American Football League ( 1934 ) The 1934 edition of the American Football League was a short - lived minor professional football league with teams based in the American South and Southwest . The first of several minor leagues with the same name , the 1934 was also one of the first involving teams not located in the American Midwest and East . While its membership was the cornerstone of American football in the southern U . S . ( with several having beaten National Football League teams on the gridiron ) , the AFL had only one season of competition and folded after cancelling competition in the 1935 season . Participating teams . Charlotte Bantams . Formed in 1932 and playing primarily teams based along the Atlantic Coast , the Bantams amassed a 10 - 3 record in 1933 . Dallas Rams . Founded in 1933 with the expressed purpose of joining the new AFL as a natural rival of teams in Oklahoma City and Houston , the Rams played only three games that year . Louisville Bourbons . Founded in 1931 , the Bourbons played primarily against opponents in the Midwest , including the Portsmouth Spartans of the NFL . Memphis Tigers . Formed in 1927 as " New Bry ’ s Hurricanes " and renamed in 1928 , the Tigers were the dominant football team of the South from 1929 to 1932 . In 1929 , Memphis defeated the Green Bay Packers 20 - 7 ( the Packers eventually won the 1929 NFL championship without losing a league game ) . St . Louis Blues . Formed by the league after the St . Louis Gunners rejected the league ' s overtures for membership . Sports promoter Bud Yates was credited with founding the team after being general manager for the 1926 - 27 St . Louis Blues independent team ( which lost only one game in its two - season existence ) . and founding crosstown rivals St . Louis Gunners ( in 1931 ) and St . Louis Veterans ( in 1932 ) . When the Gunners joined the NFL in November 1934 , the Blues moved to Kansas City . Tulsa Oilers . Formed in late 1933 as the Tulsa Drillers , the team played ( and lost ) only three games that season ( two against Oklahoma City , one against the St . Louis Gunners ) . Coached by Billy Boehm , the team featured former members of the Tulsa University football team . Teams who joined the league but were forced out . Oklahoma City Chiefs . Formed in 1932 , the Chiefs lost only one game in their inaugural year ( to Portsmouth ) and continued their success in 1933 as they staked their claim as being one of the two strongest minor league teams ( along with the St . Louis Gunners ) . Because their home stadium could seat only 2000 people , the league dropped the Chiefs when the team ’ s efforts to secure a " suitable " stadium . The team ceased to exist two months later . Houston . Having joined the league despite not having a team organization or player roster , Houston was dropped when Oklahoma City was given the boot . The team never came into existence . Origin of league . After the collapse of the first American Football League and the paring of ten teams from the NFL after the 1926 season , professional American football was concentrated in the American Midwest and Northeast . The Memphis Tigers developed into a strong independent football team , comparable to those based in Ohio and Pennsylvania . In 1929 , a Memphis team that was temporarily enhanced by the addition of Ken Strong and several other NFL players defeated the Green Bay Packers . The victory prompted Tigers owner S . A . Goodman to claim the " national pro championship . " Memphis was not seriously challenged by non - NFL teams in 1930 , but in 1931 , promoter Bud Yates founded the St . Louis Gunners with future Hall of Fame member Jimmy Conzelman as the team ’ s coach . After a respectable 5 - 2 - 1 record in 1931 ( playing all of its games at Public Schools Stadium in St . Louis ) , the Gunners changed coaches ( to Bullet Baker ) and played a more ambitious schedule in 1932 , playing the Tigers to one win , one loss , and one tie – a November 27 , 1932 , game between the two teams was billed as for the " independent pro championship " ended with a 0 - 0 score . The 1931 season saw the start of the Louisville Bantams , which played most of the games in its inaugural season against teams based in Ohio ( including the Ironton Tanks ) ; the following season saw the formation of the Charlotte Bantams ] ] and the Oklahoma City Chiefs . By 1933 , both Charlotte and Oklahoma City were not only able to compete toe - to - toe with Memphis and the St . Louis Gunners , but both dominated the Tigers in three out of four games that year . On November 14 , 1933 , Memphis Tigers owner S . A . Goodman , boasting that the Tigers have been playing " as good football as in the NFL " and that St . Louis and