Just a question, I think I missed a post, how many teams is the AFL expanding by? I know Boston and New York are joining, but I was wondering if the league was adding four?

AFL Spring Meetings 1955

The spring meetings came back home to Chicago, and the owners had some pressing issues to take on before the start of the 1955 season, as well as planning out events that were coming within the next year. First and foremost, commissioner Donovan Hasenkamp officially introduced the new owners to the rest of the league, as Boston owner Robert McNamara and New York owner Peter Stuyvesant were now official members of the league. Although they were not joining until next year, Philadelphia owner Sy Thompson and St Louis owner Arthur Dixon were welcomed to the meetings, as a majority of the items on the docket had to do with the expansion process. After the fanfare was over, the meetings were now officially underway.

LEAGUE REALIGNMENT
Boston and New York would have to be placed in the East Division, and some realignment would need to be done to balance out each division at 5. At first, it was proposed that one of either Cleveland or Detroit move from the East to the West to balance out the divisions, but Washington owner Bernard McCullough wanted to move to the East to reduce travel costs. As a result, both Cleveland and Detroit would move to the West in exchange for Washington moving east to be geographically closer to the other teams. The 1956 expansion class would be a bit simpler than 1955, as Philadelphia will join the East Division while St Louis will join the West.The league will also expand to a 12 game season. Each team will play every other team in its division for a total of 8 games, while playing the remaining 4 games against teams from the other division. The playoffs will also expand to 6 teams beginning with the 1955 season. The division winner will get a bye, while the 2nd and 3rd place teams in a division will play each other to determine who will play the division champion. The winner of those two semi-final games will then play for the American Football Championship. The owners had wanted to keep the playoffs on Thanksgiving day, but ultimately decided to move it to the last week of the regular season to keep the opening week on Labor Day weekend. This was met with mixed reactions by both players and fans, as the AFL had practically owned Thanksgiving Day in the playoffs and some thought that taking it out of the playoff schedule would lessen its significance on the schedule. Others understood the change was necessary, though noting that the owners could have moved the schedule forward to keep Thanksgiving in the playoffs. With the league continuing to expand in the future, it is unlikely that the traditional Thanksgiving playoff game will return to its spot unless in the unlikely scenario where the league would choose to start the season in late August.

INTRODUCTION OF THE EXPANSION DRAFT
Concerns of Boston and New York joining the league and immediately being competitive had been brought into question since the announcement of the league’s imminent expansion. Buffalo and Pittsburgh were able to compete at the AFL level immediately after joining from the NYPL, but the quality of talent in the NYPL has dropped drastically since then. The top teams of the Northeast were about equal in talent at the time of the defection, but are now nearing the quality of a semi-pro team with all the talent flooding to the Midwest. The owners were mulling over how to distribute talent to the Philadelphia and St Louis teams next year to at least make them competitive instead of throwing them into the fire like PAFC teams had been in the past. To give the newer teams a better chance of competing immediately, the owners decided to hold an “expansion draft”, where pre-existing teams could protect a certain number of players, and the new teams would select players from the non-protected lists the other teams provided them. For Philadelphia and St Louis, they would be able to select three players per team, while Boston and New York would be selecting two players per team since they already had some players coming over from the NEFL and NYPL, respectively. This is the first time any professional league has done anything like this in the United States, so it’s anyone’s guess as to if this will succeed or fail. Critics believe that it is a good idea on paper, and they will have to see if it will actually work. The expansion drafts are scheduled to take place as the final docket on this year’s and next year’s owners meetings. In addition, Boston and New York, and Philadelphia and St. Louis the year after, will be placed as the first and second overall picks in the draft, with whoever gets the first pick in the expansion draft and the first-year player draft being decided by a coin flip.

REORGANIZATION OF THE NEFL
The biggest managerial question that the owners had to deal with was how to turn the NEFL into a developmental league for the AFL. They had already created plans to expand to 12 teams and move out of the smaller markets in the already regional NEFL, now the ASPFL. With the easiest part out of the way, the owners had to now figure out how to create the farm system. The National Baseball League (NBL) had turned the Mid-Atlantic League and Southern League into the minor leagues over the course of about 30 years since its first affiliation, but now the AFL had to do what the NBL did in 30 years in a single offseason, a much taller task. A majority of the owners did not want to directly purchase any of or have a significant stake in the existing NEFL teams, which was the practice a vast majority of NBL owners participated in for their farm system. Boston’s Robert McNamara was the only owner to have a significant stake in an NEFL team, as he was the majority owner of the now-relocated Boston Bards, keeping an ownership stake in the team as they relocated to Long Island. New York had signed a tentative agreement with the Newark Tigers to be their minor league team when the NEFL would transition to the ASPFL, but no formal agreement has come just yet. With the uncertainty if they wanted to adopt the traditional farm system model, the owners decided on a compromise if owners either wanted to directly own a team or just sign an agreement with teams to be their affiliates. The ASPFL is currently at 12 teams while the AFL won’t reach that mark until next year, so the farm system alignment in its entirety will not begin until next year. As a result, two teams (Albany and New Haven) will share affiliations with Boston and New York in the interim. The final AFL-ASPFL farm system agreement is the follows:
- Guaranteed salaries for all ASPFL players, equal to that of a practice squad salaries
- Raised minimum salary for practice squad players from $2500 to $3000
- Teams may directly own a team in the ASPFL, or enter an affiliation agreement with any ASPFL team
- The ASPFL schedule is moved to a 10 week season between August-October, with AFL play beginning after week 4 of the former’s season.
- AFL players on a team’s practice squad can be transferred to and from each team’s affiliate’s starting roster, though players on an active AFL roster cannot directly be “demoted” to an ASPFL roster without transferring to the practice squad first.
- Albany Titans and New Haven Lions will be co-affiliates of New York and Boston, respectively, until St. Louis and Philadelphia join the AFL in 1956

