In January of 1959, Lamar Hunt, a young and earnest Dallas oilman, decided that what the country needed was a second professional football league. It made sense. Having achieved a truce in Korea, and not yet fully engaged in Vietnam, the United States was between wars.
The idea wasn't exactly new. The All-America Football Conference had perished as recently as 1949, and some of its owners still could be observed, from time to time, fishing for dimes through manhole covers. But sometimes a great notion clutches us by the ear and won't let go. Hunt had tried for months to purchase the Chicago Cardinals and move them to Dallas.
He had been frustrated in his dealings with Cardinals owner Walter Wolfner and his family. Wolfner was willing to sell up to 49 percent and keep the team in Chicago. He made it clear that the franchise had other suitors. Flying back to Dallas from a final meeting in Miami, the winter
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