1947 AAFC season

The 1947 AAFC season was the second season of the All-America Football Conference. The league included eight teams, broken up into Eastern and Western divisions, which played a 14-game official schedule, culminating in a league championship game.

After the end of the previous season, the Miami Seahawks had accrued $350,000 dollars in debt, prompting owner Harvey Hester to declare bankruptcy and the AAFC to shut down the team. They would be replaced in the Eastern division by the Baltimore Colts.[1] The Buffalo Bisons chose to rename their franchise, holding a contest to determine the new name. The winner requested the new name to be the Buffalo Bills, named after "Buffalo Bill" Cody.[2]

Draft
Further information: 1947 AAFC Draft

The league's first collegiate draft was held on December 20–21, 1946 in Cleveland, Ohio. Ernie Case was the first overall selection.

Regular season

Week One

The 1947 regular season of the All-America Football Conference kicked off on Friday, August 29 with a game between the Los Angeles Dons and the Chicago Rockets.[3] The game was attended by 41,812 people,[3] only about 70% of that of last season.[4] Former Washington Redskins coach Dudley DeGroot was able to pull off a victory against the Rockets with a score of 24–21.[3]

The week continued with two games on Sunday, August 31, with the San Francisco 49ers beating the Brooklyn Dodgers 23–7, in front of 31,874 people at Kezar Stadium,[5] and the Buffalo Bills beating the New York Yankees 28–24, in front of 32,385 people.[6]

1947 AAFC final standings

W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, Pct. = Winning Percentage
PF = Points Scored For, PA = Point Scored Against

Western Division
TeamWLTPct.PFPA
Cleveland Browns 1211.923410185
San Francisco 49ers 842.667327264
Los Angeles Dons 770.500328256
Chicago Rockets 1130.071263425
Eastern Division
TeamWLTPct.PFPA
New York Yankees 1121.846378239
Buffalo Bills 842.667320288
Brooklyn Dodgers 3101.231181340
Baltimore Colts 2111.154167377

Championship game

Further information: 1947 Cleveland Browns season § AAFC championship game

AAFC Championship: Cleveland 14, New York 3 (December 14 @ New York)

Footnotes

  1. Craig R. Coenen, From Sandlots to the Super Bowl: the National Football League, 1920-1967. University of Tennessee Press, 2005; pp. 126.
  2. Important dates in Bills history: How the Bills got their name
  3. "Los Angeles Dons at Chicago Rockets - August 29th, 1947". pro-football-reference.com. Retrieved March 23, 2019.
  4. "Miami Seahawks at Cleveland Browns - September 6th, 1946". pro-football-reference.com. Retrieved March 23, 2019.
  5. "Brooklyn Dodgers at San Francisco 49ers - August 31st, 1947". pro-football-reference.com. Retrieved March 23, 2019.
  6. "New York Yankees at Buffalo Bills - August 31st, 1947". pro-football-reference.com. Retrieved March 23, 2019.
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