Chiefs Super Bowl, Travis & Taylor and a Royals rally: Top 10 KC sports stories of 2024
.jpg "An eventful year in Kansas City sports included award-winning performances by (left to right) the Royals’ Bobby Witt Jr., Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes and Current’s Temwa Chawinga.")
Another Super Bowl triumph, but a celebration that ended with a tragedy. Welcoming a new soccer stadium on the Missouri River, but denying a new baseball stadium in downtown — for now.
The Bobby Witt Jr. experience. Travis and Taylor everywhere. Messi magic at Arrowhead. Another goal for Chawinga.
The 2024 year in sports brought national attention to Kansas City and the region.
The Chiefs and Royals made the postseason in the same year, and three area college football teams were ranked in the preseason top 25 for the first time. Yes, KC’s teams gave their fan bases plenty of cheerful moments.
Let’s wrap up the eventful year by recounting the biggest stories.
“That’s how we roll”
It’s Andy Reid’s favorite phrase to describe any Chiefs process, and 2024 has been the ultimate roll.
Technically, the four playoff victories — starting with the Wild Card triumph over the Miami Dolphins that kicked off in minus-4 degrees and ended with the Super Bowl victory over the San Francisco 49ers in overtime on Feb. 11 — were part of the 2023 season.
But that 4-0 record in January and February coupled with a franchise-record 15-1 mark for 2024 heading into the season finale, means the Chiefs were a Week 11 loss in Buffalo away from a perfect 2024.
Now the Chiefs bid for an NFL-record third straight Super Bowl triumph.
And famous fan Taylor Swift, Travis Kelce’s girlfriend, has been around to see much of it ... after he cheered her on during The Eras Tour.
It’s how they roll.
When the laughter died in sorrow
Another Super Bowl triumph, another championship parade. On Feb. 14, hundreds of thousands lined Grand Blvd. and awaited their heroes at Union Stadium, and the Chiefs delivered on-stage speeches for the third time in five years.
But shortly after this one concluded gunfire broke out.
One person, radio personality Lisa Lopez-Galvan, was killed and 22 others were injured by gunshot wounds. Three men were charged with murder.
Kansas City had been the sight of three previous championship parades through downtown over the past decade with little criminal activity reported. This one stunned and unnerved the region, and raises concerns about security for future events, like the 2026 FIFA World Cup coming to Kansas City.
Bobby Baseball’s big bucks
The Royals had lost young stars to organizations offering larger contracts before, but not this time. In early February, the team announced it had signed 23-year-old shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. to an 11-year deal worth more than $288.7 million. It was by far the largest deal ever given to a Royals player.
“It’s really, really hard to draft and develop generational talent in this business, and it’s even harder to keep them in the same uniform, and that’s what this is really all about” Royals owner John Sherman said.
A Royals resurgence
The signing of Witt proved to be the final of a flurry of offseason moves that reshaped the Royals, who lost 106 games the previous year. In late 2023, they added starting pitchers Michael Wacha and Seth Lugo, among other acquisitions, and the results bordered on miraculous.
They became the sixth club since divisional play started in 1969 to post an improvement of at least 30 games. Witt’s incredible season — he led baseball with a .332 average while turning in a second straight 30-30 and winning a Gold Glove and Silver Slugger — led the way to an 86-76 record and first postseason berth in a decade.
The Royals swept the Baltimore Orioles in the Wild Card round before falling to the New York Yankees.
Witt, Lugo, Salvador Perez and Cole Ragans were All-Stars, and Witt’s 50 dingers in a runner-up finish set a Home Run Derby record. Meaningful baseball has returned to Kansas City.
Strikeout at the ballot box
On April 2, more than 58% of Jackson County voters rejected a sales tax measure that would have helped fund a new downtown baseball stadium and renovations for GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium.
“We’re deeply disappointed as we are steadfast in our belief that Jackson County is better with the Chiefs and the Royals,” Sherman said.
The teams continue to weigh options with funding plans and locations, perhaps even considering a move across the state line to Kansas. But one thing seems certain. Neighbors at the Truman Sports Complex since 1972 and 1973, the Chiefs and Royals will now forge their own paths.
