Lamar Hunt and the Founding of the American Football League by Tom Richey

If there were anyone outside Lamar Hunt’s immediate family capable of chronicling some of the lighter moments in the life of the American Football League’s founding father, Tom Richey would certainly be a qualified candidate. A lifelong friend of Hunt’s, Richey’s relationship with America’s greatest sportsman dates back to their prep school days at the Hill School in Pottstown, Pennsylvania.

There certainly have been many fine journalists who have recounted the days of “The Foolish Club” and the formation of the American Football League. While Richey gives appropriate treatment to the AFL subject matter as his title suggests, there’s something else that makes this 200-page account of Lamar’s life and times a worthwhile read – all the little personal anecdotes and tales about Lamar that can only make one smile.

By no means does this diminish Richey’s retelling of the AFL tale. Rather, for those of us who fondly knew Lamar, it is refreshing to hear Richey recount so many personal tales from the beloved founder of our franchise. Lamar was a pioneer on so many levels. He meant so much to so many in so many different sports. But to truly know Lamar was to feel his genuine appreciation for the fans, to grasp his sincere love for his family and friend, and to understand his affection for his hometown of Dallas, as well as his “adoptive” second home of Kansas City.

Richey brings all of that across as he recounts tale after tale about “Games,” a most appropriate childhood nickname bestowed upon Lamar. Over the course of his book, Richey shares some of Lamar’s most endearing quirks, idiosyncrasies and what many of us would simply refer to as “Lamar-isms.”

To capture the life of Lamar in a mere 200 pages is an unenviable task, but Richey provides some poignant personal glimpses into the man, even for those of us well-versed in Lamar’s personal history. To be sure, many of us knew of “The Founder’s” affection for SMU’s Doak Walker, but even I learned that Lamar actually carried a photo of Walker in the thigh pads of his Hill School football uniform (#37 in Walker’s honor, of course). Great stuff. However, I don’t know what’s more difficult to look at, the striped sleeves of the Hill School jerseys or those hideous Denver Broncos throwback vertically-striped socks!

Those sorts of unique tidbits permeate this book. To see photos of a young Lamar in action as a prep player was truly a special treat. For those of us who knew Lamar later in life, Richey paints a vivid picture of his friend as a teenager, lying in his bed dreaming big dreams. One can only chuckle to hear tales of a young Lamar going off to a summer “geology camp.” Who knew there were such things?

There are tales of Lamar hosting “football Sundays” in his 20s. These were the days before Sunday Ticket on DirectTV, so Lamar would place two televisions side-by-side so the NFL games on NBC and CBS could both be watched simultaneously. Truly priceless stuff.

All of this eventually leads us up to the late 1950s when Hunt began the painstaking process of trying to bring an NFL franchise to Dallas. While that story is certainly well-documented, Richey brings some new details to the table, talking about how he and Lamar would spread United States maps across the floor trying to pick cities for a “new league.” There’s a fateful tale of Lamar and Richey talking about the “new league” from dusk ‘til dawn at New York’s Central Park, all nuances of the AFL story that I’d certainly never heard before.

As the American Football League became a reality, Richey became a minority partner in the N.Y. Titans, Harry Wismer’s franchise in the Big Apple. One really wonders how the AFL ever did fly, especially after hearing how the entire Titans operation was being run out of Wismer’s Park Avenue apartment: “A sparsely staffed ticket team using a picnic table and chairs would process tickets. The coaches worked out of the dining room.”

It was at Richey’s apartment in the Big Apple where Lamar interviewed Tom Landry as a candidate to coach his Dallas Texans, only to discover that Landry had plans to coach the NFL’s expansion franchise, the Dallas Cowboys, news that hit Hunt like a ton of bricks.

Again and again, it’s the previously-untold tales that Richey shares that truly make this book unique. Richey recounts the raucous Super Bowl IV post-game victory celebration – after the Chiefs purchased the Vikings stash of party supplies – and moved them to their own hotel. Who knew Lamar got hoisted onto the statue of Stonewall Jackson in Jackson Square that January evening?

If you’re a fan of pro football, if you’re a follower of the Chiefs, if you’d like a “behind-the-scenes” look at what made Lamar Hunt such a marvelous unique individual, then Richey’s book is worth a read. Don’t expect a “tell-all” exposé. This is a remembrance from a lifelong friend. In the final analysis, we should all be so fortunate to have a friend such as Richey to share so many fond stories as can be found in Lamar Hunt and the Founding of the American Football League.

Pete Moris – Associate Director of Public Relations, Kansas City Chiefs – November 2009