Chiefs Owner Lamar Hunt Passes Away (1932-2006)
- Thread starter scottsp
- Start date
THUMPER
Papa
- Messages
- 9,522
- Reaction score
- 61
Hunt ranks up there with George Halas, Pete Rozelle, Paul Brown, and Tex Schramm as the most influential figures on the game IMO.
I was surprised that he was "only" 74, I thought he was a lot older than that, I guess he started young, 28 when he helped found the AFL in 1960.
I was surprised that he was "only" 74, I thought he was a lot older than that, I guess he started young, 28 when he helped found the AFL in 1960.
Yeagermeister
Well-Known Member
- Messages
- 47,629
- Reaction score
- 117
Hostile;1232249 said:
I have no doubt Tex was one of the first too great him.
PosterChild
New Member
- Messages
- 2,028
- Reaction score
- 0
Adding my condolences to to the Hunt family. Those of us who strive towards decency and humanitarianism should look to him as a role model.
Cajuncowboy
Preacher From The Black Lagoon
- Messages
- 27,499
- Reaction score
- 81
Thank you Mr. Hunt for all you did to make this the greatest game on Earth. Enjoy your great seat.
Archie F. Swin
New Member
- Messages
- 39
- Reaction score
- 0
Though the Chiefs were a Kansas City Team, Dallas was always Hunt's HQ. I've been a Chiefs fan for nearly 20 years, but it wasn't until December 11th, 2005 that I saw my first Chiefs game in the regular season, when they played the Cowboys in Texas Stadium. That in itself was special, but when Jerry Jones took this moment to honor Lamar Hunt, it solidified my respect for Mr. Jones and the Dallas Cowboys organization. I will cherish that moment forever. It was also my first (and possibly only) visit to Texas Stadium. For my own selfish reasons I wish the Cowboys and Chiefs played more frequently.
Thank you Mr. Jones, and thanks "Games"
EDIT
As a sidenote: Lamar was rumored to have said he always looked foreward to the Chiefs playing the 'Boys because its the only game he could drive (or be driven) to.
Thank you Mr. Jones, and thanks "Games"EDIT
As a sidenote: Lamar was rumored to have said he always looked foreward to the Chiefs playing the 'Boys because its the only game he could drive (or be driven) to.
Pottsville Maroons
Active Member
- Messages
- 718
- Reaction score
- 25
My condolences to the family and appreciation for all he has done for this great sport.
Big Country
Rolling Thunder
- Messages
- 3,761
- Reaction score
- 40
God be with the Hunt family...
Rest in peace.
Rest in peace.
ABQCOWBOY
Regular Joe....
- Messages
- 58,929
- Reaction score
- 27,716
I would add Al Davis to that list as well but certainly Lamar Hunt was a cornerstone for the Modern NFL.
A Giant of the game is what I believe best describes these men. Hunt would be amoung that group.
NFL is a better product because of him but worse for his departure.
RIP Lamar Hunt.
A Giant of the game is what I believe best describes these men. Hunt would be amoung that group.
NFL is a better product because of him but worse for his departure.
RIP Lamar Hunt.
Hostile
The Duke
- Messages
- 119,565
- Reaction score
- 4,544
I doubt many of the younger generation remember just how vital to the NFL this man was. Here are some thoughts expressed about him.
Updated: Dec. 14, 2006, 9:55 AM ET
Thoughts and reactions on Lamar Hunt
ESPN.com news services
Reaction to the death of Kansas City Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt Wednesday night at the age of 74:
"I would like so much for the grandchildren to know what a truly kind and good man their grandfather was. He loved the Lord in his very quiet way and had such integrity and strength of character in all the things he has done. I hope that they will carry those memories of him with them because those qualities are what has made him such a beloved person."
"He wanted people to love the sports like he did. He loved sports so much, he was so passionate about them and he wanted others to share the joy."
-- Norma Hunt, Lamar Hunt's wife.
"He saw things and understood things that would be good for the game many, many years ahead of other people."
-- Clark Hunt, his son.
