have happened to pro football.' "
--Lamar Hunt, AFL founder
This is the inside story of the AFL, told in the words of the men who lived it . . .
"The one lasting thing is the feeling, the physical feeling. Emotional, mental, and physical. My body was alive, tickly for God knows how long, that we had won this thing."
--Joe Namath, New York Jets 1965-69
. . . the heroes of the American Football League.
SYNOPSIS
The first oral history of the AFL—from the men who made it happen
"In January of '59 . . . the thought just occurred to me. . . . Why wouldn't it be possible to form a second league? . . . It was like the lightbulb coming on over your head."
—Lamar Hunt, founder of the AFL
From its inauspicious beginnings through its improbable Super Bowl victories and its ultimate demise, the American Football League had a colorful and sometimes bizarre ten-year history that will not soon be forgotten. Going Long takes you back to that thrilling decade with the men who made the AFL—and who made it great. In this unique oral history, 170 voices come together to tell the unbelievable story of that maverick league, a rollicking tale of eight teams that refused to die.
In 1959, the NFL had just a dozen teams, with only two located west of the Mississippi River. For forty years, it had enjoyed total dominance over the gridiron, tackling rival franchises and knocking them out of the game. But a revolution was coming to American football, and it all began with a man named Lamar Hunt, the Texas millionaire who desperately wanted a league of his own. With a team of enthusiastic investors, Hunt fired what he later called "the first cannon shot in what turned out to be the pro football war." It was a war that would rage on for ten rough-and-tumble years.
The AFL officially kicked off with eight teams—derisively dubbed the "Foolish Club"—which included such now-storied franchises as the Oakland Raiders, Miami Dolphins, New York Jets (then the New York Titans), and Kansas City Chiefs. Though laughed at for years, these underpaid underdogs hung on—through the contentious early days of the league to paychecks bouncing as often as footballs to upset Super Bowl victories—eventually forcing a surrender from the NFL in 1970, changing the face of football forever.
Flavored with wild (and often ribald) anecdotes, inside stories, personal interviews, and never-before-told material, Going Long brings the incredible story of the upstart AFL to life through the words of the players, coaches, owners, and others who lived it—including Joe Namath, Mike Ditka, Bubba Smith, Roger Staubach, Pat Summerall, Curt Gowdy, and many others. Hearkening back to a simpler time in sports, this behind-the-scenes true story reveals the origins of the modern game we know today and how it all began with a fight to the death for professional football supremacy.
In 1960, the maverick American Football League challenged the NFL for gridiron supremacy.
"The idea was, 'We're going to whip the NFL. We're going to wind up as the better of the two leagues.' "
—Val Pinchbeck, AFL staff
Over the next decade, the two opposing leagues battled it out in David-and-Goliath style.
"The NFL was saying the AFL wouldn't last four years. It wouldn't last five years. Six years. . . . Next thing you know, [we] ended up with the Super Bowl trophy."
—Bobby Bell, Kansas City Chiefs 1963-69
In the process, they gave us the game we love today, with wide-open offenses, TV network broadcasts, and Super Bowls we'll never forget.
"They told me to ask Lombardi to kick off again because NBC had missed the second-half kickoff. I said, 'You've got the wrong guy. I ain't doing that.' "
—Pat Summerall, sports broadcaster
Pro football hasn't been the same since.
"Pete Rozelle leaned over to me and whispered, more just to catch my attention: 'This is the best thing that could have happened to pro football.' "
—Lamar Hunt, AFL founder
This is the inside story of the AFL, told in the words of the men who lived it . . .
"The one lasting thing is the feeling, the physical feeling. Emotional, mental, and physical. My body was alive, tickly for God knows how long, that we had won this thing."
—Joe Namath, New York Jets 1965-69
. . . the heroes of the American Football League.
FROM THE CRITICS
Sports Illustrated - Mark Bechtel
An oral history is an ideal way to tell the story of a renegade league with a colorful cast of characters. That goes a long way in explaining the appeal of Going Long, a chronicle of the AFL written by Jeff Miller, a sports editor at The Dallas Morning News. Among the players Miller introduces us to are two original Denver Broncos, Gene Mingo, a halfback and kicker whose football prowess was discovered when he was in the Navy throwing a loaf of bread (a cook suggested he try out for a service team), and Bud McFadin, a lineman who had previously retired from the Los Angeles Rams after accidentally shooting himself in the stomach.
But the book is more than just a collection of anecdotes. It offers behind-the-scenes looks at the discussions that led to the birth of the Super Bowl and traces the emergence of Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis, whose first job after being named AFL commissioner in 1966 was to break up a fight between Houston Oilers owner Bud Adams and Houston Post columnist Jack Gallagher. As Adams recalls, "When [Gallagher] was down on the floor and I was standing over him, I said, 'You'd better stay down there or you're going to get hurt.' And, with that, he kicked me in the nuts." The scene is--like the book--outlandish, informative, and, above all, funny.
Library Journal
One could make the argument that professional football became the dominant sport in the United States largely because of the competition given to the established National Football League by the dynamic American Football League in the 1960s. Surprisingly, though, the only retrospective history of the league as a whole has been Ed Gruver's The American Football League: A Year-by-Year History, which is a fine narrative account. Here, Miller (Dallas Morning News) gloriously fills a gap with a rollicking, incisive, delightful oral history of the AFL and its struggle to start at rock-bottom and succeed through innovation and dedication. Interviews with players, coaches, owners, and a vast supporting cast are interspersed with Miller's factual commentary to provide a coherent and comprehensive rendering of the history of the league and its teams, players, and games. That it was an exciting time for professional football is borne out in these pages. Highly recommended.-John Maxymuk, Rutgers Univ. Lib., Camden, NJ Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
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