NFL team season (moved from Dallas)
The
1963 Kansas City Chiefs season
was the 4th and inaugural season for the
Kansas City Chiefs
as a professional
AFL
franchise
; Despite winning the
AFL championship game
the
previous year
, the Chiefs were 5?7?2 in 1963, third in the four-team Western division.
[1]
The Chiefs were winless for two months in the middle of the season and were eliminated from the postseason in mid-November after ten games.
[2]
They finished the season with three consecutive wins at home, with diminished attendance. Their 27?27 tie with the
Buffalo Bills
in September was the first tie in franchise history.
For the previous three seasons, the team was known as the
Dallas Texans
and played at the
Cotton Bowl
. Owner and founder
Lamar Hunt
moved the team following the
1962 AFL Championship
. Despite enormous success in
Dallas
, the city could not sustain two professional football franchises
[3]
(the other being the
NFL
's
Dallas Cowboys
). The team was renamed the
Kansas City Chiefs
and moved into
Municipal Stadium
alongside the
Kansas City Athletics
baseball team. The Chiefs 59?7 victory over the Denver Broncos in week 1 set two franchise records that still stand as of the end of the 2021 season: points scored in a game (59) and largest margin of victory (52).
Move to Kansas City
[
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]
After three seasons in Texas, including an AFL championship in 1962, it was apparent that Dallas couldn’t support two teams.
[3]
Hunt investigated opportunities to move his team to several cities for the 1963 season, including
Miami
,
[3]
Atlanta
,
[3]
Seattle
, and
New Orleans
. Hunt wanted to find a city to which he could commute easily from Dallas, and when he was unable to secure
Tulane Stadium
in New Orleans because
the university
didn’t want its football program to compete with a pro team, he was persuaded by
Mayor
H. Roe Bartle
to move to
Kansas City, Missouri
.
[4]
The negotiations in Kansas City were conducted in secrecy.
[3]
On several occasions Hunt and
Jack Steadman
, the team's general manager, were in Kansas City and met with businessmen. Bartle introduced Hunt as "Mr. Lamar" in all the meetings with other Kansas City businessmen. Steadman was introduced as "Jack X."
[4]
Most impressive about this move was the support the team received from the community even before the team announced the move. Hunt made the move dependent upon the ability of Mayor Bartle and the Kansas City community to guarantee him 35,000 in season ticket sales. Hunt had arrived at this number because that was the Texans' average attendance at the
Cotton Bowl
in Dallas. An ambitious campaign took shape to deliver on Bartle's guarantee to Hunt of tripling the season-ticket base the Texans had enjoyed in Dallas. Kansas City's mayor also promised to add 3,000 permanent seats to Municipal Stadium, as well as 11,000 temporary bleacher seats. Along with Bartle, a number of other prominent Kansas Citians stepped forward to aid in the efforts, putting together more than 1,000 workers to sell season tickets.
[3]
Bartle called to his office 20 business leaders and called upon them to form an association later known as "The Gold Coats", whose sole objective was to sell and take down payments on the 35,000 season tickets required. Not an easy task when one considers the move was still secret and "The Gold Coats" had to sell season tickets to people without knowing the team name, where it was coming from, who the owner was, which football league they played in, who the players or coaches were, when the team played its first game in Kansas City, or where it played. Hunt gave Bartle a four-month deadline; Bartle and "The Gold Coats" made good in only eight weeks. Later, Hunt admitted he was really only hoping for 20,000, for which he still would have moved the franchise. On May 22, Hunt announced he was moving the franchise to
Kansas City, Missouri
.
[3]
[5]
Hunt, with a roster replete with players who had played college football in Texas, wanted to maintain a lineage to the team's roots and wanted to call the club the
Kansas City Texans
.
[3]
"The
Lakers
stayed the Lakers when they moved from Minnesota to California", he reasoned. "But Jack Steadman convinced me that wasn’t too smart. It wouldn’t sell." The team was renamed the Chiefs?one of the most popular suggestions Hunt received in a name-the-team contest and began playing in Kansas City's
Municipal Stadium
in 1963.
[4]
A name also considered at the time for the team was the
Kansas City Mules
.
[4]
The name, "Chiefs" is derived from Mayor Bartle, who 35 years prior, founded the
Native American
-based honor society known as
The
Tribe of Mic-O-Say
within the
Boy Scouts of America
organization, which earned him the nickname, "The Chief".
[3]
The Chiefs' first Kansas City home was at 22nd and Brooklyn, called Municipal Stadium, which opened forty years earlier in 1923 and had 49,002 seats. The Chiefs shared Municipal Stadium with the
Kansas City Athletics
of
Major League Baseball
. The first appearance of the Chiefs in Municipal Stadium attracted just 5,721 fans for a 17?13 preseason victory over
Buffalo
on August 9.
[3]
[6]
Season background
[
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]
The Chiefs' inaugural season in Kansas City began with owner Lamar Hunt's trade of quarterback
Cotton Davidson
to the
Oakland Raiders
, which landed the number one overall selection in the
AFL Draft
(which Kansas City used to select
Buck Buchanan
).
[3]
Ironically, the Raiders would later select
Gene Upshaw
in 1967 for the express purpose of blocking Buchanan. The Chiefs tabbed
offensive guard
Ed Budde
from
Michigan State
with their own number one selection, while stealing another future Hall of Fame inductee,
Bobby Bell
from
Minnesota
in the seventh round. Buchanan, Budde and Bell all became starters on their way to a combined 526 games with the team and all three of them played their entire careers with the Chiefs.
