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Kansas City Chiefs History

The team is owned by Lamar Hunt, who founded the team along with their original league, the American Football League, in 1960. The Dallas Texans, as they were known then, defeated the Houston Oilers in a dramatic 1962 AFL championship which went into double overtime. The Dallas Texans moved to Kansas City in 1963. The name, "Chiefs" was selected by a fan contest, and is derived from the then-Mayor of Kansas City, H. Roe Bartle. Bartle was the founder of the Native American-based honor society known as The Tribe of Mic-O-Say within the Boy Scouts of America organization, which earned him the nickname, "The Chief," and was instumental in persuading Lamar Hunt to move his team to Mid-America. It is said that Hunt actually considered keeping the team name as it was, and playing as the "Kansas City Texans."[1 (http://www.kcchiefs.com/history/60s/)]

The Texans/Chiefs franchise was the flagship team of the American Football League, with the most playoff appearances as an AFL team, six (tied with Oakland), the most American Football League Championships (3), and the most Super Bowl appearances, playing in the first Super Bowl, and in the last to be played between League champions. The Texans won the classic 1962 double-overtime AFL championship game against the Houston Oilers, 20 - 17, at the time the longest, and still one of the best professional football championship games ever played. The Chiefs dropped the first Super Bowl to the Packers, then pulverized the Vikings 23 - 7 in the final "true" AFL- NFL World Championsip game after the AFL's last season in 1969. They have the largest presence in the American Football League Hall of Fame, with 24 representatives, and they had just one coach throughout their AFL history, Hall-of-Famer Hank Stram.

The Kansas City Chiefs' (under Dallas Texans name) first stadium was at 22nd and Brooklyn, called "Municipal Stadium". Municipal Stadium opened in 1923 and had 49,002 seats. In 1971, Municipal Stadium was abandoned in favor of the new Arrowhead Stadium. Municipal Stadium was demolished in 1976; it is now a community garden. The Chiefs' first game at Arrowhead Stadium was against the St. Louis Cardinals (Chiefs 24, St. Louis Cardinals 14).

As the Chiefs, under coach Hank Stram, the team played in the first Super Bowl, losing 35-10 to Vince Lombardi's Green Bay Packers. They earned revenge three years later, upsetting the Minnesota Vikings 23-7. The team won 43 games between 1966 and 1969. The Chiefs had only two winning seasons between 1974 and 1986. They did not get to the playoffs for 15 straight years.

In 1989, Carl Peterson became the team's new President and General Manager. Peterson hired Marty Schottenheimer as the team's coach. Marty Schottenheimer helped establish six straight playoff appearances, three AFC West championships, nine winning seasons, and 76 consecutive soldout games at Arrowhead. Since 1992, no NFL team has a better regular season home winning percentage than Kansas City (27-5 (.844) record).

After going from 13-3 in 1997 and losing the playoff game to the Denver Broncos (10-14), the Chiefs fell to 7-9 in 1998. Marty Schottenheimer took much of the blame for his failed attempts at clock control (also nicknamed Martyball by his critics). He was also in the midst of a quarterback controversy.

In 1997, he started with Elvis Grbac as quarterback. After a loss to Denver, Grbac was injured and Rich Gannon took over. After going 13-2 during the season, Gannon was replaced by Grbac in the playoff game against Denver. The choice to play Grbac over Gannon made many fans angry with Schottenheimer. The following losing seaon with Grbac at quarterback did not help.

Schottenheimer left as head coach, replaced by his defensive coach Gunther Cunningham. In two years, Cunningham showed little improvement, going 9-7 and 7-9. After the loss of Derrick Thomas, the collapse of the defense was unmistakable. The Chiefs' wins were mostly made by a high scoring offense rather than a powerful defense.

After coaching the St. Louis Rams to the Super Bowl and retiring, Dick Vermeil took over as head coach in 2001 with the statement that it takes three years to get a team ready for the Super Bowl. He immediately dropped Elvis Grbac, replacing him with his primary pick for the Rams' quartback, Trent Green. Another notable replacement was Priest Holmes at running back. Three years later, the Chiefs went 13-3 in 2003 and set many records along the way. However, the season sputtered by November and the Chiefs lost to the Indianapolis Colts in the playoffs. As with the loss to the Broncos in the 1997 season, this loss led to a poor following season.

In 2004 Gunther Cunningham was brought back as the defensive coach. However, the defense showed little improvement. The offense, unable to record the same high scores as the previous year, was unable to bring in the wins as they had the previous year.

 

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