A home of their own for “KC Baby”
Everyone looks forward to the home opener, but this was different. On March 16, the Kansas City Current played its first game in the $118 million CPKC Stadium, the first constructed specifically for a women’s professional team.
Co-owners Brittany and Patrick Mahomes delivered the pregame “KC Baby,” chant made famous by midfielder Lo’eau LaBonta and a sellout crowd of 11,500 watched the Current defeat the Portland Thorns 5-4.
League MVP and scoring champion Temwa Chawinga led the team to the playoff semifinals a year after the Current finished 11th of 12 teams.
Messi stars in KC: “You don’t see that in MLS”
A record crowd for soccer at Arrowhead Stadium and Missouri of 72,610 got more than a glimpse of soccer great Lionel Messi, playing for Inter Miami against Sporting KC. They got a show.
Messi threaded a perfect pass to Diego Gomez for a game-tying goal, and delivered a fabulous strike from distance to lead his team to a 3-2 victory on April 14.
“If you just look at the first goal, the pass that Messi makes,” Sporting KC manager Peter Vermes said. “And then the second goal, the ball he hits from where he hits it from, I think you all would agree that you don’t see that in MLS.”
For his role in that game, Copa America contests and other developments leading to the 2026 FIFA World Cup in Kansas City, Sporting KC President and CEO Jake Reid was named MLS Executive of the Year.
K-State, Mizzou, KU jump on hype train
Respect for the KC-area college football teams? The Associated Press preseason poll was revealed on Aug. 12, and for the first time Missouri (No. 11), Kansas State (18) and Kansas (22) were listed among the nation’s best.
Returning starting quarterbacks Brady Cook, Avery Johnson and Jalon Daniels gave their teams College Football Playoff hopes heading into the first year of the 12-team bracket.
The locals fell short of the playoffs, but the Tigers and Wildcats reached bowl games. Meanwhile, the Jayhawks, playing their home games at Children’s Mercy Park and Arrowhead Stadium while David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium is being renovated, fell short.
But KU gave its fans something to cheer when it became the first team with a losing record to knock off three straight ranked teams.
A magical Mizzou moment
The 2023-24 men’s basketball season couldn’t end fast enough for the Missouri Tigers. They finished 0-18 in the SEC, the program’s first winless conference season since 1908. How would Dennis Gates’ team respond?
The definitive answer came on Dec. 8, when Missouri took down top-ranked Kansas 76-67 at Mizzou Arena.
The Tigers looked improved to open the season but a soft schedule left some doubt. There was none after this game. Students stormed the floor to celebrate the biggest Mizzou victory in years.
“Mizzou played great today, but that court storm may have been even better than Mizzou played,” Bill Self said. “That was a big-time court storm.”
Quincy Hall’s grit, grind nets dramatic Olympic gold
The United States track and field team — with the men coached by Kansas’ Stanley Redwine — had its best showing at an Olympics since 1984 with 34 medals. If any event symbolized the spirit of the team in Paris, it was the men’s 400 meters on Aug. 7, won by former Raytown South standout Quincy Hall.
Running fourth after the final turn, Hall dug deep and overtook leader Matthew Hudson-Smith of Great Britain in the final stretch to capture the gold medal in a sizzling 43.40 seconds, the second-fastest Olympic 400 of all time.
“I was just thinking, ‘Get home, sir. Get home, sir,’” Hall said. “I don’t give up. I just grit, I grind. I’ve got determination.”
And an honorable mention...
NASCAR’s closest finish ... ever — at Kansas Speedway
Nearly 2,800 races have been contested since NASCAR started in 1949. The closest finish for first place happened at Kansas Speedway on May 5.
FS1 broadcasters had called the race for Chris Buescher’s No. 17 Ford, and his team had jumped over the wall in celebration.
But wait a second.
The high-speed camera revealed the No. 5 Chevrolet of Kyle Larson somehow made up enough ground in the final few yards to inch ahead, winning the race by a record narrow margin of 0.001 seconds.
“I didn’t know if I won or not,” Larson said. “I almost didn’t care … because the finish was freaking awesome.”
This story was originally published December 29, 2024 at 6:30 AM.