This isn't a personal financial post and I am not even a Cheifs fan, but in memory of someone who was a founder of the old American Football League and even orchestrating the merger with the NFL.
according to Gainesville.com.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Lamar Hunt, the soft-spoken son of a Texas oil tycoon whose vision gave birth to the modern NFL, is being remembered as a man who changed the face of pro football.
"Lamar Hunt was one of the most influential owners in professional football over the past 40-plus years," Dan Rooney, chairman of the Pittsburgh Steelers, said Thursday as plans were being made for burial of the 74-year-old sports pioneer.
"He was instrumental in the formation of the American Football League and in the AFL-NFL merger, which helped the National Football League grow into America's passion."
Hunt, who founded the American Football League in 1960 after the NFL refused to sell him a team, died Wednesday night in a Dallas hospital following a long battle with prostate cancer.
He moved his Dallas Texans to Kansas City in 1963 and renamed them the Chiefs.
"In creating the AFL, he likely did more to change the NFL over the last half-century than any other single person," said New York Jets CEO Woody Johnson. "Without Lamar Hunt, there would be no Super Bowl, a term he originally coined, and there would not be a New York Jets franchise."
Hunt entered the hospital for the last time Nov. 22, only 24 hours before his beloved Chiefs hosted Denver in a Thanksgiving night game. While treating him for a partially collapsed lung, doctors discovered the cancer had spread.
"He wanted people to love the sports like he did," his wife Norma said. "He loved sports so much, he was so passionate about them and he wanted others to share the joy."
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