| Lamar Hunt  Born: 2-Aug-1932
Birthplace: El Dorado, AR
Died: 13-Dec-2006
Location of death: Dallas, TX
Cause of death: Cancer - Prostate
Remains: Buried, Sparkman Hillcrest Memorial Park, Dallas, TX
Gender: Male
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Football, Soccer, Tennis
Party Affiliation: Republican Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Founder of the American Football League Lamar Hunt's father, Haroldson Lafayette Hunt, was the founder of Hunt Oil, and was worth about $2.5-billion when he died. Young Lamar was always a sports fan, and played second-string tight end at Southern Methodist University. In the 1950s, he approached the National Football League on several occasions, seeking to buy a franchise for his hometown of Dallas, but he was repeatedly rebuffed. Frustrated but fabulously rich, Hunt began calling other millionaires, and organized a rival pro football circuit, the American Football League, in 1960.
Hunt himself was owner of the AFL's Dallas Texans, but the NFL countered by adding an expansion team in Dallas in the same season, the NFL's Cowboys -- so Dallas, which had previously had no pro team, suddenly had two. For the first few years of the AFL, the established NFL had a better standard of play, and even though the Texans won more games, the city's affections were with the Cowboys. Coached by Hank Stram, the Dallas Texans won the AFL championship in 1962, and after moved his team to Kansas City in 1963, renaming them the Kansas City Chiefs, the team won two more AFL championships, in 1966 and 1969.
When the two leagues agreed to have their respective champions play each other, it was Hunt who came up with the catchy name for the game, "The Super Bowl". His Chiefs lost Super Bowl I to the NFL's Green Bay Packers, 35-10. The AFL and NFL merged in 1970, and with some rejiggering, the AFL teams became the American Football Conference, comprising half the combined NFL. The Chiefs won that season's Super Bowl IV, defeating the Minnesota Vikings 23-7 -- the team's last league championship to date. Hunt was for many years an advocate of adding the college and AFL's two-point conversion to the NFL game, a rule change which was finally enacted in 1994. The AFC championship trophy is named in his honor, and he was inducted in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1972.
Hunt owned the Kansas City Wizards pro soccer team, until selling the club in 2006. Under his ownership, the Wizards won the Major League Soccer championship in 2000, defeating the Chicago Fire 1-0. Hunt was also involved in the formation of two now-defunct sports leagues, the North American Soccer League, a pro circuit from 1967-1984, and World Championship Tennis, a pro tennis tour that ran from 1967-1989. The United States Soccer Federation's championship trophy was re-named in Hunt's honor in 1999.
Beyond being a sports nut, Hunt owned Hunt Midwest Real Estate Development, which operates SubTropolis, a vast underground office complex in Kansas City carved out of limestone, and Hunt Martin Materials, which is, not coincidentally, a major supplier of limestone.
Hunt's son, Lamar Hunt Jr., was accused of raping his mentally disabled sister-in-law in 1997. He wrote a handwritten apology titled "Confessions of a Sex Addict", but in a subsequent lawsuit he denied the accusations, before paying $2 million to settle a lawsuit over the matter in 2000. Father: H. L. Hunt (oil millionaire, b. 1889, d. 1974)
Mother: Lyda Bunker Hunt (d. 1955)
Sister: Margaret Hunt Hill (philanthropist, b. 1915, d. 2007)
Brother: Haroldson Lafayette Hunt III ("Hassie", Hunt Petroleum executive, b. 1918, d. 2005)
Sister: Caroline Rose Hunt (CEO of Rosewood Hotels and Resort, b. 1923)
Brother: Nelson Bunker Hunt (b. 1926)
Brother: William Herbert Hunt (b. 1929)
Sister: Haroldina Franch Hunt (half-sister, d.)
Sister: Helen Lee Cartledge Hunt (half-sister, d.)
Brother: Howard Lee Hunt (half-brother, d.)
Brother: Hugh Hunt (half-brother, founder of Constructivist Foundation, b. 1932, d. 2002)
Mother: Ruth Ray (stepmother, married Hunt's father in 1957)
Brother: Ray L. Hunt (half-brother, CEO of Hunt Oil, b. 1943)
Sister: June Hunt (half-sister, hosts Christian radio program, b. 1943)
Sister: Helen LaKelly Hunt (half-sister, author and charity executive, b. 1949)
Sister: Swanee Hunt (half-sister, diplomat, b. 1950)
Wife: Rosemary Carr (m. 1954, div., one son, one daughter)
Son: Lamar Hunt, Jr. (former private school headmaster)
Daughter: Sharron Hunt Munson
Wife: Norma Lynn Knobel (m. 22-Jan-1964, until his death, two sons)
Son: Clark Knobel Hunt (Kansas City Chiefs executive)
Son: Daniel Hunt
High School: The Hill School (1951)
University: BS Geology, Southern Methodist University (1956)
Administrator: Trustee, Southern Methodist University
Freedom and Free Enterprise PAC
Reagan-Bush '84
Pro Football Hall of Fame 1972
Texas Sports Hall of Fame 1984
Missouri Sports Hall of Fame 1990
International Tennis Hall of Fame 1993
Prostate Surgery 2003
Risk Factors: Prostate Cancer
SPORTS FRANCHISE HISTORY
Dallas Texans Founder, original Head Coach
Kansas City Chiefs Founder, original Head Coach
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