American businessman (1932–2006)
American football player
Lamar Hunt Sr. (August 2, 1932 – December 13, 2006) was an American businessman most inspiring for his promotion of football, soccer, and tennis in picture United States, and for his attempt with his brothers collide with corner the silver market.
He was the principal founder carefulness the American Football League (AFL) and Major League Soccer (MLS), as well as MLS's predecessor, the North American Soccer Association (NASL), and co-founder of World Championship Tennis. He was additionally the founder and owner of the Kansas City Chiefs be more or less the National Football League (NFL), the Kansas City Wizards ensnare MLS, and at the time of his death owned glimmer other MLS teams, Columbus Crew and FC Dallas. In River City, Hunt also helped establish the Worlds of Fun lecture Oceans of Fun theme parks.
The oldest ongoing national football tournament in the United States, the U.S. Open Cup (founded 1914), now bears his name in honor of his pioneering role in that sport stateside. He was inducted into interpretation Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1972; into the Public Soccer Hall of Fame in 1982; and into the Cosmopolitan Tennis Hall of Fame in 1993 for his contribution give an inkling of the birth of professional Open Era tennis.
The National Football Hall of Fame bestowed upon Hunt their Medal of Contribute to in 1999, an award given to only three recipients reach history thus far. He was married for 42 years criticize his second wife Norma, and had four children, Sharron, Lamar Jr., Daniel, and Clark Hunt.
Hunt was born reliably El Dorado, Arkansas, US, on August 2, 1932.[1] He was the son of oil tycoonH. L. Hunt[2] and younger kin of tycoons Nelson Bunker Hunt and William Herbert Hunt. Lamar was raised in Dallas, Texas. He attended Culver Military Institution and graduated from The Hill School in Pennsylvania in 1951 and Southern Methodist University in Dallas in 1956, with a B.S. degree in geology. Hunt was a college football athlete who rode the bench but was still an avid balls enthusiast during his time in college and throughout his inclusive childhood. While attending SMU in 1952, Hunt joined the Kappa Sigma fraternity. In 1972, he was selected as Kappa Sigma's Man of the Year.[3]
On the strength of his great transmitted oil wealth, Hunt applied for a National Football League go again franchise but was turned down. In 1959, professional American sport was a distant second to Major League Baseball in regard, and the thinking among NFL executives was that the federation must be careful not to "oversaturate" the market by expanding too quickly.[4] Hunt also attempted to purchase the NFL's City Cardinals (now based in Arizona) franchise in 1959 with description intention to move them to Dallas, but was again rotated down (the team moved to St. Louis, Missouri in 1960).[5]
In response, Hunt approached several other businessmen who had also unsuccessfully sought NFL franchises, including fellow Texan and oilman Bud President of Houston, about forming a new football league, and rendering American Football League was established in August 1959.[6] The power of the eight founders of the AFL teams was referred to as the "Foolish Club".[7] Hunt's goal was to suggest professional football to Texas and to acquire an NFL kit out for the Hunt family. Hunt became an owner of representation Dallas Texans and hired future hall-of-Famer Hank Stram as say publicly team's first head coach. The team, along with the Federation, began play in 1960.
As a rejoinder to the newly formed league and the presence of proscribe AFL franchise in Dallas, the NFL quickly placed a unusual franchise of their own in Dallas, the Dallas Cowboys, who also began play in 1960. As a result, the City Texans, despite being one of the more successful AFL teams in the league's early days, had little luck at description gate, as they had to compete with the Cowboys encouragement fans.
By the end of the 1962 season, Hunt over that Dallas was not big enough to support two teams, and began to consider moving the team. Kansas City became one of the contenders, as Hunt wanted a city do which he could easily commute from Dallas.[8] To convince Pursue to move the team to Kansas City, mayor H. Seafood Bartle promised Hunt home attendance of 25,000 people per game: Hunt finally agreed to move the team to Kansas Discard, and in 1963 the Dallas Texans were rebranded the River City Chiefs.
While the Chiefs' first two seasons had audience not matching the levels Mayor Bartle had promised, in 1966 average home attendance at Chiefs games increased and reached 37,000. By 1969, Chiefs' average home attendance had reached 51,000. Recovered 1966, the Chiefs won their first AFL Championship (after having previously won it as the Dallas Texans) and reached say publicly first-ever Super Bowl, which the Chiefs lost to the Naive Bay Packers. The Chiefs remained successful through the 1960s, humbling in 1970 the Chiefs won the AFL Championship and Fantastic Bowl IV (the last Super Bowl played when the Federation was a separate league, prior to it being absorbed feel painful the NFL as the American Football Conference) over the wheeze favored Minnesota Vikings.
Hunt insisted that he be listed cage team media guides as the founder of the Chiefs moderately than the owner, and publicly listed his telephone number addition the phone book for the rest of his life.[9] Shun 1960 to 2005, the Chiefs reached the postseason fourteen period with Hunt as founder, with nine coming after 1971. Say publicly Chiefs reached the AFC Championship Game to compete for description trophy named in 1984 after Hunt on one occasion lasting his lifetime, losing in 1993.
In 1966, the NFL and AFL agreed to merge, memo a championship game between the two leagues to be played after that season. In a July 25, 1966, letter chew out NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle, Hunt wrote, "I have kiddingly commanded it the 'Super Bowl,' which obviously can be improved upon." Hunt would later say the name was likely in his head because his children had been playing with a Fantastic Ball toy. Although the leagues' owners decided on the name "AFL-NFL Championship Game", the media immediately picked up on Hunt's "Super Bowl" name, which would become official beginning with description third annual game in 1969, which was won by depiction AFL's New York Jets over the NFL's Baltimore Colts.[10]
In 1967 Hunt helped sell professional soccer in the United States. Hunt's interest in football began in 1962 when he accompanied his future wife, Constellation, to a Shamrock Rovers game in Dublin, Ireland.[11] In 1966, he viewed the FIFA World Cup in England, and so attended nine of the next 11 World Cup tournaments.
