This Week in Chiefs History

May 16, 2008, 3:02:10 AM by Brad Kuhbander

The greatest honor that be bestowed on any NFL player, coach or administrator is to have their bust set in bronze in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. On May 11, 2005 a special honor was placed on two members of the Chiefs organization who were often unnoticed to the fans, but were vital to the team. Trainers Dave Kendall and Bud Epps were elected into the Missouri Sports Medicine Hall of Fame.

“Both Dave and Bud have been extremely important and valuable to the Chiefs organization for the past number of years,” Chiefs President Carl Peterson said at the time of their selection.

Kendall worked for the Chiefs for 30 years before retiring in 2008. He originally joined the Chiefs as an assistant trainer in ‘77 spending seven seasons in that capacity working with Wayne Rudy before taking over as just the second Head Athletic Trainer in team history in ‘84. Prior to joining the Chiefs, he served as a student trainer at his alma mater of Pittsburg State.

Epps, a University of Missouri alum, worked in the Kansas City athletic room for 22 seasons from ‘84-05. Epps worked as a student trainer at his alma mater and spent an eight-year term as an assistant trainer for the Tigers prior to joining the Chiefs in ‘84. During his tenure at Missouri he worked with all of the Tigers athletic teams and served as head trainer for the men’s basketball team led by longtime head coach Norm Stewart.

The opinions offered in this column do not necessarily reflect those of the Kansas City Chiefs.

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A eight-year veteran of the Chiefs, Kuhbander is Kansas City's Manager of Football Information. As the club's in-house "stats guru," he coordinates statistical research for the club's coaching staff and executives, in addition to performing a variety of other functions for the Public Relations Department. Every week he contributes a "Stat of the Week" and a "This Week in Chiefs History" segment for kcchiefs.com.