[3]
Rookie running back
Stone Johnson
, who was a sprinter in the
1960 Summer Olympics
in Rome, suffered a fractured vertebra in his neck in a preseason game against Houston on August 31 in
Wichita, Kansas
. He died 8 days later on September 8 and his jersey number 33 was subsequently retired.
[3]
The Chiefs finished their first season in Kansas City with a 5?7?2 record and failed to reappear in the AFL Championship game for a consecutive year.
Personnel
[
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]
Roster
[
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]
1963 Kansas City Chiefs roster
|
Quarterbacks
Running Backs
Wide Receivers / Flankers
Tight Ends
|
|
Offensive Linemen
Defensive Linemen
|
|
Linebackers
Defensive Backs
Special Teams
Rookies in italics
|
[7]
Preseason
[
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]
The Chiefs lost their exhibition opener in San Diego before reeling off three straight wins, then fell to the Oilers in Wichita in the preseason finale.
Schedule
[
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]
Regular season
[
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]
Coming off the longest game (at that point) in football history against the
Houston Oilers
in the
AFL championship game
, hopes were high for a repeat title.
[8]
The Chiefs could not find the same swagger in their new home in Kansas City for their inaugural season. They finished at 5?7?2, which included three wins to finish the season.
Schedule
[
edit
]
Week
|
Date
|
Opponent
|
Result
|
Record
|
Venue
|
Attendance
|
Recap
|
1
|
|
at
Denver Broncos
|
W
59?7
|
1?0
|
Bears Stadium
|
21,115
|
Recap
|
2
|
Bye
|
3
|
September 22
|
at
Buffalo Bills
|
T
27?27
|
1?0?1
|
War Memorial Stadium
|
33,487
|
Recap
|
4
|
September 29
|
at
San Diego Chargers
|
L
10?24
|
1?1?1
|
Balboa Stadium
|
22,654
|
Recap
|
5
|
October 6
|
Houston Oilers
|
W
28?7
|
2?1?1
|
Municipal Stadium
|
27,801
|
Recap
|
6
|
October 13
|
Buffalo Bills
|
L
26?35
|
2?2?1
|
Municipal Stadium
|
25,519
|
Recap
|
7
|
October 20
|
San Diego Chargers
|
L
17?38
|
2?3?1
|
Municipal Stadium
|
30,107
|
Recap
|
8
|
October 27
|
at Houston Oilers
|
L
7?28
|
2?4?1
|
Jeppesen Stadium
|
26,331
|
Recap
|
9
|
November 3
|
at
Oakland Raiders
|
L
7?10
|
2?5?1
|
Frank Youell Field
|
18,919
|
Recap
|
10
|
|
Oakland Raiders
|
L
7?22
|
2?6?1
|
Municipal Stadium
|
24,897
|
Recap
|
11
|
November 17
|
at
Boston Patriots
|
T
24?24
|
2?6?2
|
Fenway Park
|
17,270
|
Recap
|
12
|
November 24
|
Scheduled AFL games
postponed
to December 22
[9]
|
13
|
December 1
|
at
New York Jets
|
L
0?17
|
2?7?2
|
Polo Grounds
|
18,824
|
Recap
|
14
|
December 8
|
Denver Broncos
|
W
52?21
|
3?7?2
|
Municipal Stadium
|
17,443
|
Recap
|
15
|
|
Boston Patriots
|
W
35?3
|
4?7?2
|
Municipal Stadium
|
12,598
|
Recap
|
16
|
December 22
|
New York Jets
|
W
48?0
|
5?7?2
|
Municipal Stadium
|
12,202
|
Recap
|
Note:
Intra-division opponents are in
bold
text.
|
Standings
[
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]
Note:
Tie games were not officially counted in the standings in the AFL.
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Kansas City Chiefs History 1960s
Archived
April 21, 2007, at the
Wayback Machine
KCChiefs.com
- ^
"Chargerw ship Bills as 38,592 watch"
.
Eugene Register-Guard
. Oregon. Associated Press. November 18, 1963. p. 2B.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
k
l
m
Kansas City Chiefs History 1960's
Archived
April 21, 2007, at the
Wayback Machine
KCChiefs.com
- ^
a
b
c
d
Covitz, Randy; Pulliam, Kent.
Chiefs' founder Lamar Hunt dies
Kansas City Star
, December 14, 2006.
- ^
"Everything is set for Texans' change"
.
Lawrence Daily Journal-World
. (Kansas). Associated Press. May 23, 1963. p. 10.
- ^
"Chief gridmen in home debut"
.
Lawrence Daily Journal-World
. (Kansas). Associated Press. August 9, 1963. p. 11.
- ^
https://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/kan/1963_roster.htm
- ^
"Kansas City Chiefs hope to win again"
.
Milwaukee Journal
. Associated Press. August 30, 1963. p. 14, part 2.
- ^
AFL 1963 Schedule Oakland Tribune May 24, 1963 ? Newspapers.com
External links
[
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]
|
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- Founded in 1960
- Formerly the
Dallas Texans
(1960?1962)
- Based and headquartered in
Kansas City
,
Missouri
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Key personnel
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Formerly the
Dallas Texans
(1960?1962)
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