Emanuel Cleaver: “the National Football League, the American sports community and the business leadership in Western Missouri lost a true…”

“the National Football League, the American sports community and the business leadership in Western Missouri lost a true treasure on December 13, 2006, when the Kansas City Chiefs founder, Lamar Hunt, peacefully passed away at Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, Texas, at the age of 74. Mr. Speaker, this great American is survived by his wife, Norma, and their four children, some of whom are here with us today. Lamar Hunt is recognized as one of the greatest sportsmen in American history. He served as the guiding force behind the formation of both the American Football League and the Kansas City Chiefs franchise. Hunt served as a positive influence on the game of football for 47 years, dating back to his conception of the American Football League in 1959. He was the first AFL figure to be enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. This was a remarkable feat, if you consider that he had become involved in the game just 13 years earlier. It was Lamar Hunt who served as the catalyst, who brought together a group of people whimsically known as the 'Foolish Club.' He was able to convince eight men to put money up to start a football league that no one thought could survive. This was truly an impossible dream. But the fledgling league took foot on the field for the 1960 season; and on June 8, 1966, the AFL-NFL merger was announced by the NFL Commissioner, Pete Rozelle. On January 15, Lamar Hunt's Kansas City Chiefs were participating in the first Super Bowl.”