Goodbye Mr. Rudy … Tuesday Cup O’Chiefs

He was the only person in the organization that everybody called Mister.

The owner was simply Lamar. The president-general manager was Jack, or several other nicknames that won’t be repeated here. The head coach was Hank.

Only Wayne Rudy was known by Mister.

There are very few people in the history of the Chiefs who were more influential than Mr. Rudy. For 24 years, he was the team’s trainer. He started in the first days of the franchise back in 1960, leaving his job as the head trainer at SMU where he had worked for 13 years.

One of the athletes whose ankles he had taped at SMU was a seldom used wide receiver named Lamar Hunt. One of the assistant coaches during his time with the Mustangs was Hank Stram.

Mr. Rudy died over the past weekend in Katy, Texas. He was 89 years old. He returned to Texas after retirement from the Chiefs following the 1983 season. He spent those 24 seasons with hundreds of games, thousands of practices and probably a million ankles taped.

The respect that the players held for him was universal. From the team’s first training camp in Roswell, New Mexico, Mr. Rudy was doctor, nurse, masseuse, a shoulder to cry on, friendly face who players could confide in and pour out problems. White, black, big, small, stars and backups, Mr. Rudy handled them all. 

He did it with a smile and soothing words. I’m sure along the way he may have lost his temper, but nobody can remember it happening. Although he and his wife Joann had sons Randy and Ricky, every guy wearing the red helmet was one of his sons.

After graduating from Bowling Green University, Mr. Rudy landed at SMU in 1947 as a combination trainer, equipment manager and lecturer in the department of physical education. It was the days when college athletics were not the big business propositions that they are today.

Back in the dark ages of pro football, it was just Mr. Rudy tending to the players. In training camp he would have some help, and sometimes there would be temporary interns. But he was the constant. His help came from the equipment manager, who for most of those seasons was Bobby Yarborough. It wasn’t until 1975 that he had an assistant who worked just in the training room. That’s when Dave Kendall joined the staff. Kendall replaced Mr. Rudy in 1984 as head trainer and held the position for twenty years.

Last year, head trainer David Price had three full-time assistants. That’s how much things have changed.

Mr. Rudy’s hiring was announced on April 2, 1960 and much was made in the Dallas newspapers at the time of him leaving SMU for pro football, and especially the upstart American Football League.

“I know Lamar and I know Hank and I’m confident it will be a first class operation,” Mr. Rudy was quoted as saying back then. He was onboard from the very start.

During his time, Mr. Rudy saw it all. Back in 1960, the conditions at Roswell were primitive. Players jumped in a muddy drainage ditch after practice to cool off. Gatorade had not yet been invented and salt tablets were the norm for helping players deal with dehydration. There were only a handful of players that lifted weights.

By the time Mr. Rudy retired, teams were building weight lifting palaces, steroids had come into the game, along with recreational drugs beyond alcohol and Gatorade was on every practice field and locker room.

One thing that didn’t change over nearly a quarter of a century was the injuries. Muscle pulls, sprains, strains, bruises, concussions … from top to bottom he dealt with them all.

Oh, the stories he could have told! Several years after his retirement, Mr. Rudy came back to Kansas City for a golf tournament with the Chiefs Alumni. After all those former players hit the links, I sat in the clubhouse for 30 minutes and tried to talk him into writing a book about his time in pro football.

Mr. Rudy smiled and shook his head. “Bob, those are my memories,” he said. “I wouldn’t want anybody to feel uncomfortable. I’ll take all those stories with me when I leave for good.”

Too bad. There are few people within any football organization who know more about the players and the team than the trainers. They spend more time with the players than the coaches. Heck, they sometimes spend more time with the players than their families, especially when they are rehabbing an injury. Trainers see the players when they are in pain, when they are frustrated, when they are angry, when their guard is down. It’s one of the most important positions in the organization.

And for 24 years, it was handled by a legend known to one and all as Mr. Rudy.

The world was a better place because of him; certainly life around the Kansas City Chiefs was much better

RIP Mr. Rudy.

MOVEMENT AND SIGNINGS AROUND THE LEAGUE

BUCCANEERS – signed third-round draft choice DT Roy Miller; released QB Brian Griese.

JETS – released TE Bubba Franks.

RAIDERS – released S Keith Davis; released sixth-round draft choice DE Stryker Sulak.

RAVENS – WR Derrick Mason announced his retirement.

SAY HAPPY BIRTHDAY …

Born on July 14, 1976 in Bakersfield, California was WR Larry Parker (right). He was selected in the fourth-round of the 1999 NFL Draft out of Southern California. Parker played three seasons with the Chiefs (1999-2001), appearing in 38 games, with four starts. He caught 18 passes for 240 yards and two TDs. Parker also returned 16 kickoffs for 325 yards and 21 punts for 192 yards.