The original eight American Football League teams in 1960 were the Boston Patriots, Buffalo Bills, Dallas Texans, Denver Broncos, Houston Oilers, Los Angeles Chargers, Titans of New York and Oakland Raiders. All eight franchises continue in today's NFL, although several changed their names or cities. This guide connects the inaugural AFL names to their current teams and explains why the New York Titans, Tennessee Titans, Dallas Texans and Houston Texans are easy to confuse.
The original eight AFL teams and their current franchises
Use the 1960 season when someone asks for the AFL's original eight. The answer concerns the clubs that actually played in the new league's first season, rather than every team that eventually joined it. The NFL's AFL anniversary account connects those founding franchises with the teams fans recognize today.
| Inaugural AFL name, 1960 | Current NFL franchise | How to recognize the connection |
|---|---|---|
| Boston Patriots | New England Patriots | The Patriots name continued |
| Buffalo Bills | Buffalo Bills | City and nickname continued |
| Dallas Texans | Kansas City Chiefs | Both city and nickname changed |
| Denver Broncos | Denver Broncos | City and nickname continued |
| Houston Oilers | Tennessee Titans | The Oilers franchise moved and was renamed |
| Los Angeles Chargers | Los Angeles Chargers | The club also spent decades in San Diego |
| Titans of New York | New York Jets | The New York franchise changed its nickname |
| Oakland Raiders | Las Vegas Raiders | The Raiders nickname continued through moves |
The Chargers require particular attention. Their current city matches the inaugural city, but their history includes a long San Diego period. The Hall of Fame's Chargers history identifies Los Angeles as their 1960 home. A retrospective written while they were in San Diego may use that later city when naming the franchise.
This table tracks franchise identity. It does not imply that each club stayed in one stadium, retained one owner or wore the same uniforms throughout its history. It gives you the connection needed to recognize an old schedule, pennant or throwback jersey and then find the current club.
For today's opponents and kickoff times, use the modern names on our NFL team schedule page. Dallas Texans belongs to the Chiefs' historical story; it is not an extra current team missing from that list.
What made the 1960 AFL a new league?
The AFL began as a rival professional league, rather than a new division inside the NFL. The Hall of Fame's Lamar Hunt biography describes how his unsuccessful attempts to obtain an NFL franchise helped lead to the new league's formation in 1959. Other owners joined the venture, and the first season followed in 1960.
Those two years answer different questions. Formation describes the organization coming together; the inaugural season describes its teams taking the field. A franchise history can therefore begin with a 1959 founding date while listing 1960 as its first playing season. That is a distinction in the event being dated, rather than a contradiction.
The Hall's chronology records Denver's 13-10 win over Boston on September 9, 1960 as the first AFL regular-season game. It also records the new league adopting a two-point conversion option and signing an ABC television contract that year. The league needed its own organization, games and audience while competing with the established NFL.
Why earlier leagues called AFL are a different question
The words “American Football League” were used before the 1960 league. The Hall's earlier chronology describes a separate AFL organized by C.C. Pyle in 1926. That league belongs to another period and another set of teams.
When searching an old newspaper or team list, include the year. A result about the 1926 AFL cannot answer which eight clubs played in the inaugural 1960 season. The same abbreviation can also point to other forms of football. Adding “1960 American Football League” keeps the search focused on the league whose franchises became part of the modern NFL.
The franchises that kept familiar names
Some AFL connections are easy to recognize because the nickname remained familiar. That continuity makes an old fixture list readable, even when the uniforms or stadium in a photograph look unfamiliar. Keep franchise identity separate from the people and venues associated with a particular season.
Buffalo Bills and Denver Broncos
The Bills and Broncos entered the AFL under the same city-and-nickname combinations they use today. The Bills' Hall of Fame history dates Ralph Wilson's franchise award to October 1959 and records Buffalo's AFL championships in 1964 and 1965. Those titles belong to the franchise's AFL years, before its later NFL seasons.
The Broncos' history identifies Bob Howsam as the recipient of Denver's charter franchise in 1959. For the original-eight question, Buffalo and Denver need no nickname translation. A 1960 Bills-Broncos matchup uses names a modern fan already knows.
