5. Dallas Texans, 1962, AFL Champions
Its likely that nearly everyone reading this article knows that prior to moving to Kansas City before the 1963 season, Lamar Hunt’s franchise started in Dallas as the Texans.
Prior to the move, the 1962 squad established the Texans as the best team in the American Football League. This was pre-merger and pre-Super Bowl, as the AFL Championship represents this franchise’s second league championship that no one ever talks about.
Len Dawson (again) led this team, posting over 2,700 yards passing and 29 touchdowns in his ’62 campaign. A very young Chris Burford led the team with 645 yards receiving and 12 touchdowns. Running back Abner Hayes became the franchise’s first 1,000 yard rusher and ran for 13 touchdowns in 14 games. In total, the team had 2,400 yards of rushing.
The defense, though, was still the star of the show. The team posted an incredible 32 interceptions in 14 games that year, and had five players with four or more on the season. Young players E.J. Holub and Johnny Robinson started building the foundation for a defense that would dominate teams in the AFL and NFL for the next decade.