The 1961 Boston Patriots season was the franchise's second season in the
American Football League They finished with nine wins, four losses, and one tie, in second place in the
AFL's Eastern Division.
Staff
Season summary
In the off-season, the team acquired
quarterback
The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...
Babe Parilli from the
Oakland Raiders, himself a former starter for the NFL's
Green Bay Packers. After a 2–3 start and two consecutive losses, the team fired head coach
Lou Saban
Louis Henry Saban (October 13, 1921 – March 29, 2009) was an American football player and coach. He played for Indiana University in college and as a professional for the Cleveland Browns of the All-America Football Conference between 1946 a ...
on the night of Tuesday, October 10, and replaced him with offensive backfield coach
Mike Holovak
Michael Joseph Holovak (September 19, 1919 – January 27, 2008) was an American football player, coach, and executive. He played college football at Boston College, where he was an All-American at fullback in 1942.
Holovak was the fifth ov ...
, formerly the head coach at
Boston College.
The change was a positive one, as the team was 7–1–1 under Holovak and finished on a four-game winning streak, capped with a road shutout of the Western Division champion
San Diego Chargers in the season finale,
the team which scored 38 points on them in Boston in Saban's last game.
The Patriots' 9–4–1 record put them in second place in the Eastern Division, one game behind
Houston
Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 i ...
; the Oilers went on to win the
league championship with a 10–3 win over the Chargers. This was the first season in which Boston used their "Pat the Patriot" logo on their helmets.
Draft picks
Schedule
Regular season
Standings
Roster
All of the following players appeared in at least one game for the 1961 Boston Patriots.
:
Players new to the team in 1961 are in bold.
Notes and references
General references
* . For game-by-game results
* . For team roster
* . For season summary
Footnoted references
{{1961 AFL season by team
Boston Patriots
New England Patriots seasons
Boston Patriots
1960s in Boston