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Following the merger, the Jets fell into mediocrity; Namath was dogged by injuries throughout his later career. In 1981, New York qualified for the playoffs for the first time in the post-Namath era. They reached the AFC Championship Game in 1982; they were defeated on a rain-soaked Orange Bowl field by the Miami Dolphins. Beginning with the 1984 season, the team played in New Jersey’s Giants Stadium. The team started the 1986 season with a 10 – 1 record, but the injury-plagued Jets lost their last five regular season games and relinquished a ten-point fourth quarter to lose in double overtime to the Cleveland Browns in the playoffs.
In the following eleven seasons, New York had limited success, reaching the playoffs only once and enduring a string of disastrous seasons, including a 1 – 15 record in 1996. The following year, the Jets hired two-time Super Bowl-winning coach Bill Parcells. The new coach guided the team to its most successful season since the merger in 1998; the Jets finished 12 – 4 and reached the AFC Championship Game, in which they fell to the Denver Broncos. The team made five playoff appearances in the 2000s, their most of any decade. In 2009 and 2010, the Jets achieved back-to-back appearances in the AFC Championship Game, losing to the Indianapolis Colts and Pittsburgh Steelers. In 2010, the team began to play in MetLife Stadium, constructed neatly in the now-demolished Giants Stadium.
Origins and the Polo Grounds Era (1959 – 1964)
Organization and the first season
In 1959, young oilmen Lamar Hunt and Bud Adams sought a National Football League (NFL) franchise. They found that NFL expansion required a unanimous vote of existing team owners so there was little likelihood of convincing the NFL to expand. The two men attempted to acquire the Chicago Cardinals(1), intending to move the franchise to Dallas, where there was no NFL team(2). Cardinals co-owner Walter Wolfner, who owned the team with his wife, Violet Bidwill Wolfner, was unwilling to sell majority control. During the discussions, Walter Wolfner mentioned the names of other wealthy bidders seeking to acquire the Cardinals. On the flight home, Hunt and Adams decided to recruit the other bidders as owners of teams in a new professional football league(1).
New York City attorney William Shea was attempting to create the Continental League, a rival league to Major League Baseball. Hunt met with him, and Shea suggested Harry Wismer, a former sportscaster who had been a majority shareholder in both the Washington Redskins and Detroit Lions, as a potential New York franchise owner for the new football league. Wismer was willing; he was feuding at the time with the Redskins’ principal owner, George Preston Marshall, and realized he would never own the Washington franchise(3). Wismer, while wealthy, was not nearly as rich as the other potential team owners(4).
On August 14th, 1959, the league held an organizational meeting and announced its plans; eight days later it announced its name: the American Football League (AFL), the fourth league to take that name(5). Among the charter members was a New York franchise owned by Wismer, dubbed the “Titans of New York.” On November 24th, 1959, the AFL held its first draft; the Titans selected Notre Dame quarterback George Izo as their first pick(6). The league announced a policy, formulated by Wismer, that it would negotiate with a network for a single television contract to cover all the teams, the first league to do so(7). On December 7th, the Titans hired Steve Sebo as general manager. Sebo had just been fired as coach at the University of Pennsylvania, despite taking the Quakers to the Ivy League championship(8). On December 17th, the Titans announced at a press conference that “one of the biggest names in the history of football” would soon be named as their head coach(9). Although Wismer was prone to hyperbole, in this case, he told the truth: New York had persuaded former Redskins star quarterback and punter Sammy Baugh to be its coach. Since his retirement as a player, Baugh had coached at tiny Hardin-Simmons University, where he built a strong football program that sent a team to the 1958 Sun Bowl(10). Before appearing at the press conference, Baugh demanded his entire salary of $20,000 for 1960, in cash. The Titans accommodated him(11).
Wismer sought a place for his team to play but was only able to secure the decrepit Polo Grounds, which had been without a major tenant since the departure of the New York Giants baseball team in 1957. The stadium stood on the northern tip of Manhattan, across the Harlem River from Yankee Stadium, where the New York Giants NFL team played(12).