"He was a visionary, he was clever, he was creative, he was stubborn, he was optimistic, he was stubbornly optimistic, he looked at things for the long haul."
-- Sharron Hunt Munson, his daughter.
"It was more about providing people with opportunities, letting people display their talents and gifts and sports is really where that manifested itself."
-- Lamar Hunt Jr., his son.
"He didn't miss anything. If it came to counting parking spots in parking lots, he was out there doing it all himself."
-- Dan Hunt, his son.
"I accused him of being in the entertainment business, but to him it was sports and it was a game. His high school friends that named him 'games' correctly named him."
-- William Herbert Hunt, his brother.
"To know him you loved him. Even if you were on the opposite side, you loved him."
-- Caroline Rose Hunt, his sister.
"His vision transformed pro football and helped turn a regional sport into a national passion. Lamar created a model franchise in the Kansas City Chiefs, but he was always equally devoted to the best interests of the league and the game."
-- NFL commissioner Roger Goodell.
"Lamar Hunt's a pioneer and a pillar of the National Football League. ... There aren't enough words to accurately describe who Lamar Hunt was and what he has meant to the NFL and to Kansas City. For the Chiefs, he was our Founder. ... To Kansas City, he's more than just the owner of a professional franchise. He's committed himself there with other businesses such as Hunt Midwest Enterprises, creating thousands of jobs throughout the Kansas City community. He's been one of the most philanthropic people I've ever been involved with."
-- Carl Peterson, president, Kansas City Chiefs.
"He lived his whole life to make a difference, not just to make a living. We can learn something from that. He's very humble, maybe the most humble I've ever been around. In today's world, that's something that you marvel at. You talk about a man who's profession has been football and he has been a great sportsman. Bigger than that, he's always made decisions for this football organization where the league came first. If it was good for the league, Lamar Hunt was always first in line."
-- Herm Edwards, head coach, Kansas City Chiefs.
"All the times that Lamar and I were together in 47 years there was never one day that I felt that I was working for Lamar. He always made me feel I was working with him."
-- Jack Steadman, vice chairman of the board, Kansas City Chiefs.
"He was one of the most considerate, one of the most thoughtful and one of the most visionary people you could ever deal with."
-- Paul Tagliabue, NFL commissioner, 1989-2006.
"When you walked in a room and you saw him and saw he was a part of something, you knew it was something that was branded with integrity and solid and something you could stand behind."
-- Robert Kraft, owner, New England Patriots.
"He was a founder. He was the energy, really, that put together half of the league, and then he was the key person in merging the two leagues together. You'd be hard-pressed to find anybody that's made a bigger contribution [to the NFL] than Lamar Hunt."
-- Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.
"He was not one to flaunt it, he just did it."
-- K.S. "Bud" Adams Jr., founder and owner, Tennessee Titans.
"Lamar Hunt had a dream and, the thing is, we had dreams, too. Just imagine the number of people that he has touched because he said, 'I'm going after this dream.'"
-- Hall of Fame QB Len Dawson.
"Lamar Hunt went to the NFL and he said, 'I want to buy a NFL team,' or 'I want to put up money to create a team,' and they said, 'no.' That just tickles me to death. [Lamar] said, 'Well, if you don't want to give me a team, I'll just go start my own league.'"
-- Hall of Fame WR Don Maynard.
"He was the man who invented the American Football League and coined the term Super Bowl, but when Lamar was talking about soccer there was that glint in his eye. It's just something very special and when the books are written, the book on American soccer is going to have chapters on Lamar Hunt and what he did both in the past and the present for the game here."
-- Don Garber, Major League Soccer commissioner.
"He was so instrumental in making tennis what it is today. He just knew the game hadn't been tapped in bringing sponsors in and creating it as a business and not just a game."
-- Rod Laver, tennis champion.
"If Lamar had done for sports in Great Britain what he has done for them here he would have been knighted by the queen."
-- Kenny Cooper, former Dallas Tornados goalie, North American Soccer League.