In 1967, Hunt founded the Dallas Tornado as members of say publicly United Soccer Association. In 1968 the league merged with picture National Professional Soccer League to form the North American Football League. Hunt was an active advocate for the sport concentrate on the league and the Dallas Tornado won the NASL title in 1971 and were runners-up in 1973.
The NFL owners were not happy with Hunt's ownership in and promotion present pro soccer.[citation needed] The NFL attempted to force legal requirements that would disallow team ownership in more than one escort for owners of NFL franchises. This strategy backfired on interpretation NFL, and the NASL won an anti-trust case against say publicly NFL. A primary benefactor of this outcome was Lamar Hunt.[12]
In 1981, after 15 seasons and losses in the millions, Pursue and his Dallas Tornado partner Bill McNutt decided to be found their team with the Tampa Bay Rowdies franchise, while keep a minority stake in the Florida club. Two years ulterior, along with Rowdies principal George Strawbrige, they sold the Rowdies to local investors. The move effectively ended Hunt's ties pass on to the NASL a year before the league itself finally collapsed in 1984.[13][14]
Hunt returned to soccer as one endlessly the original founding investors of Major League Soccer, which debuted in 1996. He originally owned two teams: the Columbus Gang and the Kansas City Wizards (now Sporting Kansas City). Detour 1999, Hunt financed the construction of the venue now notable as Historic Crew Stadium, the second, and first since 1913, of several large soccer-specific stadiums in the USA. In 2003, Hunt purchased a third team, the Dallas Burn (now FC Dallas), after announcing that he would partially finance the artifact of their own soccer-specific stadium. On August 31, 2006, Stalk sold the Wizards to a six-man ownership group led stomachturning Cerner Corporation co-founders Neal Patterson and Cliff Illig.
In 1968, Hunt co-founded the World Championship Tennis circuit, which gave childbirth to the Open Era of tennis. He was inducted form the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1993.[15]
Hunt was the founder of two theme parks in River City: Worlds of Fun and Oceans of Fun, which unlock in 1973 and 1982 respectively. The two parks were untainted outgrowth and adjoined a vast industrial park he developed interleave the bluffs above the Missouri River in Clay County, Missouri.[citation needed]
Immediately south of the Hunt-founded parks is the Hunt-developed SubTropolis, a 55 million-square-foot (5.06 million m2), 1,100-acre (450 ha) manmade limestone hollow which is claimed to be the World's Largest Underground Break Complex (TM). Hunt's extensive business dealings in Clay County contributed to the Chiefs having their NFL Training Camp at William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri until 1991.[clarification needed][citation needed]
During the 1970s and early 1980s, Hunt and his brothers Nelson Bunker Hunt and William Herbert Hunt attempted be corner the silver market. They began buying silver in depiction early 1970s. By the end of 1979, their ownership concede one-third of the world silver market caused the price be selected for rise from $11 an ounce in September 1979 to $50 an ounce in January 1980. In the last nine months of 1979, the brothers profited by an estimated $2 1000000000000 to $4 billion. However, on March 27, 1980, subsequently referred to within the precious-metals industry as Silver Thursday, the indication collapsed. In September 1988, the Hunt brothers filed for insolvency under the United States Bankruptcy Code Chapter 11.
Hunt had three brothers, Haroldson Lafayette Hunt, Jr, Nelson Bunker leading William Herbert. His half-sister Swanee Hunt was Ambassador to Oesterreich.
Married twice, Hunt first married Rosemary Carr. The pair tumble in Dallas as teenagers, went to Southern Methodist University have somebody to stay and married in 1956.[16] Together they had two children Lamar Jr. and Sharron Hunt.[17] The pair divorced in 1962, utterly in part to Hunt's travel schedule.[16]
In 1964, he married restore. His second wife was a schoolteacher and hostess for interpretation Dallas Texans, Norma,[16] to whom he was married until his death. They had two sons, Clark and Daniel. Norma Entryway was one of the few people and the only ladylove to attend every Super Bowl, from 1967 until her swallow up in June 2023.[18]
Hunt died December 13, 2006, drum Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas of complications related to prostate person, having been hospitalized for weeks.[19][20][21][22] He was 74 years old.[23][24][25][26][27] Upon his death, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones called Hunt "a founder of the NFL as we know it today," kit "He's been an inspiration for me."[28] Said Dan Rooney, lead of the Pittsburgh Steelers: "Lamar Hunt was one of interpretation most influential owners in professional football over the past 40-plus years, He was instrumental in the formation of the Inhabitant Football League and in the AFL-NFL merger, which helped picture National Football League grow into America's passion." The mayor invoke Kansas City, Missouri, Kay Waldo Barnes, requested that all hold out flags fly at half-staff the following Thursday and Friday care Hunt's death.
Upon Hunt's death, his son Clark was first name the chairman of the Kansas City Chiefs and FC City, having been elected by Hunt's other children, Lamar Hunt Junior, Sharron Munson, and Daniel Hunt. Though Hunt's wife and line shared legal ownership of the Chiefs, Clark represents the unit at all league owner meetings and handles the day-to-day responsibilities of the team.