A familiar name does not mean every detail stayed unchanged. When looking at a historic photograph, use that game's date to identify the roster, owner and venue. The franchise can continue while those parts of its story move into another era.
Boston Patriots became New England Patriots
The Patriots kept their nickname while changing the geographic part of their name. The Hall's franchise timeline lists Boston Patriots from 1960 through 1970 and New England Patriots beginning in 1971.
That timing means a Boston Patriots reference can belong to either the AFL period or the first season after full integration into the NFL. The 1971 name change did not create a new franchise and did not mark its first year in professional football. In the original-eight table, Boston is the correct inaugural label; on today's schedule, use New England.
Relocations and renamings connect the old teams to today
A changed city or nickname does not automatically indicate a new franchise. Follow the team's documented history across the transition. Several original AFL clubs now appear under labels that would be unfamiliar on a 1960 schedule, while others retained the nickname through multiple moves.
Dallas Texans became Kansas City Chiefs
The AFL Dallas Texans played from 1960 through 1962. They became the Kansas City Chiefs in 1963, as the Hall of Fame's Chiefs timeline shows. Their AFL championship in their third season belongs to the Dallas part of that continuing franchise's history.
For a historical Chiefs question, the Dallas years matter even though the team had another nickname. For an inaugural AFL question, writing “Kansas City Chiefs” without explaining the Texans name hides the club's actual 1960 identity. Use both names when connecting an old result to the modern team.
Houston Oilers became Tennessee Titans
The Oilers were the AFL's first champions, winning the 1960 and 1961 titles. Their Hall of Fame history traces the move to Tennessee in 1997 and the adoption of Titans in 1999. These were separate changes: relocation came before the new nickname.
The intermediate Tennessee Oilers name explains references from the transition period. A Houston Oilers game belongs to the franchise that became today's Tennessee Titans; it does not become a Houston Texans result because both clubs are associated with Houston.
Venues also help identify an era. The Oilers moved into the Astrodome in 1968. The dome's connection to the franchise is real, but it was not the team's inaugural 1960 home. An archival stadium photograph needs its own date alongside the franchise name.
The Chargers and Raiders changed cities
The Chargers' timeline runs from Los Angeles in 1960 to San Diego from 1961 through 2016, then back to Los Angeles in 2017. The Hall's Chargers page keeps those periods together as one franchise.
The Raiders' timeline is longer: Oakland from 1960 through 1981, Los Angeles from 1982 through 1994, Oakland again from 1995 through 2019, and Las Vegas beginning in 2020. The nickname continued through those city changes.
For either team, pair the city with the season you are describing. “Raiders” can connect the history, while “Oakland,” “Los Angeles” or “Las Vegas” identifies the particular period. This prevents a current-city label from making an old game sound as though it took place in the team's present era.
Two Titans names and two Texans names can mislead fans
“Titans” and “Texans” are nicknames, not unique franchise identifiers across every era. When a name appears on an old ticket or jersey, add the city, league and season before connecting it to a current club. Three distinctions solve most of the confusion:
- The Titans of New York became the New York Jets. They were New York's original AFL franchise. The name does not refer to the Tennessee team.
- The Houston Oilers became the Tennessee Titans. The Tennessee nickname was adopted long after New York's AFL club had become the Jets.
- The AFL Dallas Texans became the Kansas City Chiefs. They are a different franchise from today's Houston Texans.
The Jets' franchise history traces the transition from the Titans name to the Jets under new ownership in 1963. The Tennessee timeline instead runs through the Oilers names before reaching Titans in 1999.
The modern Houston Texans began playing in 2002 as an NFL expansion franchise. Bringing NFL football back to Houston did not turn them into a continuation of the Oilers or the AFL Dallas Texans.
For a practical example, a 1960 New York Titans reference belongs with Jets history. A 1960 Dallas Texans reference belongs with Chiefs history. If you search only the nickname, modern team results can drown out the older identity. Adding the full historical name and year makes the connection much easier to follow.
