History of the Los Angeles Chargers
The Los Angeles Chargers are an NFL team with a history that began in 1960 as part of the American Football League. They played one season in Los Angeles before moving to San Diego in 1961, and they returned to Los Angeles in 2017.
The Chargers were created along with seven other AFL teams in 1959. They picked the name Chargers after a contest, and they wore blue and gold uniforms with lightning bolts on the helmets. Barron Hilton, the hotel heir, owned the team. Sid Gillman was the first head coach, though Frank Leahy had started the year as coach before health issues led Gillman to take on both coaching and general manager duties.
In their first season, the Chargers beat the Dallas Texans in their opener and finished 10–4, reaching the first AFL title game, which they lost to the Houston Oilers. They went on to win the AFL Championship in 1963 by defeating the Boston Patriots.
After the AFL merged with the NFL in 1970, the Chargers made one Super Bowl appearance, in 1994, but lost to the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl XXIX.
Stadiums and relocation: The team played in the Los Angeles Coliseum before moving to Balboa Stadium in San Diego in 1961 and later to San Diego Stadium (which was renamed Jack Murphy Stadium and then Qualcomm Stadium), where they stayed until 2017. In the mid-2010s, with realignment talks in Los Angeles, the Chargers explored relocation options and eventually reached a plan to share SoFi Stadium in Inglewood with the Rams while also maintaining a San Diego presence during the transition. The team announced in January 2017 that they would relocate to Los Angeles for the 2017 season, using StubHub Center in Carson as a temporary home until SoFi Stadium was ready.
Recent years and leadership changes: The Chargers reached the playoffs in 2018 and again in 2020, with quarterback Justin Herbert earning the Offensive Rookie of the Year award in 2020. Anthony Lynn was the head coach from 2017 through 2020. After the 2022 season, the team continued to rebuild under new leadership, and on December 15, 2023, head coach Brandon Staley and general manager Tom Telesco were fired. In January 2024, Jim Harbaugh was hired as the new head coach. The 2024 season began strong, going 2–0, and finished 11–6 with a wild-card playoff berth, but they were defeated by the Houston Texans in the first round.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 05:42 (CET).