On this day in 1970, the Kansas City Chiefs won their first Super Bowl by defeating the heavily favored Minnesota Vikings 23-7. It was the end of the AFL era, and legendary Head Coach Hank Stram was wired for sound, and his game plan was perfect. The Chiefs have a new swag nearly six decades later, thanks to Patrick Mahomes.
As a young fan of the Kansas City Chiefs, I was privileged to know the late Hank Stram. He was a family friend, and I considered him a second father when we interacted in the 1960s and early 1970s. We lived on the same street, and Hank was always the life of the room, regardless of whether the topic was football.
For those who have seen the NFL Films version of Super Bowl IV, where Stram was wired for sound the entire game, Stram is the same person I encountered off the field. He was warm, genuine, and funny; his zest for life was unmatched.
He was an NFL treasure, and we were lucky that founder Lamar Hunt hired him to coach the Dallas Texans in 1960. His most significant move was acquiring the late Len Dawson as his quarterback. The two were a perfect pair, and 54 years ago, they made history together.
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In 2025, the Kansas City Chiefs are again on top of the NFL. With three Super Bowl Trophies in six seasons, they could join the rarified air if they can become the first Three-Peat champion in NFL history.
Next weekend, the Chiefs will kick off the AFC postseason with a home game in the divisional round. Like the Super Bowl IV champions, they must win two games to advance to Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans.
Though the Super Bowl appearances lasted fifty years, the famous play call, 65-Toss Power Trap, has been immortalized as the bedrock foundation for the Chiefs franchise. Until that game, no head coach was wired for sound, and NFL Films creator Ed Sabol had to pay Stram to do it—otherwise, NFL Films might not have become the gold standard of NFL filmmaking.
As a die-hard fan and one who is old enough to remember every play of the Chiefs Super Bowl IV victory, I know what’s happening now is unprecedented. The Chiefs are a force and the latest in a line of NFL Dynasties that come once a decade or two.
The Chiefs are in the same category as the Joe Montana-led 49ers, the Terry Bradshaw-led Steelers, the Roger Staubach- and Troy Aikman-led Dallas Cowboys, and the Tom Brady-led New England Patriots.
With each Super Bowl win, the case could be made that the Chiefs could become the greatest NFL team of all time after they complete the Three-Peat in New Orleans.
Yet, to think it was Stram who put the Chiefs on the map, and now we have the face of the NFL, Patrick Mahomes, playing for our team is both lucky and enormously joyous to witness.
I told all my Chiefs friends that they should not expect any more Super Bowl rings after their Super Bowl LIV win. The five-decade gap was brutal, but in my adult lifetime, I just wanted to see the Chiefs win another in real-time.
The fact that my late father passed shortly before that game and that victory was as monumental that Sunday as it was on January 11th, 1970.
Still, when Head Coach Andy Reid took over this franchise in 2013, I never thought he would bring multiple Super Bowl championships to Kansas City. He’s done just that. Even better, he enters this postseason run with the best overall team in his 12 seasons with the Chiefs.
Much of that has to do with Mahomes, but Reid, who always pushed the play envelope, has a genius offensive mind very similar to that of his legendary predecessor. Stram gave birth to the West Coast offense, and today, its play sheet has expanded, but the Mentor designed the system’s core strategy.
Hank Stram and his brand of Chiefs football will always fill a significant presence in my heart. Still, to this day, with so many signed items of Hank in plain view, he remains one of the biggest influences of my life.
As part of the Chiefs Kingdom, we should always celebrate this day as the birth of the championship experience and appreciate how blessed we are to live in a time where we are about to witness NFL history!