The league structure (and affiliate type) for the 1956 ASPFL season is as follows:

Albany Titans - St Louis (affiliate agreement)
Burlington Greens - Pittsburgh (affiliate agreement)
Concord Wildcats - Cleveland (affiliate agreement)
Hartford Colts - Cincinnati (affiliate agreement)
Long Island Lancers - Boston (directly owned)
New Haven Lions - Philadelphia (affiliate agreement)
Newark Tigers - New York (affiliate agreement)
Portland Lumberjacks - Washington (affiliate agreement)
Providence Bears - Tri-Cities (affiliate agreement)
Rochester Roosters - Buffalo (directly owned)
Springfield Knights - Detroit (affiliate agreement)
Worcester Valentines - Chicago (affiliate agreement)

NBC TO BROADCAST REGULAR SEASON THANKSGIVING GAME
With the Thanksgiving game being pushed back to the final week of the regular season to make room for an expanded playoff format, NBC decided that they would be broadcasting the Rivermen v. Hogs game on national television. The Hogs have been a mainstay in the Thanksgiving slot, as traditionally both Chicago teams played against each other on the holiday until the Hogs left for the AFL. The Stars have tried to renew a rivalry in the PAFC on Thanksgiving with a wide variety of teams, but have failed to gain any sort of popularity with the Hogs usually still playing in a more impactful game that day. The Dumont Network was still in a tentative agreement to broadcast some sort of Thanksgiving game, but the network’s looming bankruptcy forced the AFL to sign a new deal with NBC, who was already going to broadcast the championship game a few weeks later. This deal is set to continue the long-running tradition for Chicago fans by exposing it to a national audience, part of the AFL’s plan to expand football’s popularity nationwide.

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1955 Design Changes

INTRODUCING THE BOSTON DRAGONS
The long-awaited announcement of the Boston AFL identity would come when owner Robert McNamara invited nearly every major newspaper across the Northeast to a press conference at the Parker House hotel to reveal the new team. McNamara and the Boston Globe had already put out a “name the team contest” to determine potential names for the team. McNamara was open to pretty much any suggestion, though he asked those sending in that they try to stray away from nicknames relating to the American Revolution, as the other football team in town (Boston Rebels) was already using a similar theme. Names ranged anywhere from the Wolfhounds, Bishops, Dragons and Gaels, to the Golden Griffons, Unicorns, and Red Devils. The finalists would come down to the Dragons, Gaels, and Wolfhounds after consideration from both the mail-in votes and those around McNamara. The Gaels were thrown out almost immediately after due to an Irish-themed name already existing in the AFL in Pittsburgh, and realized that niche was too small to be filled by two teams. There were multiple write-ins for the Wolfhounds, which would have represented the city’s Irish heritage in a less pronounced way like Gaels or other submissions like the Irish or Harps. The remaining option was submitted by significantly fewer people, but the Dragons option comes from the former Green Dragon Tavern, a meeting place for Freemasons and the Sons of Liberty, and held planning meetings for the Boston Tea Party and Paul Revere’s ride. One submission also noted how Dragons can easily defeat a bunch of rebels, a nod to the other team’s apathetic hatred within the city. And so, McNamara proudly introduced the Boston Dragons into the world in front of nearly every reporter that came from all across the Northeast and from across the country.

The Dragons were formed as an “all-star” team of NEFL talent, though McNamara wanted to focus primarily on building the team young. The defense seems to be the strongest part of this young team, with DL Ralph Stark and LB Leonard Schmitz joining from the Portland Lumberjacks, LB Harvey Crowe staying in Boston, and DB Jim Downs coming in from Providence. RB Jackie Muller is the main offensive talent that the Dragons acquired from the NEFL, signing him from Hartford to be their main offensive playmaker, barring anyone gained from either the rookie draft or the expansion draft. QB Dave Spencer will remain with the team after being the starter for the Boston Bards the past 5 years, and should suffice as a starter in the short term while the front office finds a longer-term option. McNamara will remain as the general manager and head coach for his Boston team, as it had already worked in the NEFL and hopes that it will continue to do well in the AFL. The Dragons will share the historic Lansdowne Field with NBL team Boston Whales as their home stadium, able to seat just around 35,000 fans.

