Thursday, December 14, 2006

Another death: Lamar Hunt dies

I don't mean for this blog to be an obituary page, but it starting to look that way: Another death of a high-profile person who contributed a lot to the medium. This time, it's Lamar Hunt, one of the founders of the American Football League, and owner of the Kansas City Chiefs, passes at the age of 74.

The AFL was formed in 1960, and put its games on the then-upstart ABC network. But it was NBC with a $36 million deal in 1964 that finally put the league on the map and made the NFL take notice. The two merged in 1966, but did not play each other in the regular season until 1970. In 1969, Mr. Hunt coined the phrase "Super Bowl" for the annual (and awkward sounding) AFL-NFL Championship Game. In 1970, The Kansas City Chiefs won their first Super Bowl for Mr. Hunt.

Mr. Hunt was also an original investor in the Chicago Bulls, and charter investor of the Major League Soccer.

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