"I think people need to be aware of what he brought to the sport of tennis: the passion he brought, the love of the game. He was someone who really gave these players an opportunity to go out and make a great living. He cared about the sport. I was lucky that I came at the time where it was just starting to explode and there were a lot of great personalities in the sport yet, at the same time, you had at least a sense of appreciation for what a man like Lamar Hunt was laying on the line."
-- John McEnroe, tennis champion.
"You sort of had this picture of this extremely wealthy Texan who was going to come on big and strong and be really overbearing, but Lamar was just exactly the opposite."
-- John Newcombe, tennis champion.
"There was nobody like him. There was nobody like him."
-- Marty Schottenheimer, Kansas City Chiefs head coach, 1989-98; Current San Diego Chargers head coach.
Updated: Dec. 14, 2006, 9:55 AM ET
Thoughts and reactions on Lamar Hunt
ESPN.com news services
Reaction to the death of Kansas City Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt Wednesday night at the age of 74:
"I would like so much for the grandchildren to know what a truly kind and good man their grandfather was. He loved the Lord in his very quiet way and had such integrity and strength of character in all the things he has done. I hope that they will carry those memories of him with them because those qualities are what has made him such a beloved person."
"He wanted people to love the sports like he did. He loved sports so much, he was so passionate about them and he wanted others to share the joy."
-- Norma Hunt, Lamar Hunt's wife.
"He saw things and understood things that would be good for the game many, many years ahead of other people."
-- Clark Hunt, his son.
"He was a visionary, he was clever, he was creative, he was stubborn, he was optimistic, he was stubbornly optimistic, he looked at things for the long haul."
-- Sharron Hunt Munson, his daughter.
"It was more about providing people with opportunities, letting people display their talents and gifts and sports is really where that manifested itself."
-- Lamar Hunt Jr., his son.
"He didn't miss anything. If it came to counting parking spots in parking lots, he was out there doing it all himself."
-- Dan Hunt, his son.
"I accused him of being in the entertainment business, but to him it was sports and it was a game. His high school friends that named him 'games' correctly named him."
-- William Herbert Hunt, his brother.
"To know him you loved him. Even if you were on the opposite side, you loved him."
-- Caroline Rose Hunt, his sister.
"His vision transformed pro football and helped turn a regional sport into a national passion. Lamar created a model franchise in the Kansas City Chiefs, but he was always equally devoted to the best interests of the league and the game."
-- NFL commissioner Roger Goodell.
"Lamar Hunt's a pioneer and a pillar of the National Football League. ... There aren't enough words to accurately describe who Lamar Hunt was and what he has meant to the NFL and to Kansas City. For the Chiefs, he was our Founder. ... To Kansas City, he's more than just the owner of a professional franchise. He's committed himself there with other businesses such as Hunt Midwest Enterprises, creating thousands of jobs throughout the Kansas City community. He's been one of the most philanthropic people I've ever been involved with."
-- Carl Peterson, president, Kansas City Chiefs.
"He lived his whole life to make a difference, not just to make a living. We can learn something from that. He's very humble, maybe the most humble I've ever been around. In today's world, that's something that you marvel at. You talk about a man who's profession has been football and he has been a great sportsman. Bigger than that, he's always made decisions for this football organization where the league came first. If it was good for the league, Lamar Hunt was always first in line."
-- Herm Edwards, head coach, Kansas City Chiefs.
"All the times that Lamar and I were together in 47 years there was never one day that I felt that I was working for Lamar. He always made me feel I was working with him."
-- Jack Steadman, vice chairman of the board, Kansas City Chiefs.
"He was one of the most considerate, one of the most thoughtful and one of the most visionary people you could ever deal with."
-- Paul Tagliabue, NFL commissioner, 1989-2006.
"When you walked in a room and you saw him and saw he was a part of something, you knew it was something that was branded with integrity and solid and something you could stand behind."
-- Robert Kraft, owner, New England Patriots.
"He was a founder. He was the energy, really, that put together half of the league, and then he was the key person in merging the two leagues together. You'd be hard-pressed to find anybody that's made a bigger contribution [to the NFL] than Lamar Hunt."
-- Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.
"He was not one to flaunt it, he just did it."
-- K.S. "Bud" Adams Jr., founder and owner, Tennessee Titans.
"Lamar Hunt had a dream and, the thing is, we had dreams, too. Just imagine the number of people that he has touched because he said, 'I'm going after this dream.'"
-- Hall of Fame QB Len Dawson.
"Lamar Hunt went to the NFL and he said, 'I want to buy a NFL team,' or 'I want to put up money to create a team,' and they said, 'no.' That just tickles me to death. [Lamar] said, 'Well, if you don't want to give me a team, I'll just go start my own league.'"
-- Hall of Fame WR Don Maynard.
"He was the man who invented the American Football League and coined the term Super Bowl, but when Lamar was talking about soccer there was that glint in his eye. It's just something very special and when the books are written, the book on American soccer is going to have chapters on Lamar Hunt and what he did both in the past and the present for the game here."
-- Don Garber, Major League Soccer commissioner.
"He was so instrumental in making tennis what it is today. He just knew the game hadn't been tapped in bringing sponsors in and creating it as a business and not just a game."
-- Rod Laver, tennis champion.
"If Lamar had done for sports in Great Britain what he has done for them here he would have been knighted by the queen."
-- Kenny Cooper, former Dallas Tornados goalie, North American Soccer League.
"I think people need to be aware of what he brought to the sport of tennis: the passion he brought, the love of the game. He was someone who really gave these players an opportunity to go out and make a great living. He cared about the sport. I was lucky that I came at the time where it was just starting to explode and there were a lot of great personalities in the sport yet, at the same time, you had at least a sense of appreciation for what a man like Lamar Hunt was laying on the line."
-- John McEnroe, tennis champion.
"You sort of had this picture of this extremely wealthy Texan who was going to come on big and strong and be really overbearing, but Lamar was just exactly the opposite."
-- John Newcombe, tennis champion.
"There was nobody like him. There was nobody like him."
-- Marty Schottenheimer, Kansas City Chiefs head coach, 1989-98; Current San Diego Chargers head coach.
Hostile
The Duke
- Messages
- 119,565
- Reaction score
- 4,544
Updated: Dec. 14, 2006, 9:55 AM ET
Humble Hunt never afraid to think big
By Frank Luksa
Special to ESPN.com
Among the large footprints that dot the NFL landscape is a Gulliver-size set that left a historic trail from Dallas to Kansas City to Canton, Ohio. They belong to Lamar Hunt.
A gentle giant, Hunt shook and shaped the NFL as we know it today. His influence on the future of pro football began in Dallas when, at 28, he had the vision and resources of a multimillionaire to found a new league in 1960. Dallas thus became headquarters of "The Foolish Club," the whimsical nickname for eight original franchise owners that Hunt, Pied Piper-style, wooed into forming the American Football League.
Hunt's legacy expanded over the next 40-odd years to include multiple milestones. His hometown Texans won the AFL championship in '62 over Houston in the longest game played to that point -- an overtime thriller that lasted 77 minutes, 54 seconds. As the transplanted Kansas City Chiefs, Hunt's team played in the first AFL vs. NFL World Championship Game, as it was then known. Three years later, the Chiefs became the first AFL team to win the aptly titled Super Bowl, a fitting tribute to Hunt since he helped name the event at mention of his daughter's toy SuperBall.
By then, Hunt, who died Wednesday night at 74, had been in the forefront of an NFL-AFL merger to end a war of financial attrition for players and meld the competing leagues under a common umbrella. Hunt and former rival Tex Schramm, president-general manager of the Dallas Cowboys, were major figures in negotiating the truce. To protect their secret sessions, they met as two faces in a crowd beneath a statue of a Texas Ranger at the Dallas Love Field terminal.
Hunt's personal touch on these issues was of such magnitude that he received rare recognition for one lately arrived on the scene. He was inducted with the Class of 1972 into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, the sport's ultimate honor. The significance lay in the fact that this former third-string end at SMU had been involved in pro football only 13 years.