With the team name coming from something called the “Green Dragon Tavern”, the natural choice for the primary color would be some shade of green. The Dragons will pair a dark shade of green to represent both the city’s Irish population and the name of the tavern with a dark gold to represent “a dragon’s wealth and riches” in order to stand out from the other primarily green team in Pittsburgh. Their primary logo features a gold heraldic styled dragon within a green shield. McNamara wanted the team to represent the city of Boston, and he did even more so with the uniforms, which use the same over-the-shoulder stripe pattern as his alma mater Armitage, located in nearby Cambridge. While the Armitage Blues are just blue and white, the Dragons replace some of the white with the gold, with gold pants for both the home and away jerseys and gold instead of white for the striping.



(Players shown: LB Harvey Crowe (28) and TE Guy Horne (45))

INTRODUCING THE NEW YORK LIONS
New York owner Peter Stuyvesant brought a small group of reporters outside the Hotel Statler in New York City to announce the intentions of the New York Dutch Lions football team. In what was a surprise to pretty much everyone, he stated that the team will be going as the New York Lions going forth. His reasoning was to differentiate themselves from the Dutch Lions baseball team also based in Manhattan, and to “carve out a new identity for a truly New York team”. This change was understandable to some and baffling to the rest, as the Dutch Lions baseball team (nicknamed the “Dutchies” within the city) were significantly more successful than their football counterparts, appearing in 7 World Series within the past 10 years and winning 4 of them. “We want to represent New York as the king of sports, a city heralded with champions,” Stuyvesant told reporters. “We are more than just a team of Manhattan, we are a team for the city of New York.” It was clear that Stuyvesant wanted to distance the football team and the baseball club from each other, even though the teams were once owned by the same person up until about a decade ago when Stuyvesant bought the Dutch Lions football team from the baseball club’s owner Eli Radford in 1941 before the Dutchies went on their historic 10 year run. Whether this move will distinguish themselves from the Dutchies will be reliant on how well the Lions do in the AFL.

Stuyvesant believed that making New York a relevant football city meant that he wanted to emulate the success of the Hogs and Shamrocks by focusing on the run and the defense. RB Bernard Parks was far and away the best player in the final seasons of the NYPL, and hopes to continue his dominance into the AFL. While pretty much everyone agrees that the quality of play in the AFL is significantly better than in the NYPL, Parks should still put up quality numbers in the AFL. QB Gary Byrne has improve significantly since his first season 4 years ago, and has found his #1 target in 3rd year WR Dale Godfrey, though their impact is lessened with Parks running the ball more often than not. Their defense needs significant improvements, though they have a few young players to build around, such as 22 year old LB Gordon Duffy, 22 year old DL Arnold Davis, and 26 year old DB Leslie Mayer, though they will definitely look to improve that side of the ball in the two drafts. Stuyvesant does act as the general manager for the team, though he does not coach the team, instead handing control over to former Brooklyn College head coach Jacob Crowe, who had coached the Terriers in the 40’s before joining the Lions in 1945 after Stuyvesant stepped down to focus on running the team and gaining traction within the NYPL to adapt to the changing football climate.

The Lions will be slightly altering their colors coming from the NYPL. In their past life, they were a primarily navy team with orange accents, similar to the Dutchies. To better separate themselves as a team wanting to forge their own identity, the Lions darkened the blue to a mix between navy and purple and kept the orange, though still using the same logos as the baseball team they share the 56,000 seat Metropolitan Stadium with. The uniforms will also remain the same as their NYPL days, with blue changed out for purple while keeping the striping on the helmets, jerseys, and socks. The team’s most unique “aspect” is the use of gray pants, which had been used since the team was first founded, as original owner Jacob Auth didn’t like the shade of navy that was produced for the pants and as a result used gray for the away set only. Once Stuyvesant took over in ‘45, he changed the home pants to gray because he thought it paired better than the white they were using then. It has stayed that way ever since.



(Players shown: RB Bernard Parks (47) and DB Leslie Mayer (6))

Due to the increased television presence the AFL is receiving, the league is mandating teams to add a set of numbers on the sleeves so that players can be more easily identifiable on television. These will not be shown on the boards here but will be present on the blog if anyone wants to see these changes.

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Last edited by DireBear (10/05/2023 7:14 pm)

This is what I like to see! Boston looks awesome, I love those colors (now that I think about it this kinda looks like a cross between Johns Island and St. Brendan's lol) and the logo is killer. Very happy to be a Dragons fan. New York is solid too, another great color scheme, and a neat little quirk with the gray pants. It does strike me as a little strange that they were trying to distance themselves from the Dutchies but a) still kept the Lions part and b) kept the logo the same, but to each their own I guess. The lion itself is really nicely done too. Can't wait to see these teams hit the field!

These are awesome Dire! Both teams look sharp and are probably two of my favourites in the league at this point. I think the colours for both teams are unique and interesting. Now speaking of being "unique", I do find it funny that both have logos that are a full body animal in almost the same position.  However, both logos are really well done, especially the dragon.

Now, New York is already pulling me over to their side with purple being an inclusion in their colour scheme, but I also like the way the purple and orange work together. But the same can be said about the gold and green for the Dragons which I think is well balanced with the white so, heck maybe I'll like both of the new teams or at least their brand.