Kansas City Chiefs Team History

The Kansas City Chiefs have been the most dominant dynasty in the NFL for the past five years: making four Super Bowl appearances and only tasting the bitter feeling of defeat once in that time. Although, Super Bowl glory was extremely rare to come by in Kansas City since their first world title success in 1969. Chiefs Kingdom were crying out for one moment of silverware for over five decades, and now Patrick Mahomes and his star-team have delivered in bunches.

Kansas City Chiefs team history: Lamar Hunt’s dream

Originally, founder Lamar Hunt started the franchise in the state of Texas under the founding name the Dallas Texans. Prior to this historic development, Hunt was so desperate to own an American football franchise, it was later known that the Dallas Texans founder was interested in purchasing the Chicago Cardinals. Nothing materialised and Hunt would contact other businessman who had expressed interest in owning a football team – proposing a second rivalling league. His son Clark Hunt is the current Kansas City Chiefs owner.

August the 22^nd 1958, this marked the birth of the new American Football League (AFL), spearheaded by Hunt. Two years later the Dallas Cowboys inaugural season would be in full flow and both franchises were competing to secure valuable money-generating fans within the state. Furthermore, Dallas was not big enough to accommodate two football teams, with the persuasion of the Kansas City mayor, the Texans left for the Midwest.

Moving into the Municipal Stadium, which had been their new home for over a decade, the Chiefs were only looking to the future. In 1966, Lamar Hunt pioneered the change in the American football landscape which is what we know today. The Chiefs owner spoke with the NFL commissioner, Pete Rozelle, about the merger of the AFL and NFL. A few seasons later, poetically, the Chiefs dominated the AFL and competed in their first ever AFL-NFL championship game. Losing the inaugural tie to the Green Bay Packers, they would avenge this only a year later defeating the Minnesota Vikings.

In the hope of the win marking the start of a dominant Chiefs period in the state of Kansas – it was the opposite – the beginning of a fall from grace. 1969 marked their last ever appearance in what is now the modern-day Super Bowl. Relocating into a new stadium in 1972, Arrowhead Stadium became their new home but did not turnaround their misfortunes.

50 tough years of stagnating and no tangible progress, Chiefs Kingdom dreamed again. Overcoming the San Francisco 49ers at Super Bowl LIV, the franchise reached the pinnacle of football once more. Despite a loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers the successive year in the Super Bowl, the team went on to win two rings in the next three years. Generational quarterback Mahomes restored the pride back to the historical franchise, which had been lying dormant for years and ready for the taste of success again.

Mascot History

From the mid-1960s, the Kansas City Chiefs have traditionally sported red and white colours. Their mascot was originally a horse called Warpaint, who would be rode by a man clothed in native Indian custom attire, including a headdress. Three pinto horses have been used throughout the seasons, with their horse appearing in 1955 and the second foaled in 1968. After the second Warpaint died in 2005, the horse was buried in Kansas City.

A third Warpaint was unveiled in 2009 to the fans and after a positive response, the horse appeared at all the games that season. Controversy surrounding the native Indian culture appropriation surfaced which brought an end to the traditional Chiefs mascot.

K. C. Wolf became the main mascot in the present day after it posed as a secondary mascot to the infamous Warpaint. Wolves are not native to the state of Missouri which begs the question, why a wolf? A boisterous set of fans who religiously attended the Chiefs home games at the Municipal Stadium were named the ‘Wolfpack’. K. C. Wolf is a big fan favourite, with the mascot performing daring stunts at games and is not afraid to tackle pitch invaders.