The player young Clark Hunt idolized was Chiefs’ Len Dawson, who had the ‘it factor’
READ MORE
The legacy of Len Dawson
Kansas City sports icon Len Dawson, who led the Chiefs to their first Super Bowl triumph, has died at the age of 87.
Expand All
The choice was easy for Clark Hunt’s first sports hero worship.
Len Dawson won the Super Bowl MVP award just before Hunt turned 5. Two years later, the Chiefs fielded a juggernaut team before falling in the epic playoff game to the Miami Dolphins.
“It was pretty easy for a six, seven year old to look up to Len and say that’s my hero,” Hunt said. “That feeling stayed with me my entire life.”
Hunt’s father, Lamar, founded the franchise, giving Clark, the current chairman and CEO, the ultimate backstage pass. He was mesmerized by Dawson, whose death at age 87 was announced by his family on Wednesday.
“I remember being on the field, looking up at Len,” Hunt said. “As a child, all the players were huge. He was actually one of the smallest of the group. But he was the one who had the ‘it factor.’”
That’s why Dawson was “Lenny the Cool,” a nickname earned for his calmness under pressure that helped him become one of the greatest of his day, often leading the AFL in passer rating, touchdown passes and completions to go along with the team success.
Hunt noticed that sense of awe in others. After Dawson’s playing career ended, his association with football continued in the television studio and broadcast booth. In 1978, Dawson became a host of HBO’s Inside the NFL with Nick Buoniconti and introduced himself to a new generation of fans.
Dawson worked as an analyst on the Chiefs’ radio network from 1984-2017, joining play-by-play announcers Kevin Harlan and Mitch Holthus in the booth.
“He went on to this amazing broadcast career in TV and radio and through that stayed attached to the Chiefs and Kansas City,” Hunt said. “It gave future generations, generations that weren’t alive when he won the Super Bowl, a connection with the Chiefs.”
New players, coaches and front-office employees met with or were interviewed by Dawson, who spent five decades — dating to his playing days — working as a broadcaster. They were speaking with a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame as a player and broadcaster and a Kansas City icon.
Hunt specifically recalled former general manager Scott Pioli feeling like a fan after meeting Dawson for the first time.
“In a lot of those cases it was very intimidating,” Hunt said. “’But he had this unique ability to make everybody feel comfortable, welcome and important.”
Hunt knew the feeling. When he first was interviewed by Dawson after taking over leadership of the team after his father’s death in 2006, he found himself in a “surreal” moment, sitting across from his hero, who was conducting an interview.
“I was doing an interview about my leadership of the Chiefs with somebody I totally idolized as a kid,” Hunt said.
Hunt said the team was considering tributes to Dawson but made no announcement on Wednesday. The Chiefs meet the Green Bay Packers on Thursday at GEHA Field at Arrowhead in the final preseason game. Dawson’s Chiefs lost to the Packers in Super Bowl I.
