Earl Shores, a student of the old "electric football" games who has written for Sports Illustrated and for the website www.miggle.com, sent the material below.  It includes an advertisement for a Tudor AFL Electric Football game and the cover of a Joe Namath Electric Football game, with the Namath figure from the game.  The last, very interesting item, is a 1965 Johnny Hero action figure for boys, which was available with AFL uniforms for the figure.

         AFL and Raider fan Paul Silva recently sent me these vintage images of American Football League pennants.  The "1967" AFL All-Star Game was actually played after the 1966 American Football League season.

         Paul Silva also sent me the image of an early Raiders decal.  Turns out I have an early Bills version, evidently part of the same set.  Anyone have the others?

         Remember the colorful American Football League officials' jerseys?  One more thing lost in "the merger".

         CC Hamelin sent this image of a 1966 Jets schedule card, advertising Rheingold.

         In the mid-1960s, the Boston Patriots' Tom Addison founded the American Football League Players Association.  Addison and other team representatives put together a request package of benefits that included insurance and a player pension plan.
         Addison was the association's first president, and had the intimidating task of meeting with the team owners to negotiate the request package.  One possibly apocryphal story is that upon entering the conference room, Tom approached the long oval table, where the stern-faced owners were awaiting. With southern charm, he looked up at the owners, smiled, and said "Well, I'm not trying to be the next Jimmy Hoffa!"  
            The Chargers' great Ron Mix recalls that the formation of a union was Addison's idea.  Then, Tom contacted a member from each team to determine if they were interested in joining him in founding the union.  Jack Kemp was contacted as a member of the Buffalo Bills.  Mix was contacted as a member of the San Diego Chargers.  Jim Tyrer was contacted as a member of the Chiefs.  The first officers were Tommy as President, Mix as Vice-President, and a secretary. Mix avers that the most accurate description of the process was that Addison was the founder and was joined by seven other co-founders.
            That first meeting hardly went smoothly.  The League told the players that they had 30 minutes for the meeting.  Tommy gave the initial presentation and, in the process, asked the League to consider some very modest proposals (one was to increase payment for exhibition games and another was to consider constructing a pension).  During Tommy's presentation, most of the owners were completely disrespectful, talking among themselves and visibly not paying attention.  Mix recalls: "We left the meeting with the accurate feeling that we had wasted our time.", however, an Association did finally become a reality.
           With a players association in place, players newly drafted by American Football League teams in the "war between the leagues" could be assured that they would have representation and protection in the AFL that was the equal of that in the older league. Addison's work was an important element in the survival of the league, and helped the AFL to be able to compete for top talent, and to establish itself as the future of professional football.  Kemp served as the Associations' president from 1965 through 1969.
             An AFL fan, "Mike", has come across a ring which was clearly that of an official of the AFLPA.  The name on it is "Ferreira", and no man by that name ever played in the AFL.  Mike has sent me the photos below.  If any AFL players have any information on this ring, or "Ferreira", or on the formation and accomplishments of the AFLPA, I would like to hear about them at RemembertheAFL@aol.com
             When the leagues merged, I pleaded with the AFLPA to fight to name the merged players association the Professional Football Players Association, feeling that would guarantee retired AFL players equality with the other league.  That was not to be, and the AFLPA was absorbed into the NFLPA.

         Todd Tobias is an American Football League author, historian, blogger and fan.  He recently obtained a memento, 'reconstituted' below, of the AFL's fifth season.  Hover your cursor over each team photo to read details, then click the team photo for an enlargement.  For an enlargement of the entire piece, click HERE.  Read Todd's blog on the item by clicking HERE.

         The image below is courtesy of American Football League fan Willie Gabel.  As Willie says, "Even the ad guys at Campbell's Soup knew who the better ball carrier was in one of their 1960's advertisements!"

         Phillip Adamsky has this Coca-Cola bottle cap from the 'sixties.  William Licata has the AFL football given as a prize by the Buffalo distributor of Coke, to fans who collected the whole set of bottle caps.

         Dave Hyzy sent me these images of his set of Trench American Football League 'mini-pennants'.  Note the original Patriots, Bills, Broncos, Bengals and Dolphins logos, and especially the original Raiders logo and colors of black, white and GOLD.