subject: The Kansas City Chiefs Honored The Lamar Hunt [print this page] The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Chiefs are a member of the Western Division of the American Football Conference (AFC) in the National Football League (NFL). Originally named the Dallas Texans, the club was founded by Lamar Hunt in 1960 as a charter member of the American Football League (AFL).
In 1963, the team relocated to Kansas City, Missouri and were renamed the Kansas City Chiefs. The team is legally and corporately registered as Kansas City Chiefs Football Club, Incorporated and according to Forbes is valued at just under USD $1 billion.
From 1960 to 1969, the Chiefs were a successful franchise in the AFL, winning three league championships (1962, 1966, 1969) and having an all-time AFL record of 92 /50/5.The Chiefs were the second AFL team (after the New York Jets) to defeat an NFL franchise in an AFL/NFL World Championship Game when they defeated the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl IV. The team's victory on January 11, 1970 remains the club's last championship game victory and appearance to date.
The Chiefs were the second team, after the Green Bay Packers, to appear in more than one Super Bowl; and, they were the first team to appear in the championship game in two different decades.
When the Texans began playing in 1960, the team's logo consisted of the state of Texas in white with a yellow star marking the location of the city of Dallas. Originally, Hunt chose Columbia blue and orange for the Texans' uniforms, but Bud Adams chose Columbia blue and scarlet for his Houston Oilers franchise. Hunt reverted to red and gold for the Texans' uniforms, which even after the team relocated to Kansas City, remain as the franchise's colors to this day.
The state of Texas on the team's helmet was replaced by an arrowhead design originally sketched by Lamar Hunt on a napkin. Hunt's inspiration for the interlocking "KC" design was the "SF" inside of an oval on the San Francisco 49ers helmets. Unlike the 49ers' logo, Kansas City overlapping initials appear inside a white arrowhead instead of an oval and are surrounded by a thin black outline. From 1960 to 1973, the Chiefs had grey facemask bars on their helmets, but changed to white bars in 1974.
The Chiefs' uniform design has essentially remained the same throughout the club's history It consists of a red helmet, and either red or white jerseys with the opposite color numbers and names. White pants were used with both jerseys from 1960/1967 and 1989/1999. After a brief disappearance, the Chiefs re-introduced the all white uniform combinations for the 2006 season. When the Chiefs wear their red uniforms, they always wear white pants. The Chiefs have never worn an alternate jersey in a game, although custom jerseys are sold for retail.
The Chiefs wore their white jerseys with white pants at home for the 2006 season opener against the Cincinnati Bengals. The logic behind the uniform selection that day was that the Bengals would be forced to wear their black uniforms on a day that forecasted for steamy temperatures.
In 2007, the Kansas City Chiefs honored the Lamar Hunt and the AFL with a special patch. It features the AFL's logo from the 1960s with Hunt's "LH" initials inside the football. In 2008, the patch became permanently affixed to the left chest of both Kansas City's home and away jerseys.
In select games for the 2009 season, the Chiefs as well as the other founding teams of the American Football League wore "throwback" uniforms to celebrate the AFL's 50th anniversary and the 1962 Dallas Texans team that won the AFL Championship.
Arrowhead Stadium has been the Chiefs' home field since 1972 and has a capacity of 77,000, which makes it the fourth largest stadium in the NFL. The stadium underwent a $325 million renovation, completed in mid 2010, which included new luxury boxes, wider concourses and enhanced amenities. The stadium renovation was paid for by $250 million in taxpayer money and $125 million from the Hunt Family. The stadium cost $53 million to build in 1972, and an average ticket in 2009 costs $81 Centerplate serves as the stadium's concession provider and Sprint Nextel, Anheuser-Busch and Coca-Cola are major corporate sponsors.
Dating back to the Chiefs' home opener in 1991 to mid-2009, the Chiefs had 155 consecutive sellout games. The streak ended with the final home game of the 2009 season against the Cleveland Browns, resulting in the first local TV blackout in over 19 years. Arrowhead has been called one of the world's finest stadiums and has long held a reputation for being one of the toughest and loudest outdoor stadiums for opposing players to play in All noise is directly attributed to its fans and was once measured at 116 decibels by the Acoustical Design Group of Mission, Kansas. By way of comparison, take-off of aircraft may lead to a sound level of 106 decibels at the ground.
Sports Illustrated named Arrowhead Stadium the "toughest place to play" for opposing teams in 2005. The tailgate party environment outside the stadium on gameday has been compared to a "college football" atmosphere. Arrowhead Stadium features frequent fly overs from a B-2 Spirit stealth bomber from nearby Whiteman Air Force Base. Since the 1994 NFL season, the stadium has had a natural grass playing surface. From 1972 to 1993, the stadium had an artificial AstroTurf surface.
