I recently visited Arrowhead Stadium with my family, home of the Lamar Hunt founded Kansas City Chiefs. They were hosting an event called Kingdom Kids Movie Night. It is one of many such events they put together free of charge for their young fans, and the kids had a blast. They got a chance to tour the locker room, play games they had set up on the field, and of course, watch a free movie.
As we walked around the stadium, I took the kids to an area in Arrowhead named the Hall of Honor. The HoH is a museum-like area that showcases the team’s history and has many interesting artifacts. Among them was a particular one that caught my attention.
I’ve been to Chiefs games before and walked through the HoH many times. With thousands of fans in the stadium, it’s hard to do much more than glance at the items on display. This time was different, and with the kids asking hundreds of questions I had to act like I knew what I was saying.
We reached a display case with a piece of paper that looked like a handwritten note. As I stated before I have been to Arrowhead many times and never noticed this fascinating item. After not being able to explain much to the kids besides the information on the case, I decided to look further into this note.
As a writer, coming up with a topic to write about is only the beginning. You have to do research on the subject and be able to format the information into an article. Sometimes that research collaborates with what you already know. Other times you learn something that gives you a whole new outlook. This time was one of the latter.
The note
The National Football League is easily the most popular professional sports league in the United States. It’s championship game, the Super Bowl, is one of the most-watched sporting event in the world. With a per-game average attendance of over 60,000, it’s safe to say it has come along way from its inception in 1920.
By the ’50s the NFL was becoming one of the most-watched sports leagues in the U.S., behind only Major League Baseball. Many wealthy business people were trying to get into the league, and the NFL turned them down. One of those men was Lamar Hunt.
Hunt, an Arkansas born and Texas raised man, was the son of oil tycoon Harold Lafayette Hunt Jr. He was a college football player who didn’t play much but loved the game of football. It was most likely the love for the game that birthed his interest in buying a professional football team.
In 1959, the Chicago Cardinals, a team owned by the Bidwill family, had become overshadowed by the more popular Chicago Bears. They wanted to relocate the team to St. Louis, Missouri but couldn’t agree with the NFL on a relocation fee. Being strapped for cash, they began fielding offers from would-be investors. One of those potential investors was Lamar Hunt.
Hunt planned to purchase the team and relocate it to Dallas, TX where Hunt grew up as a child. The Bidwill family had other plans. They wanted to keep a controlling interest in the team and didn’t want to move it to Dallas. Their hesitation was mostly due to another team’s failed attempt to move to Dallas in 1952. After five attempts, they couldn’t reach an agreement, and the Cardinals would later move to St. Louis.
Still not wanting to give up, Hunt joined up with a few of the other interested investors and made an offer to the NFL. They wanted to start an expansion franchise. The league turned them down, and Hunt’s continued efforts to own an NFL team came up fruitless once again.
After the last attempt, he sat onboard a flight back to Dallas, feeling disappointed and discouraged. He asked the flight attendant for some stationary. On that piece of paper, yes the one that caught my attention, he wrote down a business plan. The plan was to start a league of his own.
Lamar Hunt’s legacy
With a plan now in hand, Hunt approached Bud Adams, Bob Howsam, and Max Winter with his proposal. The four were previously connected by their interest to invest in the Cardinals and start the expansion team. Reaching out to others interested in professional football, the American Football League was born.
The history of the AFL is a long and complicated one deserving of an article of its own. My intentions are not to give an account of its formation, but more so the impact it had on the game we now love.
Hunt’s decision to not give up his desire to own a team gave us the Kansas City Chiefs. It has allowed us to enjoy watching NFL greats like Derrick Thomas, Bobby Bell, and Len Dawson. Now we have the opportunity to watch mesmerizing no-look passes from the league MVP Patrick Mahomes, thanks to Hunt.
Chiefs fans are not the only ones who should be thankful for Hunts refusal to give up on his dream. Without him, we wouldn’t have the New England Patriots and Tom Brady. New York Jets fans can boast of “Hollywood” Joe Namath in part for because of what Hunt did. Even the Dallas Cowboys would not exist if not for Hunt. After all, it was only to compete with the AFL Dallas Texans that “Americas Team” came about.
The contribution of this visionary extends way beyond football. He brought us Major League Soccer, the World Championship Tennis Circuit and even was one of the founding investors of the Chicago Bulls.
So hold your head up high Chiefs Kingdom. Don’t let people mock your team and the lack of success since 1969. Next time the fans of the Denver Broncos and Oakland Raiders try and rub Super Bowl trophies in your face…or next time the San Diego, sorry, Los Angeles Chargers fans tell you they are better…just remind them they only exist because of Lamar Hunt and the Kansas City Chiefs. All because of a man with a vision, a dream, and a handwritten note.
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