a minority owner of the detroit lions, wilson got wind of lamar hunt's plans for a new league, the american football league, to challenge the nfl. he tried to put together a team in miami, but was turned down. his next choice was buffalo, where the afl's first choice of owner, pat mcgroder, had declined to start a team. in september 1959, wilson sent hunt a telegram with the words, "count me in with buffalo.” he named his new team the bills, after a previous team that had played in the all-america football conference from 1946 to 1949. on october 28, 1959 the buffalo bills officially became the seventh afl team. wilson made professional football a resounding success in a "small market", signing such stars as cookie gilchrist, jack kemp, and tom sestak and hall of famers billy shaw and o. j. simpson.