Thank you Mr. Hunt

My sports fan life is tied to my home state of Missouri and the city of Kansas City. Growing up I was blessed with a football franchise and a baseball franchise led by men of means who stayed out of the way and didn't make it about their egos. Mr. Ewing Kauffman of the Royals and Mr. Lamar Hunt of the Chiefs loved to compete; loved their teams and loved Kansas City. From each I got the chance to root for real champions and truly great players. Mr. Kauffman died more than 10 years ago and the Royals may only now be beginning to recover from that. Last night the Chiefs and Kansas City lost the great Lamar Hunt.

Generally, being born into wealth doesn't result in a person of humility, kindness and self-achievement both professionally and personally. Lamar Hunt was such a person and Kansas City and football fans of his team and the other 31 teams now in the NFL were the beneficiaries of whatever combination of genetics, successful parenting and love produced this extraordinary man. There are lots of accomplishments and stories which could fill this tribute. In multiple sports, in business beyond sports, in his family and among almost everyone who knew him, Lamar was a great success. Read the tributes in tennis and soccer and see just a small part of what he accomplished. I am going to focus on the accomplished that made him a hero to me -- the creation and success of the American Football League (AFL).

In the late 1950s when the NFL had only 12 teams and TV was not yet running the sport or guaranteeing each owner a profit, a late 20's Texan wanted a team in his hometown of Dallas. He was denied an expansion team. He was not chosen as a new owner of the failing Chicago Cardinals. (Yep, they sucked in Chicago, St. Louis and Arizona). Instead of wait and hope, Lamar got together with Bud Adams of Houston, Barron Hilton of LA and the hotel chain and 5 others to form "The Foolish Club" that would become the AFL. There success is underestimated today. The Dallas Cowboys became an NFL expansion team in 1960 because the AFL was seen as a real threat. The NFL tried to give the team to Lamar, but he said no because he had pledged himself to his fellows in the AFL. The NFL did steal Minneapolis from the AFL, but Oakland took their place and that turned out to be a good thing for the AFL and a curse that Minnesota still can't break.

With the Cowboys in town, the Texans couldn't succeed financially. Both teams were hurt by the other with the Cowboys' owner once saying, "We'll flip a coin and the winner gets to leave." On the field the Texans did well and won the AFL championship in 1962, but they needed to get out of Dallas. Luckily for me and all of Kansas City, the 1963 season began with the Dallas Texans becoming the Kansas City Chiefs. In a town that's only other major sports franchise were the lowly Kansas City A's who were known mostly for being a minor league team for the Yankees and who would soon move to Oakland, the Chiefs became the chance to be a "major league city."
It was the Chiefs and the AFL that made me a true football fanatic. The AFL is the only competing league that was taken in full when it merged with the older, more established league. It was Lamar Hunt negotiating secretly with Tex Schramm of the Cowboys that led to the merger. (No, Al Davis' efforts to get players didn't force the NFL to fold. Lamar had to get a deal that included what Al hated -- paying NFL teams a fee for putting teams like Oakland and the New York Jets into the same market with established NFL teams. Lamar is the hero. Al was a supporting player.) It brought a wide-open form of offense that has influenced the sports since the merger in 1970. The AFL's existence helped enhance opportunity for African American players that were being ignored by the NFL. It gave opportunities to lots of players, like Hall of Famer Len Dawson, who couldn't get a shot in the NFL. The AFL saw the need for TV for the league to succeed and expand. The merger deal led to the great American secular holiday that is Super Bowl Sunday. And, as you may know, Lamar coined the term "Super Bowl." It really was just something he thought of based on seeing his daughter play with a SuperBall. The AFL started revenue sharing that enables cities of all sizes to compete and is the anchor of the NFL's competitive success. The AFL is underrepresented in the Pro Football Hall of Fame but some of those left out are members of the All-Time AFL Team.

Lamar's Chiefs weren't always spoken with the respect they had in 1960s or that they have now. From 1972 thru 1988 they basically stunk. Lamar was seen as too distant and uninvolved. Their lack of playoff success since their return to prominence has been blamed on Lamar Hunt wanting to make money more than he wanted to win games. I don't think either was true. I think he simply ran the team by hiring folks and trusting them to do the job right. He was a bit slow at times knowing when it was time to change, but I'd much prefer his successor, Clark Hunt, following his father's example on how to run a team over becoming a Jerry Jones, an Al Davis, or a Daniel Snyder. Because when the owner is also acting as team president or general manager, what do you do when he basically stinks and needs to go?

I am forever grateful that I grew up with Lamar Hunt's Chiefs, Ewing Kauffman's Royals and Buck O'Neill's Monarchs. All three were champions as sportsmen and as human beings. I sincerely thank God for their presence in my favorite city and with my favorite teams.