The Rise and Fall of America's Most Electric Football Team: The San Diego Chargers

Thanks for watching all the way through. Subscribe below    / @fadedstandings   On 12 January 2016 the NFL owners passed a resolution in Houston. Its first section approved Stan Kroenke's Inglewood stadium on condition it be built so two teams could play there on an equal basis. Its second section approved the Chargers to relocate from San Diego to Los Angeles and granted them an option on the second place in that building, expiring on 15 January 2017. One thing could extend it: a referendum approving public financing for a San Diego stadium, passed before 15 November 2016, after which a league committee may extend the option by one year. On 8 November the city's hotel tax measure got 43.6 percent and needed two thirds. The vote did not move the club; it removed the only thing in the resolution that could have paused the clock. On 12 January 2017 Dean Spanos announced the move. There was no new relocation vote, because the relocation had already been approved a year earlier. The franchise was awarded to a thirty-one-year-old hotel executive, Barron Hilton, in August 1959, and played its first season in 1960 in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in front of crowds that fell under ten thousand. Hilton moved it to San Diego in late January 1961. Balboa Stadium was expanded to thirty-four thousand seats, the first regular season game there was played on 17 September 1961, and at the end of 1963 the Chargers were champions of the American Football League. They have not won another league championship since. San Diego voters approved twenty-seven million dollars in bonds in November 1965, and the Mission Valley stadium opened on 20 August 1967. Don Coryell arrived in 1978. The Chargers led the league in passing yards six seasons in a row, a record, and Dan Fouts broke his own league record for passing yards in 1979, 1980 and 1981. On 2 January 1982 at the Orange Bowl, Kellen Winslow caught thirteen passes, blocked a field goal and was carried off the field by Eric Sievers and Billy Shields after a 41-38 overtime win the Hall of Fame later called the game of the decade. Eight days later the Chargers lost the conference championship in Cincinnati, 27-7, in a wind chill reported at fifty-nine below. Bobby Ross and Junior Seau took them back. On 15 January 1995 in Pittsburgh, Dennis Gibson knocked away a fourth-down pass at the three-yard line and San Diego won 17-13, its only trip to the Super Bowl, lost two weeks later to San Francisco, 49-26. The stadium was renamed for Jack Murphy in January 1981 and took the Qualcomm name in 1997. In 2006 the Chargers went 14-2 and LaDainian Tomlinson scored thirty-one touchdowns and was named the league's most valuable player. On 1 January 2017 the Chargers played their last game in San Diego, losing 37-27 to the Kansas City Chiefs in front of 54,915 people. During a break in the fourth quarter the public address system played "The Last Time." Eleven days later Dean Spanos released his letter. The franchise still exists, as the Los Angeles Chargers. It played three seasons in Carson and has played in Inglewood since 2020, as the second team in the building the resolution described. The stadium in Mission Valley was torn down between December 2020 and March 2021. The resolution set the option to expire on 15 January 2017; the league later extended that deadline to 17 January. The Chargers announced their move on 12 January. The November 2016 ballot measure received 43.6 percent of the vote and needed two thirds; the resolution's referendum clause required a financing referendum approved before 15 November 2016. The resolution text cited here is the version published by The Press-Enterprise; sections 1 and 2 are cited. Built from the text of the league resolution, election returns, contemporary wire copy, box scores and club records. Sources NFL Resolution G-2A, 12 January 2016, as published by The Press-Enterprise, sections 1 and 2 Associated Press, on the owners' vote in Houston, 12-13 January 2016 Sports Illustrated, on the secret ballots and the compromise in Houston, January 2016 Ballotpedia and Voice of San Diego, on the November 2016 hotel tax measure Los Angeles Times, on the Chargers' remaining option, 11 January 2017 NBC 7 San Diego, on the last game at Qualcomm Stadium, 1 January 2017 Associated Press, on the firing of Mike McCoy and the end of the season, January 2017 CBS 8 San Diego, on Roger Goodell's meeting with Mayor Kevin Faulconer, 13 December 2016 KPBS, on Dean Spanos's statements after the election, 9 November 2016 Pro Football Hall of Fame, on Kellen Winslow and the 1981 playoff game in Miami Washington Post, on Winslow and the Orange Bowl game Chargers.com, franchise historical timeline Pro-Football-Reference, box scores and attendance