Lamar would have been involved sooner, but his late 1950s bid to buy the Chicago Cardinals from the Wolfner family and move them to Dallas begat an offer for only 20 percent ownership with no move. Hunt declined, and was further discouraged from landing an NFL expansion team. George Halas, the NFL icon who headed the expansion committee, told Hunt that his league had no plans to welcome new members in the foreseeable future.
Yet, Hunt's conversation with the Wolfners lingered. He heard of many suitors angling to buy the Cardinals and move them. Houston and Minneapolis were mentioned as potential sites. The idea of launching a new league now sounded reasonable.
"I guess it was January of 1959," Hunt reflected years later, "when I concluded, 'My gosh, if so many people are interested in getting a team, there might be a need for another league.'"
To those who recognized Hunt only by a name linked with these dramatic ventures, he summoned the perception of a dynamic, flamboyant character. Instead his manner was cloned from mild-mannered, bespectacled Clark Kent, Superman in disguise. Hunt's persona was quiet-spoken, polite and humble, as flashy as a quarterback sneak.
In fact, his personal tastes were frugal for a man of immense wealth. His clothes and cars were plain. He flew coach on airlines. Lamar's idea of reckless behavior was to order ice cream for dessert.
His only extravagance was investing in sports, and the longest odds he faced were during those start-up years in Dallas.
When Hunt announced an AFL team would play in Dallas in 1960, it stunned the NFL, which now planned to expand there a year later. The NFL responded by planting a hurry-up franchise to compete with Hunt. Fellow millionaire Clint Murchison Jr., bought the franchise and for the next three years his Cowboys and the Texans bled red ink.
"We'll flip a coin," Murchison once joked. "The winner gets to leave town."
It was suggested to billionaire H. L. Hunt that he must be worried about son Lamar's pro football losses, which surely amounted to $1 million a year.
"Oh, I am, I am," the elder Hunt exclaimed. "At that rate he will be broke in 200 years."
Hunt transferred his Texans in 1963 to Kansas City, which he correctly envisioned as a city that would embrace pro football. From there he saw the Chiefs lose to Green Bay, 35-10, in the first AFL-NFL playoff for pro football supremacy in 1967, and hear his league mocked as inferior.
Revenge arrived during Super Bowl IV when Kansas City dominated Minnesota, 23-7, for a second straight title game victory by a former AFL team and to continue what would be a string of three consecutive victories by AFL-AFC teams.
Hunt never stopped campaigning to invigorate the way the game was played.
He long pleaded to add suspense to the repetitively successful extra point by adopting a two-point conversion, one of the AFL's original rules. His persistent voice finally met with approval when the NFL adopted the two-point option in 1994.
Hunt also lobbied for decades to bring a Thanksgiving Day game to Arrowhead Stadium. His wish was granted this season, when the Chiefs played host to Denver for a prime-time kickoff.
Ironically, Hunt was confined to a hospital in Dallas and kept track of the game via telephone updates.
Players graciously dedicated their victory over the Broncos to the absent owner.
Every history of the NFL will devote chapters to the contributions of modest Lamar Hunt. How to gauge his legacy to pro football? It is everlasting.
Frank Luksa is a freelance writer based in Plano, Texas. He was a longtime sports columnist for The Dallas Times-Herald and Dallas Morning News.
Humble Hunt never afraid to think big
By Frank Luksa
Special to ESPN.com
Among the large footprints that dot the NFL landscape is a Gulliver-size set that left a historic trail from Dallas to Kansas City to Canton, Ohio. They belong to Lamar Hunt.
A gentle giant, Hunt shook and shaped the NFL as we know it today. His influence on the future of pro football began in Dallas when, at 28, he had the vision and resources of a multimillionaire to found a new league in 1960. Dallas thus became headquarters of "The Foolish Club," the whimsical nickname for eight original franchise owners that Hunt, Pied Piper-style, wooed into forming the American Football League.
