Inductees

As the organizer of the American Football League over 30 years ago, Lamar Hunt’s activities helped positively change the game of football. Hunt is among those most responsible for the development, direction and design of the modern-day National Football League.

As the founder of the Chiefs franchise, Hunt helped provide Kansas City with a team that became the winningest in the 10-year history of the AFL. The Chiefs won the AFL Championship in both 1966 and 1969. By winning the ’66 title, the Chiefs earned the right to play in the first Super Bowl against the NFL Champion Green Bay Packers. Three years later, the Chiefs claimed Kansas City’s first world major league sports championship by defeating the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl IV.

Hunt was a chief negotiator in the merger of the AFL and NFL in the late sixties and was one of the principal designers of the playoff format. Hunt is credited with accidentally putting the name “Super Bowl” on the NFL’s championship game – the name coming from this children’s toy “Super Ball.”