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| Date | December 26, 1965 | ||||||||||||||||||
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| Stadium | Balboa Stadium San Diego,California | ||||||||||||||||||
| MVP | Jack Kemp (QB, Buffalo)[1] | ||||||||||||||||||
| Attendance | 30,361 | ||||||||||||||||||
| TV in the United States | |||||||||||||||||||
| Network | NBC | ||||||||||||||||||
| Announcers | Curt Gowdy,Paul Christman, andCharlie Jones[2] | ||||||||||||||||||
| Radio in the United States | |||||||||||||||||||
| Network | NBC Radio | ||||||||||||||||||
| Announcers | Herb Carneal andGeorge Ratterman | ||||||||||||||||||
The1965 AFL Championship Game was theAmerican Football League's sixth championship game, played on December 26 atBalboa Stadium inSan Diego,California.[3][4][5]
It matched the Western Division championSan Diego Chargers (9–2–3) and the Eastern Division championBuffalo Bills (10–3–1) to decide theAmerican Football League (AFL) champion for the1965 season.
Thedefending champion Bills entered the game as 6½ point underdogs;[3] the Chargers had won the first regular season meeting on October 10 by a convincing 34–3 score,[6] and tied theThanksgiving rematch at twenty points each.[7][8]
In favorable 60 °F (16 °C) conditions on the day after Christmas,[3] the Bills shut out the Chargers and repeated as champions, scoring two touchdowns in the second quarter, one on a punt return. They added three field goals in the second half to win 23–0.[1][3] Of the ten AFL title games, this was the only shutout: the Chargers had advanced to five of the first six, but won only one, in1963.
Bills' quarterbackJack Kemp, the league's most valuable player, was named MVP of the game;[1] he andPaul Maguire were among the five ex-Chargers on the Bills' roster that were previously released by San Diego head coachSid Gillman.[9]
This was the last AFL Championship to end the season; theAFL–NFL mergeragreement was made the following June,[10][11] and thefirstSuper Bowl followed the1966 season.
| Quarter | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bills | 0 | 14 | 6 | 3 | 23 |
| Chargers | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
atBalboa Stadium,San Diego,California
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The AFL still had fivegame officials in1965; the NFL added a sixth officialthis season, the line judge. The AFL went to six officials in1966, and the seventh official, the side judge, was added in1978.
Referee Jim Barnhill died less than three months after this game; while officiating abasketball playoff game inWisconsin, he collapsed and died at age 45.[12]
| Statistics | Bills | Chargers |
|---|---|---|
| First downs | 23 | 12 |
| Rushing yards | 108 | 104 |
| Yards per carry | 3.0 | 3.8 |
| Passing yards | 167 | 164 |
| Sacked-Yards | 2–15 | 5–45 |
| Total yards | 260 | 223 |
| Fumbles-Lost | 1–0 | 1–0 |
| Turnovers | 1 | 2 |
| Penalties-Yards | 2–21 | 3–41 |
The winning Bills players were allocated $5,189 each, while the Chargers players received $3,447 each.[1] This was twice as much as theprevious year and about 70% of the players' shares for theNFL championship game.
Because of the smaller venue, the attendance was nearly 10,000 lower than1964, but the television money was increased withNBC.
This game marked the first time the AFL Championship Game was televised in color, and the last time that a final pro football championship was decided in December, within the same calendar year as regular season games (the1965 NFL Championship Game was played on January 2, 1966). Thefollowing season would conclude with the firstSuper Bowl played in January 1967.
This is the lastprofessional American football championship game to have been won by a team fromBuffalo, New York, as well as the last of anymajor league team from the city. Indeed, the fortunes of both teams would subsequently wane. The Bills would not appear in another championship game untilSuper Bowl XXV when the infamousWide Right occurred, and would also proceed to lose the next three Super Bowls. The Chargers meanwhile would not appear in another championship untilSuper Bowl XXIX, which they lost to the San Francisco 49ers, 49–26. San Diego and Buffalo currently have the longest and second-longest championship droughts respectively for any city that has at least two major sports franchises.[13]
32°43′N117°09′W / 32.72°N 117.15°W /32.72; -117.15
| Preceded by | Buffalo Bills American Football League Champions 1965 | Succeeded by |
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