Kansas City Chiefs

The Kansas City Chiefs, who have been around since 1963, have shown a long history of success, and have a storied history as a member of the National Football League. With the St. Louis Rams leaving town, the Chiefs are the only professional football team in the state of Missouri. The Chiefs are one of the few teams that have their stadium, and their training facility are located in the exact same town. Let’s take a look at some history behind the Kansas City Chiefs.

Arrowhead Stadium is commonly referred to as “The Sea of Red”. The official name for the venue is GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium. The facility broke ground during the 1968 season, and then it opened up in August of 1972. The stadium has seen three periods of renovations, with the last ones coming in 2010. Arrowhead Stadium hosts nearly 76,500 fans.

Another perk to Arrowhead Stadium is – it sits right next to Kaufman Stadium, which is the home of the Kansas City Royals, in Major League Baseball. The Stadium has hosted it’s fair share of football games, and has been chosen as one of the 16 venues to host the World Cup coming up in 2026.

There has been some big College Football games there as well. The location played host to the Fall Classic, a game featuring a pair of Division II schools. Some of the other big non annual College Football games include Nebraska vs. Oklahoma State in 1998, Florida State vs. Iowa State in 2002, Kansas State against California in 2003, Missouri vs. Arkansas State in 2005, along with Oklahoma and Kansas.

Arrowhead Stadium is known as the location with the loudest crowd in the Guinness World Record book. The stadium recorded a 137.5dB in 2013, before a home game in Seattle broke that record. Chiefs fans then beat the record again on Monday Night Football during the 2014 season against the Patriots.

The history of the team name “Chiefs” goes way back, and certainly has plenty of controversy around it. The team was named for H. Roe Bartle, who was the mayor of Kansas City back in the early 1960’s. The nickname for the mayor was “Chief,” and he was a major factor in bringing the Dallas Texans to Kansas City back in 1963.

The team has discussed team name changes, but many do not expect it to happen. The Native American culture has pushed for a change, much like the Redskins and the Indians, but there does not seem to be much movement on it as of late.

The Chiefs open each game with a cheerleader riding a horse named Warplant, while hitting a giant, native-style drum with the team’s logo.

The Kansas City Chiefs have played in 64 seasons, and won over 520 games in franchise history. The Chiefs have 20 wins in the postseason. Len Dawson, obviously has many of the quarterback records, but look for that to change as Patrick Mahomes continues his dominance of the National Football League.

Priest Holmes is the career touchdown leader for the Kansas City Chiefs, and finished with 83 touchdowns. Tony Gonzalez and Tyreek Hill come in next on the career list for the franchise.

Patrick Mahomes passed Drew Brees for most total yards in a NFL season. He passed Drew Brees for that record in 2011, with over 5,560 passing yards.

Finally, Gary Barbaro is in the record book for an interception return for 102 yards and a touchdown.

The Chiefs, heading into the 2023 season, have been champions 6 times in their franchise history. Three of those titles came in the AFL, which was before the AFL-NFL merger. Those titles came in 1962, 1966, and 1969.

The first Super Bowl title for the Kansas City Chiefs was the fourth and final AFL-NFL World Championship Game, and it was titled Super Bowl IV. The Chiefs of the AFL took down the Vikings of the NFL, with Len Dawson taking home MVP awards in the game in front of 80,000 fans in New Orleans.

Then, in 2019, Super Bowl LIV saw the Kansas City Chiefs take down the San Francisco 49ers 31-20 in Miami. This game saw over 62,000 fans in attendance, and Patrick Mahomes won his first Super Bowl MVP award. Mahomes finished the game completing 26 of 42 passes for nearly 300 yards and two touchdowns. Mahomes also rushed for a touchdown in the game.

Then, in 2022 – The Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles played in one of the best Super Bowl games of all time. The Chiefs trailed 24-14 to the Eagles at halftime, and came from behind to win the game 38-35. Harrison Butker kicked a game-winning field goal, and Patrick Mahomes was awarded his second MVP with 182 yards and 2 touchdowns. This win was in front of just shy of 68,000 fans in Glendale, Arizona.

The Kansas City Chiefs have had a long history of good starting quarterbacks. Len Dawson was a 7 time All Pro selection behind center. Patrick Mahomes is at 5 selections, while Alex Smith, Cotton Davidson, and Trent Green all have 2 selections.

In the history or the organization, Len Dawson leads the organization with 158 starts. Dawson was impressive in his career, winning 62% of his starts. Patrick Mahomes, heading into the 2023 season, has made 80 starts and won 64 games. Dawson and Mahomes are at the top of the organization leaderboard with yards thrown and touchdowns.

If you are looking for a third, Trent Green and even Alex Smith are the names to watch. Green finished with nearly 22,000 passing yards and 118 touchdowns, while Smith had a nice career in Kansas City with 76 starts, 50 wins, and threw for 17,608 yards and 102 touchdowns.

The Kansas City Chiefs are part of 24 Hall of Famers, with 13 of them spending a majority of their career with the Chiefs organization. The players that spent a short period with the franchise and are part of the Hall of Fame, include Mike Webster, Joe Montana, Marcus Allen, Warren Moon, Willie Roaf, Morten Andersen, and Ty Law.

The first ever Kansas City Chief player into the Hall of Fame was linebacker Bobby Bell. He was inducted in 1983. Another linebacker, Willie Lanier was then inducted in 1986. Following those two, Len Dawson, Buck Buchanan, and Jan Steneud were all inducted within a 4-year span. Dawson was the quarterback of the teams from 1963-1975.

A few of the more modern-time players inducted into the Hall of Fame include cornerback Emmitt Thomas, linebacker Derrick Thomas, along with Curley Culp and Will Shields. All four of those guys were inducted between 2008 and 2015.

The two more recent Kansas City Chiefs players to get inducted into the Hall of Fame were tight end Tony Gonzalez, who was inducted in 2019, and Johnny Robinson, safety, also inducted in 2019.

The Chiefs had two other contributors into the Hall of Fame. Lamar Hunt, the founder of franchise and American Football Football League, was inducted in 1972. Hank Stram, the head coach between 1960-1074, was inducted in 2003.

Four others that spent some time with the Chiefs were inducted, including Marv Levy, Bill Polian, Bobby Beathard, and Dick Vermeil.

The Kansas City Chiefs are widely known as one of the most loyal fan bases in the National Football League. The Chiefs have the sixth smallest NFL media market, and have the second-highest attendance over that time.

The first ever regular season game for the Chiefs was in 1960, where they took a 21-20 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers. The first time the Chiefs played in the playoffs was in 1962, when they won in double overtime over the Houston Oilers.

While we spent a great deal of time talking about Len Dawson, and his accomplishments, he is widely known for his 435 yards passing game against the Broncos in 1963. Finally, Jamaal Charles is the leading rusher in franchise history, as he picked up 7,260 yards on the ground in his career.