Hunt's legacy expanded over the next 40-odd years to include multiple milestones. His hometown Texans won the AFL championship in '62 over Houston in the longest game played to that point -- an overtime thriller that lasted 77 minutes, 54 seconds. As the transplanted Kansas City Chiefs, Hunt's team played in the first AFL vs. NFL World Championship Game, as it was then known. Three years later, the Chiefs became the first AFL team to win the aptly titled Super Bowl, a fitting tribute to Hunt since he helped name the event at mention of his daughter's toy SuperBall.
By then, Hunt, who died Wednesday night at 74, had been in the forefront of an NFL-AFL merger to end a war of financial attrition for players and meld the competing leagues under a common umbrella. Hunt and former rival Tex Schramm, president-general manager of the Dallas Cowboys, were major figures in negotiating the truce. To protect their secret sessions, they met as two faces in a crowd beneath a statue of a Texas Ranger at the Dallas Love Field terminal.
Hunt's personal touch on these issues was of such magnitude that he received rare recognition for one lately arrived on the scene. He was inducted with the Class of 1972 into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, the sport's ultimate honor. The significance lay in the fact that this former third-string end at SMU had been involved in pro football only 13 years.
Lamar would have been involved sooner, but his late 1950s bid to buy the Chicago Cardinals from the Wolfner family and move them to Dallas begat an offer for only 20 percent ownership with no move. Hunt declined, and was further discouraged from landing an NFL expansion team. George Halas, the NFL icon who headed the expansion committee, told Hunt that his league had no plans to welcome new members in the foreseeable future.
Yet, Hunt's conversation with the Wolfners lingered. He heard of many suitors angling to buy the Cardinals and move them. Houston and Minneapolis were mentioned as potential sites. The idea of launching a new league now sounded reasonable.
"I guess it was January of 1959," Hunt reflected years later, "when I concluded, 'My gosh, if so many people are interested in getting a team, there might be a need for another league.'"
To those who recognized Hunt only by a name linked with these dramatic ventures, he summoned the perception of a dynamic, flamboyant character. Instead his manner was cloned from mild-mannered, bespectacled Clark Kent, Superman in disguise. Hunt's persona was quiet-spoken, polite and humble, as flashy as a quarterback sneak.
In fact, his personal tastes were frugal for a man of immense wealth. His clothes and cars were plain. He flew coach on airlines. Lamar's idea of reckless behavior was to order ice cream for dessert.
His only extravagance was investing in sports, and the longest odds he faced were during those start-up years in Dallas.
When Hunt announced an AFL team would play in Dallas in 1960, it stunned the NFL, which now planned to expand there a year later. The NFL responded by planting a hurry-up franchise to compete with Hunt. Fellow millionaire Clint Murchison Jr., bought the franchise and for the next three years his Cowboys and the Texans bled red ink.
"We'll flip a coin," Murchison once joked. "The winner gets to leave town."
It was suggested to billionaire H. L. Hunt that he must be worried about son Lamar's pro football losses, which surely amounted to $1 million a year.
"Oh, I am, I am," the elder Hunt exclaimed. "At that rate he will be broke in 200 years."
Hunt transferred his Texans in 1963 to Kansas City, which he correctly envisioned as a city that would embrace pro football. From there he saw the Chiefs lose to Green Bay, 35-10, in the first AFL-NFL playoff for pro football supremacy in 1967, and hear his league mocked as inferior.
Revenge arrived during Super Bowl IV when Kansas City dominated Minnesota, 23-7, for a second straight title game victory by a former AFL team and to continue what would be a string of three consecutive victories by AFL-AFC teams.
Hunt never stopped campaigning to invigorate the way the game was played.
He long pleaded to add suspense to the repetitively successful extra point by adopting a two-point conversion, one of the AFL's original rules. His persistent voice finally met with approval when the NFL adopted the two-point option in 1994.
Hunt also lobbied for decades to bring a Thanksgiving Day game to Arrowhead Stadium. His wish was granted this season, when the Chiefs played host to Denver for a prime-time kickoff.
