i'm impressed ... from an historical perspective (1)

3-time super bowl champion new england patriots ... foxborough, massachusetts ... gillette stadium ... patriot place ... a look back at times not as impressive as the present ... times which make the present so impressive

november 22, 1959 ... boston businessman billy sullivan was awarded an eighth and final franchise in the start-up american football league (afl) .... and the boston patriots were founded

one of eight teams in the renegade league's inaugural season back in 1960 ... the boston patriots played in the first afl regular season game on september 9th, 1960 ... the game was played before 21,597 fans at nickerson field ... formerly known as braves field ... the home field of boston braves baseball until they fled to milwaukee in 1953 ... the boston patriots lost that historic first afl game to the denver broncos, 13-10 ... in their first season, the boston patriots finished last in the division with a 5-9 record ... the patriots played 2 more seasons at nickerson field ... 1961 and 1962 ... finishing 2nd in their division both years ... with the same 9-4-1 record in each year

between 1963 and 1968, the boston patriots played their home football games at fenway park ... home of the boston red sox ... in 1963, the patriots finished 1st in their division with a 7-6-1 record ... in 1964, it was 2nd in division at 10-3-1 ... in 1965, the patriots sunk to 3rd in the division at 4-8-2 ... 1966 was an improvement, 2nd at 8-4-2 ... and then the lean years set in ... the final 2 years of football at fenway park ... 1967 and 1968 ... the patriots finished 5th and 4th in the division ... with 3-10-1 and 4-10 records

in 1969, harvard stadium in allston was home for boston patriots football ... in the horseshoe shaped, coliseum-like stadium ... the patriots finished 3rd in their division with a 4-10 record

1970 was a year of significant change for the boston patriots franchise ... including a 3rd home field in 3 years ... this time it was alumni stadium ... on the boston college campus ... 1970 was also the year of the nfl/afl merger ... making the patriots a national football league franchise ... on the field, the boston patriots suffered thru one of their worst seasons ... finishing 5th in the american football conference of the nlf ... with a dismal 2-12 record

from a historical perspective ... the first 11 years of the boston patriots patriots franchise under the ownership of billy sullivan (and his sons chuck and patrick) ... is pretty much summarized in 5 paragraphs ... during those times, the patriots were vagabonds ... gypsies of the afl turned nfl ... they had no permanent home ... they had no permanent practice facilities ... i wonder now where they would dress for practices ... how they would get to and from practices (car, bus or trolley) ... where they would workout ... those had to be very unsettling times for players of the team ... and i am sure the circumstances under which they practiced and played for 11 years had some influence on their less than excellent performances on sunday afternoons ... from 1960-70, the patriots compiled an unimpressive 65-80-9 won-loss-tied record