In the weeks leading up to training camp, we will take a look back at a few of the most pivotal seasons in Bengals history. Let’s kick things off with the inaugural season, 1968.
Season Summary
The Bengals became the 10th team in the American Football League in 1968. The planning for the franchise actually began three years earlier, when Paul Brown met with Ohio governor Jim Rhodes. A year later, Cincinnati city council approved the construction of Riverfront Stadium, set to be complete in 1970. They played their first two seasons at Nippert Stadium on the University of Cincinnati campus while the downtown stadium was being constructed.
Brown returned to the sidelines as head coach of the new team, named the Bengals in recognition of previous Cincinnati pro football franchises with the same name in the 1930s and 1940s. He had previously spent 17 seasons as the head coach of the Browns and would spend eight years as head coach of the new Bengals.
The AFL allocation draft awarded the Bengals 40 players, and Cincinnati selected C Bob Johnson with its first pick in the college draft. Johnson would play 12 seasons with the Bengals and be selected to the AFL All-Star game in 1968. The University of Tennessee product became the first Bengal to have his No. 54 jersey retired, and he was the first ever Ruler of the Jungle ahead of the Bengals home opener against the Minnesota Vikings in 2021.
“My father felt since it was the first pick it had to be someone with character,” Bengals president Mike Brown told Bengals.com in a 2016 story. “Bob was a very solid player. During his time here he was always one of the leaders of the team… The other players listened to him because they respected his intelligence, the way he lived his life, the way he practiced and comported himself around the team.”
Cincinnati won its first two games in Nippert Stadium against Denver and Buffalo. The team’s first win in franchise history, Cincinnati took down the Broncos, 24-10, on Sept. 15.