Ironically, Hunt was confined to a hospital in Dallas and kept track of the game via telephone updates.
Players graciously dedicated their victory over the Broncos to the absent owner.
Every history of the NFL will devote chapters to the contributions of modest Lamar Hunt. How to gauge his legacy to pro football? It is everlasting.
Frank Luksa is a freelance writer based in Plano, Texas. He was a longtime sports columnist for The Dallas Times-Herald and Dallas Morning News.
Hostile
The Duke
- Messages
- 119,565
- Reaction score
- 4,544
Updated: Dec. 14, 2006, 1:13 AM ET
Lamar Hunt Through the Years
ESPN.com
Aug 2, 1932: Born in El Dorado, Ark. Hunt was raised in Dallas.
1959: Applies for a National Football League expansion franchise but is turned down, as the thinking among NFL executives is that the league must be careful not to "oversaturate" the market by expanding too quickly.
1960: Leads several other investors in forming the AFL. Hunt becomes the owner of the Dallas Texans, and hires future Hall of Famer Hank Stram as the team's first head coach. The Texans win the AFL Championship in 1962.
1963: Following intense negotiations, finally agrees to move the team to Kansas City and the Dallas Texans become the Kansas City Chiefs. Part of the reason is to escape the enormous shadow cast by the Dallas Cowboys.
1966: One of the founding investors of the Chicago Bulls.
Jan. 15, 1967: Chiefs win their first AFL Championship and reach their first Super Bowl -- then called the "AFL-NFL Championship Game" -- where they lose to the Green Bay Packers, 35-10.
1967: Co-founds the World Championship Tennis circuit, giving birth to the open era in tennis.
1967: One of the original owners of the NASL (North American Soccer League), operating the Dallas Tornado, one of the lead franchises of the league.
1969: Is credited with coining the name "Super Bowl", inspired by a red, white and blue super ball owned by his daughter.
Jan. 11, 1970: Chiefs win AFL Championship again and go on to win Super Bowl IV over the Minnesota Vikings. Hunt never considers moving the team again. The NFL reluctantly accepts a merger between the two leagues.
1972: Becomes the first American Football League personage inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The trophy presented to each year's AFC Champion is named the Lamar Hunt Trophy.
1992: Inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame.
1993: Inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.
1996: One of the original founding investors of Major League Soccer. Assumes ownership of the Columbus Crew and Kansas City Wizards.
1999: Finances the construction of Columbus Crew Stadium, the first of several large soccer-specific stadiums in the USA. The United States Soccer Federation changes the name of its oldest and most prestigious competition, the U.S. Open Cup, to the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup in 1999.
2000: Forms a group with businessman John H. McConnell (Columbus Hockey Limited) in an effort to obtain a National Hockey League franchise for Columbus, Ohio, but is eventually frozen out of the deal when McConnell is awarded the NHL franchise.
2003: Purchases a third team, the Dallas Burn (now FC Dallas), after announcing he would partially finance the construction of their own soccer-specific stadium.
Aug. 31, 2006: Sells the Wizards to a six-man ownership group.
Dec. 13, 2006: Succumbs to cancer in Dallas at 74.
Lamar Hunt Through the Years
ESPN.com
Aug 2, 1932: Born in El Dorado, Ark. Hunt was raised in Dallas.
1959: Applies for a National Football League expansion franchise but is turned down, as the thinking among NFL executives is that the league must be careful not to "oversaturate" the market by expanding too quickly.
1960: Leads several other investors in forming the AFL. Hunt becomes the owner of the Dallas Texans, and hires future Hall of Famer Hank Stram as the team's first head coach. The Texans win the AFL Championship in 1962.
1963: Following intense negotiations, finally agrees to move the team to Kansas City and the Dallas Texans become the Kansas City Chiefs. Part of the reason is to escape the enormous shadow cast by the Dallas Cowboys.
1966: One of the founding investors of the Chicago Bulls.
Jan. 15, 1967: Chiefs win their first AFL Championship and reach their first Super Bowl -- then called the "AFL-NFL Championship Game" -- where they lose to the Green Bay Packers, 35-10.