Oklahoma City " could win … in the NFL at any time , " announced plans for a new major football league , which he named the American Football League . In the three weeks after the announcement , the Gunners defeated NFL teams in successive games and a new team in Tulsa , the Drillers , came into being and played competitively against Oklahoma City and St . Louis , losing all three of their games . Formation . In 1933 , Goodman stated " We don ’ t want a Southern league , nor a secondary league . " Yet by the summer of 1934 , his new league was to have teams representing Memphis ( Tigers ) , St . Louis ( Gunners ) , Oklahoma City ( Chiefs ) , Tulsa ( the newly renamed Oilers ) , Charlotte ( Bantams ) , Louisville ( Bourbons ) , Dallas , and Houston . Even then , plans for the league had to be altered as neither Dallas nor Houston had organized teams at that point … and the Gunners did not want to join the embryonic league as they had aspirations for joining the NFL ( in fact , the team bought the NFL ’ s Cincinnati Reds franchise for $ 20 , 000 on August 8 , 1934 , but the sale was veto ed by the NFL team owners ) . In August , Oklahoma City was expelled from the league because their home stadium ( a minor league baseball park ) could hold only 2000 people in the grandstands ( the Chiefs would continue as an independent team for two more months before folding ) ; at the same time , Houston was dropped from the lineup as there was no progress in organizing a football team in time for the start of the season . On the other hand Dallas " was " successful in forming a new team , the Rams . Also in August , Bud Yates ( founder of the St . Louis Gunners in 1931 and the St . Louis Veterans in 1932 ) was enlisted to organize a third St . Louis team , this time called the St . Louis Blues , which featured former Gunners Dick Frahm and John Breidenstein . Competition and dissolution . By October 7 , 1934 , the day of the league ' s first games , the AFL settled on a double round robin schedule , with each team scheduled to play one road game and one home game against each of the other members of the league . Despite the league ' s intention , only Memphis and Charlotte managed to play the full ten games as weather forced the cancellation of several games . Final league standings – 1934 By late October , the Blues ' supremacy was virtually conceded as St . Louis was not only dominating each of its games but also outdrawing the Gunners , which had to cobble together a schedule after the rejection by the NFL and the reduction of availability of AFL members for scheduled football games . When the Gunners ’ purchase of the Cincinnati Reds was finally approved by the NFL , Blues ' ownership decided not to compete with the newest member of the National Football League and opted to move across the state of Missouri , to Kansas City , one - time home of the NFL ' s Kansas City Blues and Kansas City Cowboys . After the move , the former St . Louis Blues became the new Kansas City Blues . The St . Louis / Kansas City Blues ran roughshod through the league , with only a tie with Memphis marring its won - lost record with a late - season tie . On December 16 , 1934 , the Blues finally met the Gunners for the first ( and only ) time , with the NFL team prevailing 7 - 0 before it was disbanded due to unpaid tax debts ( a new St . Louis Gunners team would surface by later 1935 , again as an independent ) . Preparations for the 1935 season saw the Blues returning to St . Louis after the Gunners ' dissolution and Louisville playing exhibition games in September , but none of the other league members had bothered to assemble their squads , including the Tigers , which were sited in the league ' s home city , Memphis . S . A . Goodman , both the president of the AFL and the owner of the Tigers , announced on September 26 , 1935 , that due to " lateness in organizing " , the 1935 AFL season was cancelled , but the league would return in 1936 . St . Louis and Louisville played four games in front of diminishing crowds before folding ; the Memphis squad was tentatively put together by two longtime Tigers ( Red Clavette and Cliff Norvell ) and bankroll ed by Wilson Murrah . While the team managed to play three games ( scoring 100 points in the process ) , the writing was on the wall : the Tigers ( and any possibility of the AFL returning in 1936 ) winked out of existence . All - League teams . Despite the AFL ’ s existing for only one season , it had two All - League teams , one selected by Associated Press writers in the cities represented by the AFL teams and one selected by the coaches of the American Football League . AFL All - League team ( selected by coaches ) . FIRST TEAM SECOND TEAM