(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); 1960 1972 1976 1980 1995 2011 Oakland Team Formation A few months after the first AFL draft in 1959, the owners of the yet-unnamed Minneapolis franchise accepted an offer to join the established National Football League as an expansion team (now called the Minnesota Vikings) in 1961, sending the AFL scrambling for a replacement. At …