Buffalo—which at the time was primarily an auto racing track but was the only venue with enough seating to accommodate a team (since Offermann Stadium, the city's baseball park, was both undersized and had been condemned by city code enforcement)—and offered Wilson full control of the venue and a deep discount on rent. Wilson promptly removed the racetrack and had Civic Stadium transformed into War Memorial Stadium, which would house both baseball and football. Wilson sent Hunt a telegram with the now-famous words, "Count me in with Buffalo." 1960–1963: The Early AFL Years The Buffalo Bills were a charter member of the American Football League (AFL) in 1960. After a public contest, the team adopted the same name as the AAFC Buffalo Bills, the former All-America Football Conference team in Buffalo. The AAFC Bills franchise was named after the Buffalo Bills, a popular barbershop quartet, whose name was a play on the name of the famed Wild West showman Buffalo Bill Cody. The franchises are not officially related, other than in name, to each other. After an inaugural season that saw the Bills finish 5–8–1 (third in the four-team AFL East Division), the Bills gained four of the first five picks in the 1961 AFL draft, including the top slot, which they used to draft offensive tackle Ken Rice. They also drafted guard Billy Shaw in the same draft. Success did not come overnight. On August 8, 1961, the Bills became the first (and only) American Football League team to play a Canadian Football League team, the nearby Hamilton Tiger-Cats. Because of that game, they also hold the dubious distinction of being the only current NFL team to have ever lost to a CFL team, as the Tiger-Cats won, 38–21. Hamilton was one of the best teams in the CFL (they would go on to win the Big Four title but lose in the 49th Grey Cup that year), and Buffalo, at the time, was the worst team in the AFL. In the 1962 offseason, Buffalo stocked up on players that would play key roles in the successful years of the mid'1960s. Jack Kemp was acquired off waivers from the San Diego Chargers after the Chargers thought Kemp, who had led the Chargers to back-to-back AFL title games, had a bum hand. The Bills also drafted Syracuse running back phenomenon Ernie Davis and had a serious chance of getting him