The team selected QB Greg Cook of the University of Cincinnati with its first draft pick (fifth overall), and Cook was an immediate sensation. He led the second-year club to a 3-0 start, including victories over AFL powerhouses Oakland and Kansas City. "If (Cook) stays with it, I've got myself another Otto Graham," Paul Brown said. But Cook suffered a shoulder injury in Cincinnati's Game 3 win over Kansas City, and though he returned to play later in the season, winning the AFL passing title and league Offensive Rookie of the Year honors, he never fully recovered from the injury. The Chillicothe, Ohio native would play in only one more game after '69, and likely more than any other Bengals player, he has inspired thoughts of "what might have been." Cook's average-yards-per-pass-attempt in '69 was 9.41, still a team record through 2020 and the oldest surviving mark in the franchise record book. Although the team faltered after Cook's injury, finishing 4-9-1, Brown was named AFL Coach of the Year, and LB Bill Bergey, the team's second-round draft pick, was named AFL Defensive Rookie of the Year. Local support for the Bengals grew steadily, and on Oct. 7, the club announced that the remainder of the home season at Nippert Stadium was sold out. On Nov. 9, the Bengals played the franchise's first game on an artificial surface, tying Houston 31-31 at the Astrodome. The club experienced a tragedy on the morning of Sept. 15, day of the season opener, when LB Frank Buncom of Southern California, a 29-year-old about to enter his eighth NFL season, was found dead at the team hotel, due to a blood clot that had reached a lung.
