 The forerunners to the Canadian Football League would also play at least one game in Buffalo in 1951.When Lamar Hunt announced the formation of the American Football League in the summer of 1959, Buffalo was one of the target cities Hunt sought.His first choice of owner, however, turned him down; Pat McGroder (then a liquor store owner and sports liaison with the city of Buffalo) was still hopeful that the threat of the AFL would prompt the NFL to come back to Buffalo to try to stop the AFL from gaining a foothold there (as the NFL would do with teams in Minnesota, Dallas, St. Louis and later Atlanta).