Lamar Hunt by Michael MacCambridge

Author:Michael MacCambridge [Feedbooks]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781449424725
Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing, LLC
Published: 2012-06-14T16:00:00+00:00

Stram’s first directive of the new season was met with much grumbling but little outward opposition. In his initial speech to the team, he said, “Gentlemen, I want to set a few things straight before we get started. Just so there won’t be any misunderstanding regarding my policy on long hair and sideburns, I want to emphasize certain requirements, which I expect everyone to adhere to from this day on. There will be absolutely no mustaches, beards, goatees, or hair on the chin displayed by any member of this club. I also want to emphasize that no one will have sideburns longer than the ones I have. Is that understood?” If it wasn’t, Stram imposed a $500 fine for any violation of the code (Otis Taylor was fined once, then shaved his sideburns). The Chiefs players were purposeful and determined, still stung by their season-ending 41–6 playoff loss to Oakland at the end of the ’68 season.

Lamar rejoined the team down at Legion Field in Birmingham, as they officially began the preseason against the team that had so savagely ended the 1968 season, the detested Raiders. August was only two days old, the regular season was more than a month away, there were five more preseason games to follow and it would be another sixteen weeks before the two teams would meet for the first of two regular-season games. But the rivalry did not allow for complacency. The Chiefs took a 13–7 lead at the half, but fell behind when backup Jacky Lee had a pass returned for a touchdown. The Chiefs rallied to take a 23–17 lead, but when the Raiders rallied toward the winning score, Stram put his defensive starters back in the game to quell the rally. “We had the game won,” he explained later. “There was no need of letting it get away at that point.” Three weeks later, on August 22, they took an undefeated preseason record into the Los Angeles Coliseum for the third year in a row. In ’67 and ’68 they’d lost to the Rams, but this time around, they routed George Allen’s Rams, 42–14, and did it in front of Richard Nixon, believed to be the first president to attend a pro football game while in office. With wins the following two weeks, the Chiefs finished the preseason 6–0, with four wins over NFL teams. The newspaper Pro Football Weekly put the Chiefs on the cover of its preseason kickoff issue, under the headline, “KC Chiefs—Are They Number 1?” Elsewhere in the issue, PFW writer William Wallace predicted the Chiefs would win the Super Bowl over the Los Angeles Rams, though the consensus of the paper’s correspondents was that Baltimore would defeat the Jets in a Super Bowl III rematch.

The team certainly looked sharp. Stram had been the most fashion-conscious coach in the pros for years, and the Chiefs expressed his philosophy, not merely in the variety of formations they used but in countless details of their public appearance. When traveling

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