''American Football League (AFL) on ABC'' is a

television program Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, e ...

that broadcast

professional football In professional sports, as opposed to amateur sports, participants receive payment for their performance. Professionalism in sport has come to the fore through a combination of developments. Mass media and increased leisure have brought larg ...

games of the then fledgling (when compared to the more established

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

)

American Football League The American Football League (AFL) was a major professional American football league that operated for ten seasons from 1960 until 1970, when it merged with the older National Football League (NFL), and became the American Football Conference. ...

on the

American Broadcasting Company The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) is an American commercial broadcast television network. It is the flagship property of the ABC Entertainment Group division of The Walt Disney Company. The network is headquartered in Burbank, Cali ...

(ABC), then itself a less established player in American network television. ABC broadcast AFL games from the league's first season in

1960 It is also known as the "Year of Africa" because of major events—particularly the independence of seventeen African nations—that focused global attention on the continent and intensified feelings of Pan-Africanism. Events January * Ja ...

until the 1964 season, when

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

took over as the league's primary

network television Network, networking and networked may refer to: Science and technology * Network theory, the study of graphs as a representation of relations between discrete objects * Network science, an academic field that studies complex networks Mathematics ...

broadcaster.

Terms of the deal

On June 9, 1960, the league signed a five-year television contract with ABC, which brought in revenues of approximately $2,125,000 per year for the entire league. The deal called for ABC to broadcast approximately 37 regular season games, the

AFL Championship Game For its first nine seasons, 1960 through 1968, the American Football League determined its champion via a single playoff game between the winners of its two divisions (although ties in the standings in 1963 (Eastern) and 1968 (Western) necessitat ...

and the

AFL All-Star Game The American Football League All-Star game was the annual game which featured each year's best performers in the American Football League (AFL). The game was first played in 1961 and the final AFL All-Star game occurred in 1969, prior to the leagu ...

. These games were typically broadcast regionally on 15 consecutive Sundays and on

Thanksgiving Day Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in the United States, Canada, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Philippines. It is also observed in the Netherlander town of Leiden a ...

. This became the first ever cooperative television plan for

, in which the proceeds of the contract were divided equally among member clubs; the

would follow suit in 1961, a move that required Congress to pass the

Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 The Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 affects Title 15 of the United States Code, Chapter 32 "Telecasting of Professional Sports Contest" (§§ 1291-1295) Overview The Sports Broadcasting Act was passed in response to a court decision which ruled t ...

to accommodate such collective broadcasting contracts.

Innovations

ABC and the AFL also introduced moving, on-field cameras (as opposed to the fixed midfield cameras of

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

and the NFL), and were the first to have players "miked" during broadcast games.

List of commentators

Pat Hernon hosted ABC's national postgame show out of

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

. While ABC did show scores and updates from both the AFL and NFL, seldom if ever did viewers see any actual AFL highlights except from the game that had just been broadcast in their region, or nationally. They however, never showed any actual NFL highlights whatsoever.

Play-by-play

Charlie Brockman Charles Thurston Brockman (December 8, 1927 – January 18, 2005) was an American broadcaster and was a president of the United States Auto Club from 1969 to 1972. Biography Brockman worked as a sportscaster on WXLW, WIRE and worked as sports ...

(1964) *

Jack Buck John Francis "Jack" Buck (August 21, 1924 – June 18, 2002) was an American sportscaster, best known for his work announcing Major League Baseball games of the St. Louis Cardinals. His play-by-play work earned him recognition from numerous hall ...

(1960-1963) * John Ferguson (1960) *

Bill Flemming William Norman Flemming (September 3, 1926 – July 20, 2007) was an American television sports journalist who was one of the original announcers for the ABC Sports show '' Wide World of Sports''. Biography Early life Born in Chicago, Illin ...

(1964) *

Curt Gowdy Curtis Edward Gowdy (July 31, 1919 – February 20, 2006) was an American sportscaster. He called Boston Red Sox games on radio and TV for 15 years, and then covered many nationally televised sporting events, primarily for NBC Sports and ABC Sp ...

(1962-1964) * Keith Jackson (1964) *

Charlie Jones Charles, Charlie, Charley or Chuck Jones may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Chuck Jones (1912–2002), American animator, director, and producer * Charles Jones (c. 1889–1942), American actor better known as Buck Jones * Charles Jones (pho ...

(1960-1964) *

Les Keiter Lester Keiter (April 27, 1919 – April 14, 2009), also known as the "General", was a newscaster and sports director of Honolulu, Hawaii television station KHON-TV. Keiter, who also lived in New York and San Francisco, also called some of the bi ...

(1960) * Bob Neal (1961)

Color commentary

Elmer Angsman Elmer Joseph Angsman Jr. (December 11, 1925 – April 11, 2002) was an American football halfback in the National Football League (NFL). Early life and career Angsman was born on the south side of Chicago in 1925, the son of Elmer and Helen ...

(1960; 1964) *

Fred Benners Frederick Hagaman Benners (June 22, 1930 – January 6, 2023) was an American football player. He played the 1952 NFL season for the New York Giants. Benners also played at Southern Methodist University and is considered one of the greatest Mustan ...

(1960) *

Paul Christman Paul may refer to: *Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name) * Paul (surname), a list of people People Christianity *Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chri ...

(1962-1964) *

Dick Danehe Richard Michael Danehe (September 10, 1920 – June 20, 2018) was an American football defensive end and tackle who played two seasons with the Los Angeles Dons of the All-America Football Conference. He played college football at the Universit ...

(1960) *

Bill Dudley William McGarvey "Bullet Bill" Dudley (December 24, 1921 – February 4, 2010) was an American professional football player in the National Football League for the Pittsburgh Steelers, Detroit Lions, and Washington Redskins. He was inducte ...

(1960) * Lee Giroux (1961) *

Johnny Lujack John Christopher Lujack (pronounced Lu' jack; born January 4, 1925) is a former American football quarterback and defensive back who won the 1947 Heisman Trophy; he is currently the oldest living recipient of the Heisman Trophy. Lujack played c ...

(1964) * Paul Mannaseh (1960) *

Jim McKay James Kenneth McManus (September 24, 1921 – June 7, 2008), better known professionally as Jim McKay, was an American television sports journalist. McKay was best known for hosting ABC's '' Wide World of Sports'' (1961–1998). His introdu ...

(1961) *

George Ratterman George William Ratterman (November 12, 1926 – November 3, 2007) was an American football player in the All-America Football Conference and the National Football League. Early life He was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he graduated from St. X ...

(1960-1964)

References

{{ABC's Wide World of Sports ABC Sports National Football League on television

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

1960 American television series debuts 1964 American television series endings American Broadcasting Company original programming Black-and-white American television shows Wide World of Sports (American TV series)