Most AFL fans understand that Minnesota was originally scheduled to have an AFL team when the league began play in 1960.  Through a series of backroom dealings, the Minnesota ownership group backed out at the last minute, after being promised an NFL expansion franchise.  This news was brought to the AFL group by New York Titans owner, Harry Wismer, who announced to the crowd, “Boys, it looks like it’s the Last Supper.”  In classic dramatic Wismer fashion, he proceeded to call Max Winter, head of the Minnesota syndicate, “Judas,” during a series of heated exchanges.

The situation caused immediate problems for the AFL, but all worked out in the end, as a group from Oakland stepped in to fill the void left by Minnesota, and thus were born the Raiders.  The legendary Sid Hartman, who typed his first story for the Minneapolis Daily Times in 1945, recalled the situation, and his role in it, in a recent Minneapolis Star Tribune column.

VIKINGS, RAIDERS SHARE A LINK TO NFL HISTORY