the namesake for the future American Football League team that would form in 1959. The forerunners to the Canadian Football League would also play at least one game in Buffalo in 1951. 1960–1985 Bringing pro football back to Buffalo When Lamar Hunt announced the formation of the American Football League in the summer of 1959, Buffalo was one of the target cities Hunt sought. His first choice of owner, however, turned him down; Pat McGroder (then a liquor store owner and sports liaison with the city of Buffalo) was still hopeful that the threat of the AFL would prompt the NFL to come back to Buffalo to try to stop the AFL from gaining a foothold there (as the NFL would do with teams in Minnesota, Dallas, St. Louis and later Atlanta). McGroder's hopes never came to fruition. Harry Wismer, who was to own the Titans of New York franchise, reached out to Detroit insurance salesman and automobile heir Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. to see if he was interested in joining the upstart league. (Both Wismer and Wilson were minority owners of NFL franchises at the time: Wilson held a stake in the Detroit Lions, while Wismer was a small partner in the Washington Redskins but had little power due to majority owner George Preston Marshall's near-iron fist over the team and the league). Wilson agreed to field a team in the new league, with the words "Count me in. I'll take a franchise anywhere you suggest." Hunt gave him the choice of six cities: Miami, Buffalo, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Atlanta, or Louisville, Kentucky. Wilson's first choice was Miami, but city officials there were wary of an upstart league after the failure of the Miami Seahawks over a decade prior and rejected the idea. (Once the AFL established itself, the city reversed its stance and allowed the Miami Dolphins to reside in the city.) Wilson reached out to an acquaintance from his military days in World War II who lived in Buffalo: general contractor George E. Schaaf. Schaaf assured Wilson that pro-football interest was significant in Buffalo and assembled a coalition of key Buffalo figures, including Pat McGroder (a mutual friend of both), who were able to interest Wilson in bringing the AFL franchise to Buffalo. Attorney Paul Crotty (father of Paul A. Crotty and a powerful Buffalo political figure) and McGroder negotiated a sweetheart deal with Civic Stadium in