circa 1967: Lamar Hunt, owner of the Kansas City Chiefs football team, stands in the empty football stadium, Kansas City, Missouri, late 1960s. (Photo by Shel Hershorn/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
18. Lamar Hunt enshrined in Pro Football Hall of Fame (1972)
Lamar Hunt’s legacy reaches far beyond the realm of American professional football and his enshrinement in the Hall of Fame in 1972 came when he was just 40 years old. Probably the best way to highlight who Lamar Hunt really was is to quote his son Clark Hunt who said of his father,
“Dad could always see the good in people and rarely pointed out the bad. He was an idea-a-minute person and incredibly detailed. He would walk around the stadium during a game, and that would turn into a two-page memo about things we could do better to improve the fan experience. That’s probably the best thing he taught me and my siblings: The sports business is all about the fan and the experience that they have when they’re at the stadium.”
Hunt created the American Football League in 1960 and gave us the sport we know today, pushing the NFL into another stratosphere. Hunt also was a huge part of soccer in America, becoming a driving force in making soccer something of a major sport.
Next: No. 17