Mavericks, Money, and Men: The AFL, Black Players, and the Evolution of Modern Football

by Charles Ross

Overview

The American Football League, established in 1960, was innovative both in its commitment to finding talented, overlooked players—particularly those who played for historically black colleges and universities—and in the decision by team owners to share television revenues. 

In Mavericks, Money and Men, football historian Charles Ross chronicles the AFL’s key events,  including Buck Buchanan becoming the first overall draft pick in 1963, and the 1965 boycott led by black players who refused to play in the AFL-All Star game after experiencing blatant racism. He also recounts how the success of the AFL forced a merger with the NFL in 1969, which arguably facilitated the evolution of modern professional football.

Ross shows how the league, originally created as a challenge to the dominance of the NFL, pressured for and ultimately accelerated the racial integration of pro football and also allowed the sport to adapt to how African Americans were themselves changing the game.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781439913079
Publisher:	Temple University Press
Publication date:	05/25/2016
Series:	Sporting
Pages:	200
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Charles K. Ross is the Chair of the African American Studies Program and Associate Professor of African American Studies and History at the University of Mississippi. He is the author of Outside the Lines: African Americans and the Integration of the National Football League and the editor of Race and Sport: The Struggle for Equality On and Off the Field.

Table of Contents

Introduction

A New League with New Opportunities
“We Don't Tote No Coloreds”
“We Will Kick to the Clock”
Boycott in New Orleans
From Merger to Super Bowl
The New NFL
Marlin Briscoe and the Dawn of Black Quarterbacks
The Birth of Modern Pro Football

Epilogue: The State of the Game II

Notes
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

04/15/2016
The tumultuous 1960s were a decade marked by racial and social issues across the gamut of American life, not just in sports. However, the emergence of the American Football League (AFL) created an excitement unmatched in professional sports. Lamar Hunt, founder and owner of the Kansas City Chiefs, and Bud Adams, former Tennessee Titans owner, initiated the new league in 1959. For the next ten years the AFL slowly rivaled the more established National Football League (NFL), resulting in a merger in 1970. But during the 1960s, the AFL revolutionized professional football, both with the game experience and the social "experiment" of drafting and hiring black players. Ross (African American Studies, history, Univ. of Mississippi; Outside the Lines) focuses on the league's recruitment of black players from historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) such as Grambling State, Florida A&M, and North Carolina Central. Racial attitudes and racism prevented most NFL teams from adding black players, but many future stars and hall-of-famers found opportunities in the AFL, partially owing to more creative ownership and partially to fill out team rosters. Ross's narrative runs dry at times, but he aptly documents the evolution of the current NFL and how the integration of professional football paralleled the social integration of American life. VERDICT An important chapter in U.S. racial history of the 1960s. Recommended for all collections.—Boyd Childress, formerly with Auburn Univ. Libs., AL

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