You think of the Patriots and you probably see Tom Brady’s chin dimple or Bill Belichick in a cut-off hoodie. It’s a dynasty. It's six rings. It's dominance. But honestly, the beginning was way messier than the highlight reels suggest. If you're asking when were the New England Patriots founded, the technical answer is November 16, 1959.
That was the day.
But a date on a calendar doesn't tell you why it happened or how close it came to never happening at all. Billy Sullivan, a public relations executive with a massive personality and a relatively modest bank account, was the guy who pulled the trigger. He didn't just want a football team; he wanted to prove that Boston could support professional football after a string of failed attempts like the Yanks and the Bulldogs.
The AFL Gamble of 1959
The late fifties were a weird time for the gridiron. The NFL was the "big league," and they weren't exactly looking to share the sandbox. Lamar Hunt, a wealthy Texan who’d been rebuffed by the NFL, decided to just start his own league. He called it the American Football League (AFL). He needed owners. He needed "The Foolish Club," as they later called themselves.
Billy Sullivan was the eighth and final member of that club.
When the franchise was officially awarded to him in late '59, the team didn't even have a name. They didn't have a stadium. They certainly didn't have a logo with a revolutionary soldier hiking a football. They were just a legal entity on a piece of paper. It’s wild to think that a franchise now valued in the billions started because a PR guy convinced some local business interests to pony up enough cash to join a "rebel" league.
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What’s in a Name? (Hint: It Wasn't "New England")
Most people forget that for the first decade of their existence, they weren't the New England Patriots. They were the Boston Patriots.
After the team was founded in November '59, Sullivan held a contest to name the squad. This wasn't some corporate branding exercise with focus groups. He just asked the fans. On February 20, 1960, the "Patriots" name was selected. Why? Because Boston is the cradle of liberty. It made sense. Local sportswriters, including the legendary Phil Bissell, quickly got to work on the imagery. Bissell is actually the guy who sketched "Pat Patriot," that gritty-looking soldier over the ball, which became the team's identity for decades.
The "New England" part didn't come until 1971. The team had spent years bouncing around different stadiums—Fenway Park, Alumni Stadium, Harvard Stadium. They were basically nomads. When they finally built a place of their own in Foxborough (Schaefer Stadium), they rebranded to appeal to the whole region.
Briefly, and I mean very briefly, they almost became the Bay State Patriots. They realized the initials would be "B.S. Patriots." They changed it to New England before the first game was even played under the new moniker. Good call.
The First Snap and the Early Struggles
The founding year of 1959 led into their inaugural season in 1960. Their first-ever preseason game was against the Buffalo Bills. Their first regular-season game? A 13-10 loss to the Denver Broncos on September 9, 1960.
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It wasn't exactly a glamorous start.
The early years were defined by financial instability. Sullivan was "cash poor" compared to other owners. While the AFL eventually merged with the NFL in 1970—a move that basically saved the franchise—the Patriots were often the league's "other" team. They had talent, sure. Gino Cappelletti was a star. Nick Buoniconti was a beast on defense. But the infrastructure was crumbling.
Why the Founding Date Actually Matters Today
Understanding when were the New England Patriots founded gives you a perspective on the "Patriot Way" that most casual fans miss. This franchise spent forty years being the underdog. They were the team that almost moved to St. Louis. They were the team with the bathroom disasters at their old stadium.
When Robert Kraft bought the team in 1994, he wasn't just buying a sports team; he was rescuing a legacy that started with Billy Sullivan’s 1959 gamble. Kraft had been a season ticket holder since the early Foxborough days. He remembered the struggle.
Key Milestones in the Early Years:
- Nov 16, 1959: Franchise officially awarded to William H. Sullivan, Jr.
- April 1, 1960: Lou Saban is hired as the first head coach.
- Aug 14, 1960: First preseason win (against Dallas Texans).
- Sept 9, 1960: First regular season game at Boston University Field.
The Evolution of the Identity
The team has gone through several identity shifts since that 1959 founding. You had the "Pat Patriot" era, which lasted until 1992. Then came the "Flying Elvis" logo in 1993, which coincided with a shift toward a more modern, professionalized NFL.
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But the DNA of the team is still rooted in that AFL rebellion. The AFL was about high-scoring, flashy play. It was about challenging the status quo. Even though the Patriots eventually became the "Establishment" under Belichick, that early history of being the outsider has never quite left the building.
Misconceptions About the Patriots’ Origin
A lot of people think the Patriots were part of the original NFL. Nope. They were 100% an AFL creation. If the AFL-NFL merger hadn't happened, the Patriots might have ended up like the USFL teams of the 80s—gone and forgotten.
Another big one? That the team has always been in Foxborough. Honestly, the move to Foxborough in 1971 was seen as a massive risk at the time. It was "out in the sticks." People thought nobody would drive forty minutes south of Boston to watch football. Turns out, they were wrong.
How to Explore This History Yourself
If you're a die-hard fan or just a history nerd, don't just take my word for it. There are ways to actually feel this history.
First, go to the Patriots Hall of Fame at Patriot Place. It’s not your typical dusty museum. They have the original founding documents and artifacts from the 1960 season. You can see the evolution of the jersey from the simple red with white stripes to the complex navy and silver of today.
Second, look up the "Foolish Club." Understanding the other seven original AFL owners—guys like Lamar Hunt and Bud Adams—contextualizes why Billy Sullivan’s move in 1959 was so ballsy. They were taking on a monopoly.
Actionable Steps for the Curious Fan:
- Research the 1960 AFL Draft: See who the Patriots picked first (it was Ron Burton, a running back from Northwestern). It shows what the team valued on day one.
- Visit the Site of the First Game: Boston University’s Nickerson Field is still there. It looks a lot different now, but that’s where the pro football journey in New England truly kicked off.
- Watch AFL Highlights: Find archival footage of the 1963 AFL Championship game. The Patriots lost to the Chargers 51-10, but it was their first real "big game" moment.
The Patriots weren't born into greatness. They were born into a struggle for relevance in a crowded Boston sports market. Knowing that they were founded in 1959 as a scrappy, underfunded underdog makes the six Super Bowl banners hanging in Gillette Stadium today feel a whole lot more earned.