• Jacksonville was added to the list of potential AFL cities

Oakland Tribune

“AFL Team in Offing…Hilton Gives His Support to Oakland”, Scotty Stirling

Stirling reported that a number of civic leaders in Oakland were working on a plan to bring an AFL franchise to the city. Keys to the effort, according to Stirling, were the possibility of using Candlestick Park in San Francisco as a temporary playing site and the support of the Los Angeles franchise’s owner Barron Hilton. State assemblyman Don Mulford of Berkeley was among those lending his political muscle to the effort.

Robert Moore of the San Francisco Recreation and Park Commission said the city was looking for additional tenants for Candlestick Park and that “there is the possibility it could be used by a pro football team.” Both Hilton and Mulford suggested a new stadium could be built in Oakland within a couple of years. Oakland mayor Clifford Rishell said any use of a San Francisco stadium had to be on a temporary basis for a team representing Oakland.

AFL founder Lamar Hunt said the league wasn’t playing favorites and that all four of the cities vying for a team—Atlanta, Miami, Jacksonville, and Oakland—had stadium concerns.


Miami Herald

“Says Cards’ Wolfner: AFL’s Bid for Miami ‘Desperate’”, Jimmy Burns

Burns reported that, according to Chicago Cardinals president Walter Wolfner, the AFL’s courtship of Miami was a desperate move. Burns then detailed the major issues regarding a Miami pro football team: George Storer, formerly of the Miami Marlins minor league baseball team, had applied for an NFL franchise, George Preston Marshall, of the Washington Redskins, suggested that with the creation of a new pro league, the NFL need no longer consider expansion, and that the opponents of the previous courtship—mainly, the University of Miami—by the AFL in September remained unchanged in their views.

It should be noted that Marshall had long opposed expansion into the southern US, as he felt that would splinter his own team’s fanbase.

San Francisco Chronicle

“Candlestick ‘Home’: Oakland Has ‘Best Chance’ for Last AFL Franchise”, Darrell Wilson

Wilson quoted 49ers owner Victor Morabito as saying the possibility of joining the AFL was “all news to me.”

Robert Lurie, son of a local banker, said he had given up on bringing a new team to the area previously, but that he was newly interested in the idea.

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