Who was Lamar Hunt? Everything You Need to Know

Quick Facts

Died At Age: 74

Family:

Spouse/Ex-: Norma Hunt (m. 1964), Rosemary Carr (m. - div. 1962)

mother: Lyda Bunker

siblings: Caroline Rose Hunt, Haroldina Franch Hunt, Haroldson Lafayette Hunt III, Helen LaKelly Hunt, Helen Lee Cartledge Hunt, Howard Lee Hunt, Hugh S. Hunt, June Hunt, Lyda Bunker Hunt, Margaret Hunt Hill, Nelson Bunker Hunt, Ray Lee Hunt, Swanee Hunt, William Herbert Hunt

children: Clark Hunt, Daniel, Lamar Hunt Jr., Sharron Munson

Born Country: United States

American Men Southern Methodist University

Died on: December 13, 2006

place of death: Dallas, Texas, United States

Cause of Death: Prostate Cancer.

Notable Alumni: Culver Academies

U.S. State: Arkansas

More Facts

education: Southern Methodist University, Culver Academies

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Childhood & Early Life

Lamar Hunt was born on August 2, 1932, in El Dorado, Arkansas, United States, to oil tycoon, H. L. Hunt, and his first wife Lyda Bunker. He was the youngest of his parents' seven children, even though his father had four more children each from his alleged wife Frania Tye and wife Ruth Ray.

He was raised in Dallas, Texas, where he attended Culver Military Academy before graduating from The Hill School in Pennsylvania in 1951.

He earned his B.S. degree in geology in 1956 from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, where he played college football and was named 'Man of the Year' of the Kappa Sigma fraternity in 1972.

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Career

Lamar Hunt, whose attempts to own an NFL franchise were turned down repeatedly, approached several other businessmen and formed the American Football League (AFL) in August 1959. He became the owner of the Dallas Texans and appointed Hank Stram as the team's first head coach.

NFL quickly placed the new Dallas Cowboys franchise to regain fans from the Dallas Texans, which prompted Hunt to consider moving the franchise to Kansas City. The team finally became the Kansas City Chiefs in 1963 after mayor H. Roe Bartle promised him home attendance of 25,000 people per game.

Despite lower turnouts during the first couple of seasons, in 1966, the Chiefs won their first AFL Championship (and second overall, counting one as Dallas Texans) in front of an average 37,000 fans on home matches. That year, the NFL and AFL agreed to merge, with a special match between the champions of the two leagues, which the Chiefs lost to the Green Bay Packers.

Hunt had "kiddingly" suggested the term 'Super Bowl' for the championship match while writing to NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle, and it became a media favorite over the original name 'AFL-NFL Championship Game'. The Chiefs performed consistently in the following years and won their first Super Bowl in 1970, following which the AFL was absorbed into the NFL as the American Football Conference.

In 1967, Lamar Hunt founded the professional soccer franchise, Dallas Tornado, as members of the United Soccer Association, which merged with the National Professional Soccer League the next year. Dallas Tornado, which won the 1971 championship, began to run in losses and was merged with the Tampa Bay Rowdies in 1981, and Hunt sold the team in 1983, one year before the league collapsed.

When Major League Soccer debuted in 1996, Lamar Hunt became one of the original founding investors of the league and owned two teams: the Columbus Crew and the Kansas City Wizards (now Sporting Kansas City). In 1999, he financed the construction of the large soccer-specific stadium Mapfre Stadium.

He purchased his third soccer team, Dallas Burn (now FC Dallas), in 2003, but sold the Wizards on August 31st 2006. He was one of the founding investors for the basketball team Chicago Bulls, briefly owned the NHL franchise Columbus Blue Jackets, and co-founded the World Championship Tennis circuit in 1968.

Major Works

Lamar Hunt hugely contributed to the development of different sports in the US, most prominently the American Football League. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the National Soccer Hall of Fame, and the International Tennis Hall of Fame.

Family & Personal Life

Lamar Hunt had two children, Clark Hunt and Lamar Hunt Jr., from his first wife Rosemary Carr, whom he divorced in 1962, Two years later, he married Norma Lynn Knobel, with whom he had two more children, Sharron and Daniel.

He died of complications related to prostate cancer on December 13, 2006, at Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas.

Trivia

After founding the soccer team Dallas Tornado, Lamar Hunt became involved in a successful legal battle with NFL over ownership of more than one sports franchise.

Lamar Hunt Biography