Founding of American Football League

Date: August 14, 1959 • Location: Washington, United States

Founding and first official meeting of the American Football League.

The American Football League (AFL) was a major professional American football league that operated for ten seasons from 1960 until 1970, when it merged with the older National Football League (NFL) and became that league's American Football Conference (AFC). The upstart AFL operated in direct competition with the more established NFL throughout its existence. It was more successful than earlier rivals to the NFL, including not only the organizations founded under the AFL name in 1926, 1936, and 1940, but also the later All-America Football Conference (AAFC), which existed between 1944 and 1950 but conducted operations only between 1946 and 1949.