The original eight were not the final ten
An eight-team AFL list and a ten-team AFL list can both be correct if they describe different seasons. The original eight are the inaugural 1960 clubs. The league later added two expansion franchises, making its final membership larger than its starting lineup.
Renaming or moving an existing club did not add another franchise to that count. The Dallas-to-Kansas City transition, for example, does not give you both a Texans franchise and a separate Chiefs franchise in the same historical tally. Count the continuing club once, under the name appropriate to the season.
Miami and Cincinnati joined after the first season
The Miami Dolphins began play in 1966 as the AFL's ninth member. They have an AFL origin, but they were not among the eight teams that played in 1960.
The Cincinnati Bengals began playing in 1968, following the franchise award to a group headed by Paul Brown the previous year. Again, the award date and first playing season are different events.
For a quiz or article, read the wording before answering. “Original AFL teams” calls for eight; “teams in the AFL before full integration” includes Miami and Cincinnati too. Neither list needs the Dolphins or Bengals placed retroactively into 1960. Their later entry is part of how the league developed, rather than an exception to the original-eight answer.
How the merger changed the NFL's conferences
AFC membership is not proof that a team was an original AFL franchise. When the leagues fully integrated in 1970, the ten former AFL clubs formed the American Football Conference together with three clubs from the established NFL: the Baltimore Colts, Cleveland Browns and Pittsburgh Steelers.
The Steelers' history begins in the NFL in 1933, well before the 1960 AFL. The Colts' history likewise identifies their 1953 Baltimore franchise as an NFL club. Moving into the AFC did not change those origins.
That distinction helps when reading current standings. Conference labels organize today's competition; the original-eight list identifies a particular historical starting lineup. They should not be used as interchangeable answers. The merged league initially had 26 teams, rather than the 32 seen on a modern NFL schedule.
Agreement in 1966, full integration in 1970
The Hall's chronology dates the merger announcement to June 8, 1966. The leagues retained separate schedules through 1969, while a combined draft and an annual championship between the league champions began in 1967. Full integration into one league with two conferences followed in 1970.
Read “merger” in a historical article with that sequence in mind. An agreement announced in 1966 did not immediately erase the AFL's separate regular seasons. The early Super Bowls could match an AFL champion with an NFL champion before the two leagues had completed their shared conference structure.
For the original-team question, you do not need to reclassify every club at every point in the merger process. Identify the eight that began in 1960, recognize the two later AFL additions, and keep the agreement date separate from the first fully integrated season.
Follow an AFL franchise on today's NFL schedule
Once you identify the continuing franchise, switch to its current name for schedule searches. A fan reading about the AFL Dallas Texans should look for the Chiefs' upcoming games. Someone following the Houston Oilers' franchise history should look for the Titans.
Our current NFL team schedules provide the modern starting point, with opponents, game dates, kickoff times and announced TV information. For a game you want to watch today, use NFL games today to find the matchup and channel. Historical names explain the connection; current listings tell you when the continuing club takes the field.
Keep those purposes separate when saving a schedule or sharing a link. An archive describes one past season, while a current schedule needs the appropriate year and current team identity. A throwback name on a jersey is a useful historical clue, rather than a reason to search for a nonexistent extra team in today's league.
Quick answers about original AFL teams
How many original AFL teams were there? Eight played in the inaugural 1960 season. Miami and Cincinnati joined later, bringing the final AFL membership to ten.
Do all eight still exist? Yes. The franchises continue in the NFL under the current names shown in the opening table, although some moved or were renamed.
Were the Houston Texans one of the original eight? No. The original Houston AFL club was the Oilers, whose franchise became the Tennessee Titans. The modern Houston Texans began playing in 2002.
Did the AFL merge with the NFL in 1966 or 1970? The merger agreement was announced in 1966; full integration into the NFL's two-conference structure occurred in 1970. The dates describe different stages.
Cover photograph: Houston's Astrodome, circa 1999, by Carol M. Highsmith, Library of Congress archive, public domain. The former Oilers venue is shown after their Houston years.
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