NEW ORLEANS (news agencies) — Clark Hunt was not quite 5 years old when he settled into his seat in Tulane Stadium beside his parents to watch the Kansas City Chiefs, the franchise his father had founded in the brazen days of the American Football League, as they played the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl IV.
Hunt doesn’t remember the game itself. But once in a while, photos will surface that he has never seen before.
“I do have a photo of me sitting with my parents in the stands, right? I think they were benches. It sort of looked like a corner,” said Hunt, now 59, who assumed control of the Chiefs when his father, the visionary Lamar Hunt, died in December 2006.
“I guess that shows you how things have changed,” Hunt said.
Indeed, it’s a safe bet that Hunt and the rest of his family will have comfortable seats in a luxury suite when the Chiefs face the Eagles on Sunday at the Superdome.
Led by Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce, and with a celebrity fan base that includes Taylor Swift and Caitlin Clark, the Chiefs were chasing an unprecedented third consecutive Lombardi Trophy.
The fact was not lost on Hunt that they were trying to make history in the same city where they won their first Super Bowl with a 23-7 victory over the Vikings on Jan. 11, 1970.
In fact, Hunt seemed to view the coincidence as something closer to kismet, a point that he underscored by pointing out that the Chiefs spent this week practicing at Tulane University.
“I hate to say I don’t have any memories from that Super Bowl,” he said, “but getting to go to Tulane where we’re training and being literally a stone’s throw from the old stadium where we won Super Bowl IV is really special.
“I always think about my parents Super Bowl week,” Hunt added, “There’s no way not to. But this one is going to be special.”
There’s an argument to be made that nobody had a greater influence on the big game than Lamar Hunt.
The oil magnate was part of the “Foolish Club” that founded the AFL, back when they were being kept out of the NFL, and he was instrumental in the merger years later that ultimately brought the two professional football leagues together.
In a letter to NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle, Hunt mused about the pending title game, saying: “I have kiddingly called it the ‘Super Bowl,’ which obviously can be approved upon.” He was inspired by the must-have Christmas gift of the year that his wife, Norma, had gotten Clark Hunt and the rest of the kids: the Super Ball, made by toy company Wham-O.
Lamar Hunt regularly attended the Super Bowl, though he never saw his Chiefs play in it again. They wouldn’t make it back until Andy Reid arrived in town, and Mahomes and Kelce helped Kansas City beat the 49ers in February 2020 — five full decades after they triumphed over the “Purple People Eaters” and the rest of the Vikings at Tulane Stadium.
Norma Hunt continued to attend the Super Bowl until her death in June 2023. At the time, she was one of four people — and the only woman — who had attended every game, beginning with the Chiefs’ loss to the Packers on Jan. 15, 1967.
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