Watch the Chiefs’ documentary about their long-forgotten basketball team
During the Royals’ 1978 season, third baseman George Brett suffered thumb and shoulder injuries that limited him to 128 games.
After the season, there was more misfortune as Brett fractured his thumb playing basketball ... against a group of Chiefs players at Municipal Auditorium. It came during a charity game that pitted players from the neighboring teams at the Truman Sports Complex to benefit the Greater Kansas City Easter Seals Society.
Team Chiefs featured Tony Adams, Mike Livingston, Emmitt Thomas, Larry Marshall, Ted McKnight, Tony Reed, MacArthur Lane, Tim Gray, Bob Simmons, Henry Marshall and Walter White*. Brett led Team Royals which included Frank White, Darrell Porter, Larry Gura, Joe Zdeb, Clint Hurdle, Jamie Quirk, Willie Wilson, Paul Splittorff, Rich Gale and Denny Matthews.
*No, not that Walter White
The game, which was held in January 1979, was broadcast on KYYS (KY-102).
“I listened to the game over the radio,” then-Royals general manager Joe Burke told The Times, “and when I turned it off, I told my wife, ‘Thank God nobody got hurt.’ A few minutes later, the phone rang, and I was told that George had a broken thumb.”
The Chiefs released a documentary about that game and the franchise’s long-forgotten basketball team called “The Lost Game.”
Here is the description for the Chiefs: “The little-known story of a barnstorming basketball team created by Lamar Hunt during club’s early years as the Dallas Texans, which served as an innovative offseason effort that evolved into a decades-long tradition connecting communities and raising money for local causes.”
The basketball team played against other NFL teams like the Broncos, Cardinals and Packers.
It’s an entertaining story, and you can watch it here.
