Former Kansas City Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt is one of the most important people in the history of professional football. His impact played a major role in shaping the NFL and turning the league into the biggest sport in the United States.
Lamar Hunt Started the AFL
When he was in his mid-20s, Hunt was denied when he applied for an NFL expansion franchise. He was also turned down when he wanted to buy the Chicago Cardinals and move the team to Dallas.
As a result, Hunt decided to form a second professional league, the American Football League. He and other future owners who called themselves “The Foolish Club” met to form the AFL, which started in 1960 with eight teams, including Hunt’s Dallas Texans.
The NFL responded to the new league by awarding expansion franchises to Dallas and Minnesota. Hunt’s Texans and the Dallas Cowboys both played in the Cotton Bowl and competed for fans for the first three seasons. However, both teams were struggling financially and unable to develop a strong fan base.
After winning the AFL Championship in 1962, Hunt moved the Texans to Kansas City and renamed the team the Chiefs.
The league started with a television deal with ABC and secured a significant deal with NBC in 1964. Hunt was on his honeymoon with his wife, Norma, when he found out the deal was complete.
The money from the NBC deal allowed the AFL to financially compete with the NFL for players. The AFL and NFL trying to outbid each other for players was a major reason the leagues started to consider merging.
Hunt worked with Cowboys general manager Tex Schramm on the details of the merger. A deal was reached in 1966, and a plan was put together to become one league in 1970.
Hunt Named the Super Bowl
Part of the terms of the merger was to have each league’s champion meet in the AFL-NFL World Championship Game. Hunt’s Chiefs lost to Vince Lombardi’s Green Bay Packers in the first championship game between the two leagues.
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Hunt is credited with coming up with the name “Super Bowl” for the championship game. He suggested to Commissioner Pete Rozelle that the game needed a better name and came up with the Super Bowl. Hunt would later say he likely got “Super” because his kids played with a toy called the Super Ball.
There are some who believe the name was in place before Hunt’s suggestion, but the game wasn’t branded the Super Bowl until the third year.
Hunt’s Legacy
It was fitting that Hunt’s Chiefs defeated the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl IV. It was the final game before the merger, and the Chiefs won the last game played by an AFL team.
When Hunt died in 2006, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said, “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.”
The Hunt family continues to own the Chiefs, and Clark Hunt, Lamar’s son, is the current CEO of the organization. Clark is following in his father’s footsteps by being a member or chairman of several committees focused on growing the game.
Lamar Hunt brought multiple soccer teams to Kansas City, including the city’s current MLS team, Sporting Kansas City. He sold the team a few months before he died.
How Did Lamar Hunt Make His Money?
Hunt’s money originally came from his father, who was an oil tycoon. His father made his money trading poker winnings for oil rights, securing much of the East Texas Oil Field.
From that, he built a fortune that is considered to have been among the world’s largest, and he was considered to have the highest net worth of any individual in the world at his death. Lamar was his 10th son, and that is where the majority of the wealth to fund his sporting endeavors seemingly came from.
Family and Succession
Hunt and two of his brothers, Nelson Bunker Hunt and William Herbert Hunt, partnered on business ventures. His half-sister, Swanee Hunt, was Ambassador to Austria under Bill Clinton’s presidency.
MORE: Clark Hunt’s Net Worth
Lamar was married twice and had four children across two marriages. As mentioned, his third child and second son, Clark, became chairman of the Chiefs and FC Dallas franchises.
His second wife, Norma, and his children share ownership of the Chiefs. Clark represents the Chiefs at league owners’ meetings and manages the team on a day-to-day basis.
Other Business Ventures
Away from his influence on the sporting world, Lamar Hunt found mixed success as a businessman.
He and his brothers attempted to corner the silver market. At one time, they reportedly owned one-third of the market. However, when the price collapsed on what is known as Silver Thursday, the brothers were left to file for bankruptcy.
Away from his investment in silver, Hunt founded two Kansas City theme parks: Worlds of Fun and Oceans of Fun. Both parks remain open to this day but were purchased by Cedar Fair LP in 1995. Additionally, he developed what is claimed to be the World’s Largest Underground Business Complex, SubTropolis, which is based in the bluffs above the Missouri River in Kansas City.
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