Football History

Lamar Hunt Did It - The Man Behind the Naming of a Little Game Called the Super Bowl

By John Hood

Believe it or not, the naming of America’s biggest game began with a child’s toy — a red, white and blue Wham-O SuperBall to be specific. 

Kansas City Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt, never at a loss for big ideas, had been watching his daughter play with the magic orb and thought a twist might make a nice tag. And, how. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that the SuperBall was “Made with Amazing Zectron!” and comprised “50,000 Pounds of Compressed Energy.”

Maybe it was just one of those right names at the right time. Whichever, it begat the most bankable 

moniker in sports: the Super Bowl.

***

 From all accounts, El Dorado-born, Dallas-reared Lamar Hunt was a genuine good guy. Despite being the son of the oil tycoon who inspired the TV series Dallas, and regardless of any role he may or may not have played in helping his brothers attempt to corner the silver market back in the ’70s. He dug ice cream sodas, fiddled with topiary, collected the works of Frederick Edwin Church, and never, ever lost his cool, or his manners.

Hunt also was a shrewd visionary. When the hedging NFL wouldn’t grant him a Dallas franchise back in ’59, the 27-year-old put together a team of eight like-minded millionaires and started his own league,  the AFL.

Then when the naysayers launched the Cowboys against his Texans and split what little audience there was in town at the time, Hunt took his team to Kansas City, renamed ’em the Chiefs and made 

his own market.

Many meetings and machinations later — including a legendary peace agreement between Hunt and Cowboys honcho Tex Shramm before the bronze Texas Ranger at Love Field — the Leagues decided upon a Championship.

On Jan. 15, 1967, Hunt’s Chiefs would lose the very first Super Bowl (to the Green Bay Packers), in front of a two-thirds full L.A. Coliseum. But three years later they’d come back to win it, against the Minnesota Vikings, and a merger was born — two Conferences, one League, under the gun.

But above and beyond what Hunt did to break wide open the football racket were his efforts at erasing the color line.

With few exceptions, the early ’60s NFL was pretty pale in comparison with the AFL; in fact, the former league’s teams were subject to unwritten quotas for how many black players could be rostered, and fielded.

At the time the NFL had no black quarterbacks, centers or middle linebackers, not to mention coaches.

In contrast, Hunt and Co. rostered and fielded teams based on talent, not quotas. The AFL not only aggressively recruited from all-black colleges, it also gave black players more game time, and more 

positions to play.

The result was a more explosive game, and teams that looked a lot more like America.

So when you’re swinging with friends this Super Bowl weekend, set aside an ice cream sundae for the cat who made it all possible: Lamar Hunt, 1932-2006.

Comments? E-mail letters@miamisunpost.com.