The Lamar Hunt Super Bowl Gallery
Cutting the ribbon on the Lamar Hunt Super Bowl Gallery were from the left Hall executive director Steve Perry, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, Dan Hunt, Norma Hunt, Clark Hunt, Lamar Hunt Jr., Sharron Munson and Jan Stenerud.
From Canton, Ohio
The education, the experience and the celebration of America’s biggest sporting event all comes together in the Lamar Hunt Super Bowl Gallery that opened Saturday morning at the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
It’s named in honor of the man who created the American Football League, named the Super Bowl, came up with the Roman numbers for identification and named the Vince Lombardi Trophy that goes to the winner.
The Gallery is another reminder that the man who Chiefs fans know simply as Lamar was so much more over his life in professional football. A star studded crowd turned out to cut the ribbon on the newest addition to the Hall of Fame.
Among those welding scissors Saturday morning were Norma Hunt, Lamar Hunt’s four children, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, Chiefs Hall of Fames Bobby Bell, Willie Lanier, Len Dawson, Jan Stenerud and Emmitt Thomas and other Hall of Fame members like Bart Starr and Troy Aikman.
“The American Football League, the Super Bowl, the name of the game, Lamar was an innovator and he never stopped innovating,” said Goodell. “I don’t think the NFL could express its gratefulness to Lamar Hunt in a better way than this Gallery.”
Norma Hunt is thought to be the only woman that’s seen all 43 Super Bowls played to date.
Chiefs Chairman Clark Hunt told a story of how in the last weeks of his father’s like, Lamar asked him to make sure that Norma’s streak of seeing every Super Bowl continued. “She’s already made here airline reservations for Miami and Super Bowl XLIV,” Clark said.
In very poignant remarks, Norma Hunt said her husband would be very happy, overjoyed by the Gallery. “No honor on earth he would rather have than this one,” she said. “The success of the Super Bowl was the crowning achievement for t he AFL.”
A large crowd turned out for the event, including Tennessee Titans owner and Hunt’s original partner in the AFL with the Houston Oilers, Bud Adams, along with Art Rooney II, the president of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
“I’ve always said I was just a passenger in the plane, Lamar was the pilot,” said Adams. “Maybe we didn’t quite know where we were going at first, but we reached our destination. This place (Gallery) is a great show of Lamar’s leadership.”
Constructed in just nine months at a cost of $2.4 million, Hall of Fame staff and a construction crew were working on the exhibit as late as Friday, getting it ready for the Saturday morning opening.
The Gallery is 4,000 square feet of football history that’s broken down into decades with memorabilia, including Len Dawson’s jersey from the Chiefs victory in Super Bowl IV over Minnesota in New Orleans. There are a host of other items from helmets, shoulder pads and game jerseys and other unusual artifacts, including Bill Belichick’s game plan notebook when he was defensive coordinator of the New York Giants in their Super Bowl XXV victory over the no-huddle offense of the Buffalo Bills.
Each decade has a video stop that provides highlights and interviews for each of the games played to date. In the middle of the exhibit is the Lombardi Trophy, and there is a theater where an NFL Films presentation about the Super Bowl will play at regular intervals.
The Gallery finishes up with a collection of Super Bowl rings, from the Packers in the first NFL-AFL Championship Game, to the ring presented to the Pittsburgh Steelers for their victory in the most recent Super Bowl.
Clark Hunt speaks to the crowd at the opening of the Lamar Hunt Super Bowl Gallery.
Great to see our owner being honored. This like DT hall of fame induction was long over due. This has truly been great for all of Chiefs nation after the last 2 seasons it great to see the Chiefs being recongnized for the classy organization that we are. Now once the season start it’ll be even better when we start the transition back to one of the NFL elite franchises on the field. And it’ll all start this season in 2009. Go Chiefs.
Ah the good ol’ days – this present day as each thereaft can ne’er match the glorious players of that past, 1960-1969…when it was a game – long live the AFL!
daddy-o
I second your sentiments Rin! The next deserving player of that time that’s long overdue is Otis Taylor. I only hope he gets in while still on this earth.
Alas, it’s not gonna happen JFF which is the NFL Hall of Fame’s loss; Otis Taylor is one of those players who falls into that descript “was great for too short a period or too small a stat.”
So ‘they’ say; just as man has tried to fathom the workings ‘woman’ so football fans struggle trying to decipher rationale why one player be HOF worthy and another not per ‘they’, voters.
Arbitrary limits on eligibles relating to how many per election, how many years included on eligibility list, subjectivity related to the league played in (say AFL compared to an NFL), and personal bias which equates human frailty; impact, length of career, stats, team success and/or lack thereof are also measures.
Oh, we haven’t even touched on eras, rule changes and football’s tools of ignorance like equipment, playing environment, medicinal assists, etc. etc.
Best of luck turning all that into consensus; the Obama Healthcare Plan be no more daunting a read.
Voters no different any other among their vices subjectivity, bias and disingenuity mistaken or manufactured- and not necessarily in that order. Result of and unequal portions all, there is no consistency.
It might sound cruel but some would say OT – and Rin would say more so KC – squandered his talent.
Of course the object of the game isn’t to ensure any player gets into the HOF; because the Chiefs were successful, even more so was #89’s personal success or any player not paramount, tho in fact ‘because’ of said player was success realized.
Anyone who watched Taylor knows that he took a back seat to no one.
Rin’s bias dates to 1959 when first became aware of football and in the 50 years since, I’ve seen many greats with as many different styles – high stats and low, faster players & slower too those who had more passes thrown to them and less; all considered Otis is the best WR I’ve ever seen.
If HB Gale Sayers belongs – and he does – why so? If an Lynn Swann is also enshrined – he is – why?
The first guy’s stats don’t rank with many others – nor do the second guy’s. The first was never on a Championship team while the latter was a member several.
What be the distinction those who do and do not?
Eye appeal? Sayers had it…didn’t Bo Jackson too?
So did Otis Taylor…Rich Jackson…and as well a Priest Holmes & Terrell Davis. None of them will likely ever be enshrined my opine. Substance o’er style as twere – eye the beholder that is.
Jan Stenerud was the considered the first ‘great’ soccer-style K- but he wasn’t the first soccer K. Nor the best ever K according to stat yet in the HOF Jan is.
Winners & losers abound opposite ends a spectrum.
The NFL names a team the best the past 75 years- such an endeavor by necessity leaves out so many players already elected to the Hall of Fame.
Because a consensus exists on an issue does not make it valid, even if the entirety of humanity agrees on ‘X’.
While you can’t put every player who ever played great in a HOF any ‘they’ say, as the measure be so inconsistent they might just as well do so.
While a player naturally wants to be recognized as one of the best ever, the fact HOF voters be no more qualified any than you or I is the rub.
While it may not suffice same as Canton’s, Otis Taylor is in my Hall of Fame, next to my heart.
daddy-o
(PS) Personally, I believe Jim Tyrer and Johnny Robinson deserve enshrinement first & then Otis Taylor, Ed Budde and Jerrel Wilson.
Now multiply my and your wants Chiefs by 31 other teams and millions of other fans opines, mix well with HOF votes & everyone ends equally unhappy.