Sixty years ago, Chiefs franchise won first championship despite famous coin-flip gaffe
The Dallas Texans were coming off a championship season when they relocated to Kansas City in 1963 and changed their nickname to the Chiefs.
During the Texans’ final season in Dallas, they won the American Football League championship game on Dec. 23, 1962 by beating the Houston Oilers 20-17 in double overtime. Running back Abner Haynes scored both touchdowns for the Texans, but that’s not what he’s best remembered for 60 years later.
It was the coin toss after the regulation that cemented Haynes’ place in football history.
The wind strengthened during the game and so did the Oilers, who rallied from a 17-0 deficit at halftime to tie the game. At the end of regulation, Texans coach Hank Stram gave Haynes instructions for the coin toss.
“When we went into overtime, coach Stram called me to the sideline and told me that we did not want to receive,” Haynes recalled in Ed Gruver’s book, “The American Football League: A Year-by-Year History, 1960-1969.”
“Our plan was to kick the ball to them, hold them, try to get a good runback on the punt return, and get on the board with the field goal.”
But when Haynes called “heads” and won the toss, he followed by saying: “We’ll kick to the clock.”
Unfortunately for Haynes, the AFL championship game was being seen by a nationally televised audience on ABC. Legendary broadcaster Jack Buck was on the field with a microphone, and Haynes’ mistake was heard by everyone watching.
“He can’t do that,” tackle Al Jamison, a Houston co-captain, told the referee, per the New York Times. “He can’t decide whether to kick and also which direction he wants.”
The referee agreed, so the Oilers naturally chose to have the gale at their backs. Thus, the Texans ended up kicking into the howling wind despite winning the coin toss.
Stram told United Press International: “He just didn’t understand the option. It was a mistake you don’t like to make.”
Fortunately for Haynes, the Texans’ defense bailed him out with a pair of interceptions and a forced punt in overtime. The extra period ended with the score still tied but the Texans had the ball.
Dallas gained the wind advantage for the second overtime and made good use of it. The Texans drove into range for a field goal, and Tommy Booker’s 25-yard attempt won it. Len Dawson was the holder on the kick.
“I’ve never seen a team work harder to win a football game,” Stram told the UPI, “I don’t just mean this league or pro football. I mean anywhere.”
That gaffe meant Haynes wouldn’t be blamed for a loss, but he was still the subject of ridicule in newspapers.
The Omaha World-Herald wrote: “Option stumps Haynes.” Legendary sports columnist Red Barber compared Haynes to a comic-strip figure, writing: “Lil Abner had never been in one of these sudden death affairs.”
“Flip flips Dallas ace Abner Haynes,” wrote the Morning Herald.
The plus side of Haynes’ mistake was that it, along with the drama of the game, brought attention to the upstart AFL.
“The league needed success stories and it was going to be a tough go in Dallas with the Cowboys also there,” ,” Chiefs founder Lamar Hunt said later, per the New York Times. “But the AFL was taking off in places like Buffalo and San Diego and Houston, and after that great championship game, our league was here to stay.”
Here is a nice recap of the nutty game and Haynes’ infamous call.
This story was originally published December 20, 2022 at 8:53 AM.
