The glorious Atlanta Falcons in the 60s

The rise of the Falcons

“Doesn’t every adult male in America want to own his own football team?”. These were the words of Rankin M. Smith Sr. on the 30th of June, 1965, announcing the coming of the first NFL football team in the south-east of the United States. The team would be located in the city of Atlanta, Georgia, and would be the first major professional sports team in the city. Smith, a young insurance company kingpin, was granted ownership of the team by NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle, and had played a giant part in getting the team to Atlanta. By the time Smith got back to his office 24 hours later, he had already received over a 1,000 phone calls, all asking for tickets. By Christmas Eve the same year, 45,000 season tickets had been sold, which was an NFL record for a new team by the time.

The birth of the franchise however wasn’t exactly smooth. After the $18 million Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium was finished building, Atlantans felt the time was ripe to start pursuing professional football. Different groups, all acting independently, had been promoting in the preseason and had applied for franchises in both the AFL and the NFL. One group even reported that it had deposited a large amount of money for a team in the AFL. Behind the scenes, a deal was worked out and the businessmen were awarded the rights to an AFL franchise, contingent upon acquiring exclusive stadium rights from city officials. Commissioner Rozelle headed on the next plane down to Atlanta after hearing the news to protect the NFL’s claim on the city of Atlanta. In the end, the city was forced to decide between either leagues. Rozelle’s negations in the end took a grand total of five minutes, and Smith received the rights for the team for a total of $8,3 million dollars. This lead up to the memorable date of June 30th, when the decision was made public.

After the storm calmed down, a contest was held to decide which name would be used for the franchise. While the name was submitted 41 times, winner of the contest was a school teacher from the nearby town of Griffin, Miss Julia Elliott, reasoning that “the falcon is proud and dignified, with great courage and fight. It never drops prey. It is deadly and has a great sporting tradition.” As such, this lead to the birth of the Atlanta Falcons, a name that hasn’t changed to this day.

Collecting a flock

To start a team, you need players (duh). The first two players to sign with the Falcons were Cardinals halfback Bob Paremore and Bears split end Gary Barnes, although only Barnes actually made it to the final roster, becoming the first player to effectively sign and play for the Falcons. In the 1965 draft, the Falcons would get an additional pick in the first 5 (out of a whopping 20) rounds, leading to 25 picks. The first draft pick by the Falcons (and thus, the first in this draft), was Outland Trophy winning lineback Tommy Nobis from the University of Texas. Despite the fact that he was also drafted by the Houston Oilers (during the last days of the AFL), Nobis signed with the Falcons on December 14. The other first round pick was Quarterback Randy Johnson, who would be the starting QB for the next three seasons.

After a horrible expansion draft (in which the Falcons were able to pick selected three players of each franchise, but only managed to get a proper hit with RB Junior Coffey and kick returner Ron Smith), free agency and the odd trades, the Falcons ended up with around 130 players, including 66 rookies, before opening training camp. In order to coach this team, 39 year old Norb Hecker was appointed by Smith as the first Head Coach for Atlanta. Hecker had been part of Vince Lombardi’s staff at the Packers for seven years, a time during which GB won three world titles and four conference titles. Lombardi himself was actually initially pursued as the first Atlanta coach, but after he refused, he was asked for recommendations. While Lombardi did not recommend Hecker, Rankin Smith, apparently at the time deluded in a game of psychological warfare (perhaps mostly with himself), thought Lombardi was trying to pull one over on him and decided to hire Decker after all.

The initiation ritual (1966)

The first ever playing time the Dirty Birds ever saw was a pre-season game against the Philadelphia Eagles in Atlanta. The game ended in a whopping 9-7 Eagles win. A uhm positive omen was the moment when kicker Wade Traynham completely whiffed the ball on the kickoff, a moment that would signify the first few years of the franchise (now you wish GIFs were a thing back in the days, don’t you?). Till this day, Trayham claims the story is different (yet not less embarrassing), but more on that later. Later in the preseason, the first ever win was registered in a 24-17 win over the San Francisco 49ers.

September 11 of 1966, the spotlights were really on Atlanta in its first ever official game in the NFL, when the Los Angeles Rams came to visit. Because of the odd number of teams in the league, the Falcons had to play a “swing schedule”, meaning that they would play every other team once. The Rams were the second worst team in the league the year before with a 4-10 record, but looked to be on the up. It wasn’t pretty. Before half time, the Rams took a 16-0 lead after a Jack Snow touchdown and 3 field goals. Then, just before the whistle for tea and cookies, another piece of Falcons history happened. “Franchise” QB Randy Johnson threw for 53 yards to now wide receiver Gary Barnes for the first touchdown ever in Falcons history. A Johnson 3 yard rushing touchdown managed to get the game close again, but another Bruce Gossett field goal decided the game at 19-14. The Falcons, like so many others lost their first game in history.

For the first ever away game, the Falcons had to travel to Philly, which beat them earlier on in the pre-season. Remember Wade Traynham? To this day, his famous botched kick-off wasn’t in the pre-season, but in this very game. And he claims he didn’t miss the ball, but he slipped and got a little piece of the ball, which ended up being a perfect on-side kick. What he didn’t mention is that he strained a thigh muscle on the slide, and would be out for the rest of the season. Whichever story is the right one, I felt like both were worthy of being mentioned. The Falcons lost the game 10-23.

Over the first 9 weeks, Atlanta had a record of 0-9 and a combined score of 102-318. One could say it wasn’t the most successful start a franchise could wish for. But there was optimism. The birds had to go to Yankee stadium to go up against the New York Giants, the only team with a worse defensive record and who had only won a single game this season. After taking an early lead, they wouldn’t give it away and took home a 27-16 win, scoring 4 touchdowns (and missing a PAT). 1-9, the Falcons were on the score sheet! This kickstarted the team and lead to a 3-2 finish the last five games, also beating the Vikings and St. Louis Cardinals (effectively ending their play-off hopes), finishing the season 3-11 and second to last in the league. While it wasn’t a pretty season, this also meant the Falcons were the first expansion team ever to not finish last in the league (thanks Giants!). First round draft pick LB Tommy Nobis would be named NFL rookie of the year and was voted to the pro bowl.

Notable draft picks

• LB Tommy Nobis, 5 time Pro Bowler, has his #60 retired

• DB Ken Reaves, 1 time Pro Bowler

Defeathering (1967)

The ’67 season wouldn’t be much better. In fact, it would get worse. Way worse. In the new Coastal division (which somehow consisted of the LA Rams, Baltimore Colts, San Francisco 49ers and Atlanta Falcons, apparently because they’re close to each other. Apparently), the Falcons finished the season 1-12-1, only recording a victory over the Vikings in week 7. The worst moment was when they lost to expansion team and future rivals New Orleans Saints 24-27 by a late Saints TD, a historic loss in this rivalry. QB Randy Johnson threw for 10 TDs and 21 INTs, a decline compared to the 12 TDs he threw the season before that. LB Tommy Nobis was once again the only Falcon voted to the pro bowl, his second appearance.

Notable draft picks

• None. Really, it was a horrible draft. No one ever played for the Falcons. Only three players actually made the final roster of any NFL team, of which only DE Leo Carroll was a starter for a single year and played in 27 games. The other two players (Jimmy Jordan and Bobby Moten) combined for a grand total of 4 games played.

Continued in the comments