Baugh invited some 100 players to the Titans’ first training camp, which opened at the University of New Hampshire on July 9, 1960(13). As NFL teams cut players from their training camps, many were invited to the Titans’ or other AFL teams’ training camps as the teams sought to fill their 35-man rosters(14). The franchise’s first preseason game took place on August 6th, 1960, against the Los Angeles Chargers at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The Titans kicked off to begin the game, and Chargers running back Paul Lowe returned the kick 105 yards for a touchdown. New York lost, 27 – 7(15). On September 11th, 1960, the opening regular season game was played in a heavy downpour, the remains of Hurricane Donna. Water poured off Coogan’s Bluff, situated above the Polo Grounds, swamping the field, which had poor drainage. The Titan’s offense was less affected by the mud than that of the visiting Buffalo Bills. The Titans won the game 27 – 3 before a crowd of 9,607 (5,727 paid attendance)(16). The following week New York played another home game, against the Boston Patriots. On the first of many occasions when the team would lose a game after taking a big lead, the Titans were ahead 24 – 7 in the second half. With the lead reduced to 24 – 21, the Titans punted from deep in their own territory with seconds left. The punter, Rick Sapienza, fumbled the snap, and the Patriots recovered in the end zone for the victory(17). The following week, with the Titans playing against the Denver Broncos, New York blocked a punt on the final play to win the game(18). In their fourth game, New York had a two-point lead when it fumbled with fifteen seconds left against the Dallas Texans. This set off a scramble for the ball, which the Titans recovered as time ran out. Viewers in New York were spared the harrowing ending; in a prelude to the Heidi Game eight years later, the local ABC station had switched to a Walt Disney Davey Crockett special at 6:30 p.m. Many viewers called to complain(19).
Five weeks into the season, guard Howard Glenn broke his neck during a loss to the Houston Oilers, and died a few hours later, becoming the first professional football player to die from injuries sustained on the field(20)(21). New York suffered other injuries as the season progressed, and Wismer lacked the money to replace the injured players. Several players had to play both offense and defense. Wismer had arranged for the Titans to play three home games before their cross-river rivals, the Giants, started their season. This meant the Titans had to play their final three games on the road, and Wismer claimed to have lost $150,000 on the trip(22). The Titans finished their first season 7 – 7; according to attendance figures released by the team, the Titans drew an average of 16,375 fans per game. This claim was mocked by the New York Press, which reported that the fans had disguised themselves as empty seats(23). The New York Times estimated that the team had lost $450,000 for the season; in his autobiography, Wismer set the figure at $1.2 million(24).
copyrights and citations
1. Ryczek, pp. 13 – 14 (Ryczek, William J. (2009).
Crash of the Titans: The Early Years of the New
York Jets and the AFL (revised ed.). Jefferson,
North Carolina: McFarland & Co. ISBN 978-
0-7864-4126-6)
2. Sahadi, p. 23 (Sahadi, Lou (1969). The Long
Pass: The Inside Story of the New York Jets
from the Terrible Titans to Broadway Joe
Namath and the Championship of 1968. New
York: The World Publishing Company: ISBN
978-1-58567-933-1
3. Sahadi, pp. 26 – 27
3. Sahadi, pp. 26 – 27
4. Ryczek, p. 16
5. Ryczek, pp. 19 – 20
6. Ryczek, pp. 22 – 23
7. Sahadi, p. 32
8. Ryczek, p. 36
9. Ryczek, p. 37
10. Ryczek, pp. 37 – 43
11. Ryczek p. 48
12. Sahadi, pp. 42 – 43
13. Sahadi, pp. 44 – 45
14. Ryczek, p. 83
15. Ryczek, pp. 89 – 91
16. Ryczek, pp. 113 – 115
17. Ryczek, pp. 117 – 119
18. Ryczek, pp. 121 – 122
19. Ryczek, pp. 125 – 126
20. https://www.chron.com/sports/texans/article/
5. Ryczek, pp. 19 – 20
6. Ryczek, pp. 22 – 23
7. Sahadi, p. 32
8. Ryczek, p. 36
9. Ryczek, p. 37
10. Ryczek, pp. 37 – 43
11. Ryczek p. 48
12. Sahadi, pp. 42 – 43
13. Sahadi, pp. 44 – 45
14. Ryczek, p. 83
15. Ryczek, pp. 89 – 91
16. Ryczek, pp. 113 – 115
17. Ryczek, pp. 117 – 119
18. Ryczek, pp. 121 – 122
19. Ryczek, pp. 125 – 126
20. https://www.chron.com/sports/texans/article/
