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This article details the history of the San Diego Chargers American football club. ==AFL era (1959–1969)== The San Diego Chargers were established in 1959 with seven other American Football League teams: the Denver Broncos, Dallas Texans, Oakland Raiders, New York Titans, Houston Oilers, Buffalo Bills, and Boston Patriots. Frank Leahy, former Notre Dame University football coach, was named the team's first general manager. Gerald Courtney of Hollywood won an all-expenses-paid trip to Mexico City and Acapulco for submitting "Chargers" in a name-the-team contest. In 1960, the Chargers began AFL play in Los Angeles; hotel heir Barron Hilton, the team's original owner and son of Hilton Hotels founder Conrad Hilton, unveiled the Chargers' uniforms which featured blue and gold with lightning bolts on the sides of the helmets and trousers, at a cocktail party at Hilton's Santa Monica residence. Players Jack Kemp and Ron Mix modeled the new uniforms. The Chargers spent only one season in L.A. before moving to San Diego in 1961. From 1961 to 1966 their home field in San Diego was Balboa Stadium in Balboa Park. As of August 1967 they moved to the newly constructed Qualcomm Stadium (then named San Diego Stadium). They played ten years in the AFL before the merging of the league into the older NFL. During that ten-year span, San Diego reached the playoffs five times and played for the AFL Championship four times. They won their only AFL title in 1963 when they beat the Boston Patriots 51–10 before 30,127 fans at Balboa Stadium in San Diego. Their only coach for the ten-year life of the AFL was Sid Gillman, former coach of the NFL's Los Angeles Rams, who originally signed a three-year contract as head coach. Gillman (87–57–6), who was later voted to the Hall of Fame, was widely recognized as a great offensive innovator. He also took on the dual role of coach and general manager after Frank Leahy resigned because of poor health. The Chargers, with star offensive players Lance Alworth, Paul Lowe, Keith Lincoln and John Hadl, struck fear into the hearts of defenders. The Chargers overcame a 20–7 deficit in the fourth quarter to defeat Dallas 21–20 before 17,724 persons in the L.A. Coliseum in the opening league game. A crowd of 9,928 in the L.A. Coliseum watched the Chargers top Denver 41–33 to clinch the AFL Western Division title. American Broadcasting Company (ABC) held the television rights and televised key games. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「History of the San Diego Chargers」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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