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1958 Season

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  East Division The East in recent years has become the most competitive division in all of professional football, and 1958 was no exception. New York’s miraculous run to the championship seemed like it would be a one-and-done deal if they had not acquired arguably one of the best receivers in the league: Joey Staniskovski. With him added to the offensive arsenal, and the promotion of Newark RB Jon Dawson as a bruising option in the backfield, the Lions offense was a tough one to stop. They also found a diamond in the rough in the draft, as fifth round selection DL John Lee Hines out of Prairie View State made an immediate impact on the line and locked himself into a Rookie of the Year award, becoming just the second player not drafted in the first round to win said award. The Lions were out to prove that last year was no fluke and wanted to make another deep run for potentially their first AFL title. That desire came true, as they were undefeated through the first half of the year...

1958 Season Preview

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    1 - Cincinnati Rivermen 1957 Record: 10-2 (1st West) 1957 Result: Won Championship Highlighted Players: DL Fergus Prenderghast (99) & OL Milton McCovery (54)  Last year could not have gone any more perfect than it went for the Rivs. They gambled on the prime of DL Fergus Prenderghast and just by winning a title last year it has more than paid off. With how well last season went, Cincinnati’s main strategy is just to get everything back together to get back to the title game and repeat. RB Perry Ferguson was going to retire after the championship, but he was convinced to stick around for another year to win once more. TE Floyd Rankin and S Virgil Romano were given small extensions to stay in Cincinnati for another run. They have shown to have some of the best talent in the league, and now see themselves in the driver’s seat to win back-to-back championships. In years’ past, winning a title may have been a slightly easier task, but the West division has now become i...

1958 AFL Draft

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  Round 1 1 - Cleveland - RB Bo Golden - St. Louis State - Kingsfan11 2 - Chicago - OL Mitch Hunt - Armitage - idm 3 - Tri-Cities - WR Sonny Delvecchio - Brooklyn College - Kingsfan11 4 - Buffalo - OL Jerry Colangelo - Vermont - idm 5 - Pittsburgh - DB Rex Leavitt - Deseret - DireBear 6 - Philadelphia - S David Jefferson - Virginia Commonwealth - idm 7 - Boston - DL Hugo Cumberdale - Indiana - Jayhawk 8 - Tri-Cities (from STL) - DL Lou Spanos - University of Cleveland - DireBear 9 - Washington - OL Alan Varnas - Chicago Christian - DireBear 10 - Detroit - DL Herman Escalante - ULA - DireBear 11 - Cleveland (from NY) - QB Cassius Sterling - Wyoming State - Darknes 12 - Cincinnati - S Will Heckel - Ohio - Kingsfan11 In prior year’s drafts, the first overall pick seemed like it was a fairly obvious choice for the team selecting. This year appears to be different. Cleveland had two gaping holes at skill positions that they needed to fill, needing a top halfback with Max Panders retirin...

1958 Draft Preview

AACA Top 20: 1) Genesee (NY) - 10-0 [Independent] 2) Louisiana - 9-1 [SoCon] 3) Mississippi Tech - 9-1 [SoCon] 4) Texas - 9-1 [AATU] 5) Georgia - 9-1 [SoCon] 6) Wisconsin State - 7-2 [Big Western] 7) Southwestern Christian - 8-2 [AATU] 8) Washington State - 9-1 [PAC] 9) Arkansas State - 8-2 [Independent] 10) Alabama State - 7-1-2 [SoCon] 11) Pickens Tech - 8-2 [AAC] 12) Pennsylvania - 8-2 [ECC] 13) Illinois - 5-3-1 [Big Western] 14) ULA - 8-2 [PAC] 15) Oklahoma - 7-3 [MRVC/Big 8] 16) Wyoming State - 9-1 [Frontier] 17) Missouri State - 6-4 [MRVC/Big 8] 18) Florida State - 5-4-1 [AAC] 19) Pittsburgh State - 6-4 [Independent] 20) McTyeire (TN) - 7-3 [Magnolia] AACA Bowls: Rose Bowl (Los Angeles, CA) - (12) Penn 44 -6 (8) Washington State Palm Bowl (Miami, FL) - (5) Georgia 14 -0 (11) Pickens Tech Magnolia Bowl (Houston, TX) - (1) Genesee 23 -14 (15) Oklahoma Columbian Bowl (Chicago, IL) -  (6) Wisconsin State 7 -0 (9) Arkansas State Gold Bowl (San Francisco, CA) - (14) ULA 20 -7 Arizo...

1957-58 Offseason

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Retirements OL Bill Armstrong - Evansville, IN College: Rogers Clark (IN) Teams: Chicago Hogs (1948-1957) AFL Championships: 3 (1951, 1952, 1954) All-AFL: 4 (1951, 1952, 1953, 1954) All-Star: 4 (1951, 1952, 1953, 1954) Armstrong will be looked back upon as part of how offensive linemen changed from the beginnings of the sport to how it is today. A standout player for the Rogers Clark Badgers, he was much larger than many of the players that would have played at the position in the past. His burly stature pretty much stopped any defender in his tracks, and the Hogs thought they could use him to stop defenders from their cross-town rival. The Stars defensive line could seemingly get through any blocker, and the Hogs were willing to throw anything at the wall to see what stuck. Armstrong was fitting to his name, almost single-handedly stopping the lankier Stars defensive linemen, and the rest of the league took notice of how to make an offensive line. Armstrong was a cornerstone of the ...

1958 Design Changes

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After utilizing their stadium partner’s identity for the past two years, the New York Lions finally got an identity for themselves. After piggy-backing off of the Dutch Lions and getting a run to the championship, owner Peter Stuyvesant wanted to take the Lions in a different direction. Instead of using a dutch lion, he took inspiration from the New York Public Library’s lions, to be fitting for “a team of regal stature in the country’s largest city”. The new primary logo will be the stoic head of one of the lion statues, replacing the heraldic dutch lion that was used in a similar capacity. The Lions also swapped out the tuscan-inspired interlocking N-Y for one that is more blocky, though it will be relegated to secondary use. Their typeset also changes slightly to fit in line with the new secondary. Their uniforms, however, will remain the same, not wanting to change them with a miracle title run this past year. Tri-Cities owner Bob Hester ran into the same issue that Cincinnati had ...

AFL Spring Meetings 1958

LEAGUE MOVES EXPANSION TO 1960 & 1961 The AFL’s expansion over the past two years can be considered a rousing success. Out of the 4 teams introduced, all but one have made the playoffs (with the Rattlesnakes only missing out by half a game) and all of them have won at least one game in the playoffs. Boston and St Louis look like they will be up there with the “Big Three” teams of Chicago, Cincinnati, and Washington. New York made a miracle run for the title this past year. Philadelphia has some of the largest attendance numbers the league has seen so far. With the sport of football on the up and up in recent years, the league announced that it will move up the second half of the “Manhattan Plan” by one year. Los Angeles and San Francisco are now slated to join for the 1960 season, with two other teams to join a year later in 1961. The two bids from San Francisco, the group that attempted to buy the Knights (Allen Penoyer & Ernest Barlowe) and the other headed by former Kansas C...