PDA

View Full Version : Hunt's Impact


CosmicPal
12-15-2006, 11:46 AM
I still think Paige is a jackazz, but I have to admit I like this article about Lamar Hunt and his impact to sports in Denver. It's respectful, thoughtful, and an honorable reflection on Lamar Hunt.

Enjoy...(I looked around, but didn't see it posted anywhere)

Hunt's impact heavy in Denver
By Woody Paige
Denver Post Staff Columnist
Article Last Updated:12/14/2006 11:05:28 PM MST

Without Lamar Hunt, there would have been no Denver Broncos in 1960.

Or maybe ever.

And possibly no Rockies, Nuggets, Avalanche, Rapids and Crush.

And definitely no inaugural World Team Tennis title with the late, great Denver Racquets.

Hunt's significant contribution to professional sports in Denver should not go unappreciated, and his death should not go unnoticed here. He never lived in Colorado - sister Swanee Hunt, former ambassador to Austria, was a Denver resident for several years - but Lamar Hunt belongs in our state's sports hall of fame.

After the first year of the old American Football League, Hunt's oil-baron father, H.L. Hunt, one of the richest men in the world, was asked by a friend: "Aren't you concerned your son lost close to a million dollars on his football team (the then Dallas Texans)?" Big Daddy Hunt replied: "If Lamar keeps that up, he'll be broke in 150 years."

Lamar's expensive plaything opened up pro football to new frontiers in Denver, Buffalo, Oakland and Houston, returned the game to Dallas and Boston and added franchises in New York and Los Angeles to compete with the established NFL. Soon the AFL was introduced in Kansas City (where owner Hunt transferred his Texans), San Diego, Miami and Cincinnati.

All of the original AFL franchises have played in the Super Bowl - a name for the championship game Hunt originated after watching his kids play, bouncing a "Super Ball."

Denver leads those eight original teams with six appearances in the Super Bowl.

When Hunt formed the AFL - because the NFL would not grant him an expansion team in his native Dallas - he convinced three fellow multi-multi-millionaire sons to join him and pushed for a franchise in Denver.

There was no multi-multi-millionaire offspring in Denver interested. But Hunt asked the owners of the minor-league baseball club, the Bears, to buy a franchise. They did, only because Denver had been included in a new Continental (baseball) League, a challenger to Major League Baseball. The owners added a new section to the ballpark in right field - the South Stands - and when the Continental League folded before even beginning, the owners had to pay off the cost of the expansion.

So Denver was in ... barely. The Broncos won four games that first season and barely stayed afloat financially.

Hunt had faith in the (true) Dusty Old Cowtown, missing a real skyline, a north-south expressway and any major-league history (except for a half-season stint 11 years before in the oddball NBA).

Lamar Hunt begat Al Davis, Hank Stram, George Blanda, Joe Namath, Charley "The Human Bowling Ball" Tolar and Fred "The (Soft) Hammer" Williamson.

Hunt's level-headedness, softspoken style and professorial expressions endeared him to the other owners, even those in the NFL. He and NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle worked closely to merge the leagues and create the first interleague championship game. Appropriately, Hunt's Kansas City Chiefs played the venerable Green Bay Packers - and were blown out.

Hunt always respected Denver and the Broncos, even when the South Stands hurled snowballs and insults at his Chiefs and, especially, Stram. And the Chiefs-Broncos rivalry became special when the Broncos finally became decent. The Broncos have won 42 (including a postseason game in K.C.) and lost 52 to the Chiefs. The Broncos and the Chiefs are both 7-6, vying for the last wild-card spot in the AFC.

The Chiefs play at Arrowhead Stadium, designed by the late Charles Deaton of Denver. I've sat in the Arrowhead press box 25 times and said hello to Hunt practically every season - or waved at him in the adjoining owners box. Nice, classy man. He always sat in the back of his box, out of the spotlight. He never tried to attract attention or put his ego before the players, the coaches, the team or the league. Nevertheless, he was the first representative from the old AFL to be voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Hunt also formed the World Team Tennis League in the 1970s, and its first champion was Denver (which dropped out immediately). And he has been instrumental in the development of Major League Soccer with Denver's Phil Anschutz.

Because of the Broncos' popularity, pro basketball and hockey and, ultimately, major-league baseball came to Denver. And major industry and a skyline and highways and a whole lot of people, including me.

Most opposing owners are reviled in Denver. Lamar Hunt's memory should be revered.

Staff writer Woody Paige can be reached at 303-954-1095 or wpaige@denverpost.com.

penchief
12-15-2006, 02:56 PM
Wow. I've always admired Lamar Hunt but until his passing I had no idea how great his impact really was.