1967: Co-founds the World Championship Tennis circuit, giving birth to the open era in tennis.
1967: One of the original owners of the NASL (North American Soccer League), operating the Dallas Tornado, one of the lead franchises of the league.
1969: Is credited with coining the name "Super Bowl", inspired by a red, white and blue super ball owned by his daughter.
Jan. 11, 1970: Chiefs win AFL Championship again and go on to win Super Bowl IV over the Minnesota Vikings. Hunt never considers moving the team again. The NFL reluctantly accepts a merger between the two leagues.
1972: Becomes the first American Football League personage inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The trophy presented to each year's AFC Champion is named the Lamar Hunt Trophy.
1992: Inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame.
1993: Inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.
1996: One of the original founding investors of Major League Soccer. Assumes ownership of the Columbus Crew and Kansas City Wizards.
1999: Finances the construction of Columbus Crew Stadium, the first of several large soccer-specific stadiums in the USA. The United States Soccer Federation changes the name of its oldest and most prestigious competition, the U.S. Open Cup, to the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup in 1999.
2000: Forms a group with businessman John H. McConnell (Columbus Hockey Limited) in an effort to obtain a National Hockey League franchise for Columbus, Ohio, but is eventually frozen out of the deal when McConnell is awarded the NHL franchise.
2003: Purchases a third team, the Dallas Burn (now FC Dallas), after announcing he would partially finance the construction of their own soccer-specific stadium.
Aug. 31, 2006: Sells the Wizards to a six-man ownership group.
Dec. 13, 2006: Succumbs to cancer in Dallas at 74.
LeonDixson
Illegitimi non carborundum
- Messages
- 12,299
- Reaction score
- 6,808
Farewell and RIP to a very important man in the history of professional football.
Bob Sacamano
Benched
- Messages
- 57,084
- Reaction score
- 3
on a related note, actor Peter Boyle died Tuesday night
you may remember him from "Everybody Loves Raymond" and such movies as "Taxi" and "Young Frankenstein"
RIP to both Mr. Lamar Hunt and Peter Boyle
you may remember him from "Everybody Loves Raymond" and such movies as "Taxi" and "Young Frankenstein"
RIP to both Mr. Lamar Hunt and Peter Boyle
Archie F. Swin
New Member
- Messages
- 39
- Reaction score
- 0
stealth;1232670 said:
His son, Clark Hunt, took over operations in the last year. So there will be a lot of Dallas influence in everything Chiefs. Clark, by the way is just over 40 years old.
- Messages
- 79,281
- Reaction score
- 45,652
Parcells pays tribute to Lamar Hunt
The first question during today's Bill Parcells news conference was about Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt, who died last night after complications of prostate cancer.
Here's Tim Cowlishaw's take on Mr. Hunt.
Bill Parcells had this to say: "I think he was a tremendous resource for the NFL and I was honored to know him personally. He was typical of the old guard of ownership in the NFL. He was highly respected by I think everybody that's ever been in the league."
Parcells talked about visiting the Chiefs training camp when he was a young college coach in 1965.
"It was my first real insight into pro football," he said. "I recall that like it was yesterday."
Parcells said it was sad that the league had lost several of its patriarch's over the last few years.
m
Posted by Matt Mosley at 1:59 PM (E-mail this entry) | Comments (0)
The first question during today's Bill Parcells news conference was about Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt, who died last night after complications of prostate cancer.
Here's Tim Cowlishaw's take on Mr. Hunt.
Bill Parcells had this to say: "I think he was a tremendous resource for the NFL and I was honored to know him personally. He was typical of the old guard of ownership in the NFL. He was highly respected by I think everybody that's ever been in the league."
Parcells talked about visiting the Chiefs training camp when he was a young college coach in 1965.
"It was my first real insight into pro football," he said. "I recall that like it was yesterday."
Parcells said it was sad that the league had lost several of its patriarch's over the last few years.
m
Posted by Matt Mosley at 1:59 PM (E-mail this entry) | Comments (0)