The 1962 Season
American Football League
 ALL-STAR GAME
 

AFL

West 21

East 14

 

January 13, 1963
Balboa Stadium, San Diego
The 1962 AFL All-Star Game returned to Balboa Stadium in San Diego. The coaches were Hank Stram of the Texans for the West and Pop Ivy of the Oilers for the East. The game was attended by 27,641 fans which served as a testimony to the improvement of the league in three years of existence.
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Rookie Curtis McClinton of the Texans busted a 64 yard touchdown run on the West’s third play from scrimmage to put his team up 7-0. In the second period, McClinton again got loose, this time for 21 yards. It set up Dallas’ Len Dawson’s 11 yard touchdown pass to Dave Kocourek of the Chargers. The halftime score was 14-0. The two potential scoring drives the East had in the first half were thwarted by outstanding defense. Austin Gonsoulin of Denver intercepted a pass by Houston’s George Blanda and San Diego’s Earl Faison recovered a fumble by Buffalo’s Jack Kemp.
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After the intermission, the East drove to the West’s nine yard line, but Dave Grayson of the Texans intercepted a Blanda pass and returned it to midfield. But, later in the quarter, Blanda led the East on a 68 yard march that ended in an 8 yard touchdown pass the the Oiler teammate, Charley Hennigan. Still in the third, the East tied the score at 14 all when Larry Grantham of the New York Titans intercepted a Dawson pass and returned it 29 yards to the end zone. In the final quarter, replacement quarterback Frank Tripucka of the Broncos led the West on an 89 yard touchdown drive for the winning score. He hit Denver teammate, Lionel Taylor, on passes of 7, 49 and 20 yards. The last pass good for a touchdown. The final score was 21-14
The defensive performances exhibited in this game proved to the nation that the AFL was maturing. McClinton was voted the outstanding offensive player and Faison won the defensive honors. East fullback Cookie Gilchrist of Buffalo said of McClinton following the game, “McClinton’s first touchdown saved the game. Other than that, it’s a pretty tight game. That McClinton’s going to be a good boy. He’s big, strong and fast.

 

Cookie Gilchrist carries for the East in the 1962 Season AFL All-Star Game.

 

Kansas City's Dave Grayson leads the West defense.

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Click to see AFL All-Star Squads
1962 West Squad East Squad

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SUMMARIES OF EACH AFL ALL-STAR GAME

        The American Football League did not play an All-Star game after its first season in 1960, but did stage All-Star games for the 1961 through 1969 seasons.  All-Star teams from the Eastern and Western divisions played each other after every season except 1965.  That season, the league champion Buffalo Bills played against a team made up of all-stars from the other teams.
        Because the games were played at the end of the season, they occurred in the next calendar year.  Thus, the 1961 AFL All-Star game (with players selected as all-stars for the 1961 season) was played on January 7, 1962; the 1962 game was played in January 1963, etc.
         The links below will take you to summaries of each game, originally created by Mark Bolding.   Most of the content of this and the other AFL All-Star Games was retrieved from the 'Internet Archive Wayback Machine' at archive.org/web/web.php, which claims copyright for the work. 
         *Other than the final score and the image of the game program, his summary of the 1964 season all-star game incorrectly gave the report of the previous year's game. 
         Bolding's original site classified the games by the calendar year they were played in.  Since they were played at the end of AFL seasons and the All-Stars involved were so chosen for their play in those seasons, I classify them by the AFL season which they represented.  Thus the AFL All-Star Game that featured stars of the 1961 season was played in January 1962, etc.
1961 Season AFL All-Star Game: January 7, 1962 'Wayback' link
1962 Season AFL All-Star Game: January 13, 1963 'Wayback' link
1963 Season AFL All-Star Game: January 19, 1964 'Wayback' link
1964 Season AFL All-Star Game: January 16, 1965 *'Wayback' link
1965 Season AFL All-Star Game: January 15, 1966 'Wayback' link
1966 Season AFL All-Star Game: January 21, 1967 'Wayback' link
1967 Season AFL All-Star Game: January 21, 1968 'Wayback' link
1968 Season AFL All-Star Game: January 19, 1969 'Wayback' link
1969 Season AFL All-Star Game: January 17, 1970 'Wayback' link
         Perhaps the greatest highlight of AFL All-Star Game history came not on the field of play, but in the actions of black players, supported by their white teammates and owners, when the best players in the AFL boycotted the City of New Orleans because of the disrespect black players were given when they arrived there for the scheduled 1964 season AFL All-Star Game, scheduled for January 1965.
          The game was moved to Houston in a seminal action in the early civil rights movement in America.  It is still recognized as such, as recently as a March, 2007 article by Evan Weiner on MSNBC.  Another description of the incident is at my AFL Clippings page.
 
 

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