More than thirty years ago, I had the privilege of watching the Kansas Chiefs play the Denver Broncos at Arrowhead Stadium as a guest of the Chiefs’ owner, Lamar Hunt Sr.
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With Lamar Hunt Sr. after our jog around Arrowhead Stadium
The best pro football game I will likely ever attend took place on November 17, 1991, at the Kansas City Chiefs Arrowhead Stadium. The Chiefs played the Denver Broncos, quarterbacked by John Elway. Dan Harris (my sister Sue’s husband at the time) was best friends with Lamar Hunt, Jr., whose father, Lamar Sr., owned the team. Jeanine (my wife), Ben (our son, age 11), and I took my dad along and met Sue and Dan in Kansas City. The night before the game, we were invited to join the Hunts at a fancy Italian restaurant. Our group of six joined Lamar Sr., his wife, Norma, Lamar Jr. and his wife, and Clark (another of Lamar’s sons) and his girlfriend (Miss Kansas at the time). Before dinner, Ben was given a private tour of the kitchen. During our over-dinner conversation, I mentioned to Lamar Sr. that I was a jogger. “Are you?” he replied. “I love jogging, too. How would you like to join me on my run in the morning before the game?” How could I say no? Lamar and Norma stayed that night at their in-stadium “home,” an apartment that was connected to the owner’s box. When I knocked on their door in the morning, Lamar soon appeared sporting his Kansas City Chiefs red jogging suit. It was drizzling rain, so we decided to run the covered loop around the stadium and past the concession stands. I don’t recall much about the run other than (1) Lamar jogged pretty slowly (he was fifty-nine, which seemed old to me at the time) and (2) every few minutes we would pass a stadium worker or volunteer who said, “Good morning, Mr. Hunt.” I bet each one of them wondered who the heck the guy jogging with him was.
What an experience to watch the game from Lamar Hunt’s owner’s box. There were rows of cushioned seats where guests sat and had a perfect fifty-yard-line view of the on-field action. Behind the seats were tables on which ample amounts of delicious food and drink were available. I recall the box holding forty or fifty guests. Henry W. Bloch (founder of H&R Block) was there, as were other dignitaries. I visited with the governor of Nebraska. During the game, I noticed a football championship ring the size of a walnut on the finger of the man seated next to me. Upon closer inspection, I could see that it was a ring for the San Diego Chargers win in the 1963 American Football League Championship Game and figured out I was shoulder to shoulder with Sid Gillman, one of the best offensive football minds that ever played or coached the game. As the game went on, I got up the nerve to talk to him (he was eighty at the time). I don’t recall much of our conversation, but I’ll always remember looking down at that ring and realizing who was wearing it.
Seventy-five thousand fans were in attendance. The game was a nail biter. Kansas City scored ten points in the second quarter to tie the Broncos 10–10 at halftime. Elway led his team to score fourteen points in the third quarter to the Chiefs’ three, so it was 24–13 to start the fourth quarter. The Chiefs’ starting quarterback, Steve DeBerg, had to leave the game with an injury and was replaced by Mark Vlasic, who threw a touchdown pass in the third quarter to make the score 24–20. Kansas City had the ball and was driving down field in the final minutes of the fourth quarter and needed a touchdown to win. Vlasic completed a pass near the Broncos goal line, but there was some confusion about running the next play, and time ran out. A disappointing loss for the Chiefs, but what a memorable game for the Ransoms. Lamar apologized to us at the game’s end. He said, “I would liked to have taken you and Ben down to the Chiefs’ locker room to meet the players, but after a loss, because I know how frustrated they are, I don’t make that trip.” A visit to the locker room would have been the only thing that could possibly have made the day any better than it was. Today, the Lamar Hunt Trophy is given to the winner of the AFC Championship Game in the National Football League. Every year when that award is given, I think back to November 17, 1991, what a kind man Lamar Hunt was, and how much fun we had.
Note: This story is one of many from my sports memoir The Older I Get the Better I Was.