Kansas City Chiefs · History

The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional football franchise based in Kansas City, Missouri. Lamar Hunt founded the club in 1960 as the Dallas Texans, one of the eight original members of the AFL, and moved it to Kansas City in 1963. The Chiefs compete in the AFC West and play at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium. They have won four Super Bowls and three AFL titles.

Lamar Hunt and the birth of the AFL

Hunt, the son of a Texas oilman, tried to buy the Chicago Cardinals and move them to Dallas. The NFL turned him down, so in 1959 he set up his own league with seven other owners, a group they themselves called the Foolish Club. His Dallas Texans started play in 1960 at the Cotton Bowl and won the AFL title on 23 December 1962, beating the Houston Oilers 20-17 in double overtime after 77 minutes and 54 seconds of play, then the longest professional game ever staged. With two teams in one city, Hunt accepted an offer from Kansas City mayor H. Roe Bartle, nicknamed Chief, who promised to treble the season ticket base, and relocated in 1963.

Hank Stram, Super Bowl I and Super Bowl IV

Hank Stram coached the team from 1960 to 1974. In 1966 Kansas City won the AFL title 31-7 against the Buffalo Bills and on 15 January 1967 played the first championship game between the AFL and the NFL, at the Los Angeles Coliseum, losing 35-10 to the Green Bay Packers. It was Hunt who gave that match its name: the Super Bowl, borrowed from a rubber ball his children played with. Three years later, on 11 January 1970 in New Orleans, Kansas City beat the Minnesota Vikings 23-7 in Super Bowl IV, with Len Dawson named MVP. Stram wore a microphone for the NFL Films camera and his lines from the sideline became archive material. They were the last AFL champions before the merger.

From Municipal Stadium to Arrowhead

On Christmas Day 1971 the Chiefs lost at home to Miami after 82 minutes and 40 seconds of play, still the longest game in NFL history. It was the last played at the old Municipal Stadium. Arrowhead Stadium opened on 12 August 1972 with 76,416 seats as part of the Truman Sports Complex, next to a twin baseball park: it was the first site in the country to give football and baseball separate grounds rather than one shared bowl. A renovation costing about $375 million rebuilt it between 2007 and 2010, and since 2021 it has been called GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium. In April 2024 voters in Jackson County rejected the sales tax extension meant to fund the next round of work, leaving the stadium's future open. The club did not return to the playoffs until 1986.

Marty Schottenheimer, Derrick Thomas and the 1990s

Carl Peterson arrived as general manager in 1988 and Marty Schottenheimer coached from 1989 to 1998, reaching the postseason seven times. In 1993 the club traded for Joe Montana and signed Marcus Allen, won two playoff games and lost the AFC Championship Game 30-13 in Buffalo. The 1995 and 1997 teams both finished 13-3 and both lost their first home playoff game, to Indianapolis and Denver. Linebacker Derrick Thomas recorded seven sacks against Seattle on 11 November 1990, still the single-game league record, and remains the club's all-time sack leader. He died on 8 February 2000 from complications after a car crash and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2009.

Twenty-two years without a playoff win

Between January 1994 and January 2016 the Chiefs did not win a single postseason game. The run took in strong seasons and no reward: the 13-3 of 2003 under Dick Vermeil, with 27 rushing touchdowns from Priest Holmes, and the years of tight end Tony Gonzalez, a Chiefs player from 1997 to 2008 and long the club's leading receiver. Blocking in front of Holmes were Will Shields and Willie Roaf, both later in the Hall of Fame. The drought ended with a 30-0 win in Houston on 9 January 2016.

Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes

Andy Reid was hired in January 2013 after a 2-14 season and won eleven games in his first year with Alex Smith at quarterback. Brett Veach has been general manager since 2017. In that year's draft the club traded up to the tenth pick, in a deal with Buffalo, for Patrick Mahomes, who spent his rookie season on the bench. In his first year as a starter, 2018, Mahomes threw 50 touchdown passes for 5,097 yards and was named league MVP; he won the award again in 2022. Wide receiver Tyreek Hill and tight end Travis Kelce played alongside him, Kelce putting together seven straight seasons above 1,000 receiving yards, a first for the position. Running back Jamaal Charles is the club's all-time leading rusher.

Four Super Bowls in six years

On 2 February 2020 in Miami, Kansas City came back from ten points down in the fourth quarter to beat the San Francisco 49ers 31-20 in Super Bowl LIV, a first title in fifty years. A year later they lost 31-9 to Tampa Bay with half their offensive line injured. On 23 January 2022 they beat Buffalo 42-36 in overtime after tying the game with thirteen seconds to play, a sequence the league argued over until it changed its overtime rule. On 12 February 2023 they beat the Philadelphia Eagles 38-35 in Super Bowl LVII, and on 11 February 2024 they retained the trophy by beating San Francisco 25-22 in overtime, the first repeat since the 2004 season. The Eagles took their revenge 40-22 on 9 February 2025. The club won nine consecutive AFC West titles from 2016 to 2024.

The franchise in finals

Kansas City has played seven Super Bowls, alongside AFL titles in 1962, 1966 and 1969.

AFC West rivalries

The historic rival is the Las Vegas Raiders, met twice a year since 1960 and disliked since AFL days. Denver is the other divisional fixture with weight, above all through the John Elway and Peyton Manning years, with Los Angeles completing the group. Outside the division, the meetings with New England defined the start of the Mahomes era, including the January 2019 conference final lost in overtime without the quarterback touching the ball, a play that also ended in a rule change.

Retired numbers and the Hall of Fame

The Chiefs have retired ten numbers: Jan Stenerud's 3, Len Dawson's 16, Emmitt Thomas's 18, Abner Haynes's 28, Stone Johnson's 33, Mack Lee Hill's 36, Derrick Thomas's 58, Willie Lanier's 63, Bobby Bell's 78 and Buck Buchanan's 86. Johnson and Hill died from injuries suffered playing, in 1963 and 1965. Stenerud is the only pure placekicker elected to the Hall of Fame. Also in Canton are Hunt, Stram, Dawson, Bell, Buchanan, Lanier, Emmitt Thomas, Derrick Thomas, Curley Culp, Will Shields, Willie Roaf and Tony Gonzalez.

Arrowhead and Chiefs Kingdom

On 29 September 2014 Arrowhead registered 142.2 decibels during a game against New England, a mark certified by Guinness. The crowd performs the tomahawk chop, adopted in 1990, and calls itself Chiefs Kingdom. The stadium car parks are one of the great tailgating sites in the country, in a city that built its kitchen on barbecue. Lamar Hunt died on 13 December 2006 and his son Clark became chairman; the AFC champions' trophy has carried his father's name since 1984.