An AFL Dynasty?

One of the more dominant teams of the third pro football league called the American Football League, was the Dallas Texans who changed into the Kansas City Chiefs franchise. Our pro football dynasty search continues as we ask, " Should the 1960s Kansas City Chiefs be considered a Pro Football Dynasty?"

Our mission is to find out what is considered a dynasty in the NFL and all of Pro Football for that matter. We polled the all the experts and historians we could find and asked what the criteria to be considered a Pro Football Dynasty is.

The responses were tabulated and averaged, and here are what components need to be met to be considered a Pro Football Dynasty.

1. Be a winning and contending team for at least six consecutive seasons in their respective league(s).
2. That franchise must also have had to claim three championships of the equivalence of the league title.
3. A winning percentage of at least .660 during the considered span of years.
4. No other dynasty was in reign during the span. There is not much room at the top, and if we have multiple considerations the team that fared better claims the era.
5. A Dominance Level score of .620 or better. Dominance Level = (Championship wins + (championship losses x 0.5) + (playoff appearances* x 0.25))  ÷ years
6. An average Point Differential per game of Seven points. That is that they averaged at least a TD and a PAT more than their oppnents on average for the total amount of games played. Total PD/Total games
7. They must be ranked in the top 20% of the league(s) they played in over the span.

We can also consider some conditions or circumstances that might make a difference in the determination such as core group consistency, winning streaks etc... 

Let's take these seven pillars of a dynasty above and put the stats and numbers of the 1960s AFL Dallas Texans/ Kansas City Chiefs into it to determine if that era of the franchise are worthy of the Dynasty moniker.

The Dallas Texans were one of the charter members of the American Football League in 1960. The team was founded by Lamar Hunt, who also founded the AFL after being turned down by the NFL. The Texans played their home games at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Texas. In 1963, Hunt decided to move the Texans to Kansas City, Missouri. The team was renamed the Chiefs, and they continued to enjoy success in Kansas City.

This Texans/Chiefs franchise was one of the most successful teams in the early years of the AFL. They won the AFL championship in 1962 and 1966. Kansas City also won the AFL in 1967 earning the right to appear in the first AFL-NFL World Championship Game (later named Super Bowl I) in 1967, losing to the Green Bay Packers.

The Chiefs again won the AFL championship in 1969 and went on to defeat the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl IV.

The franchise era that we will consider for this excercise of determination will be from the 1962 Dallas Texans through the 1969 Kansas City Chiefs seasons. Besides owner Lamar Hunt, one consistent person associated witht he success of the teams was head Coach Hank Stram.

They also had a consistent presence at quarterbac. Len Dawson was the Chiefs' quarterback from 1962 to 1975. He was one of the most prolific passers in NFL history, and he was named the AFL's Most Valuable Player three times.

Having the triangle or Ownership, Head Coach, and Signal Caller being the same through the decade is a nice stablilty factor to consider. Each of these men are legends and are all in the Pro Football Hall of Fame because of their individual and collective accomplishments with the organization.

Len Dawson

Born June 20, 1935, in Alliance, Ohio, was Pro Football Hall of Fame Quarterback Len Dawson. He played college football at Purdue. The Pro Football Hall of Fame states that Dawson is among the elite in Pro quarterbacks with an 82.56 QB rating over a span of 19 seasons in the NFL. He was the top pick of the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1957's NFL Draft. He served as a back up there and later, Cleveland until in 1962 he found his way on to the AFL's Dallas Texans roster. After the move to Kansas City and rebranding the team as the Chiefs, Dawson cemented himself as the starter. He was named Most Valuable Player (MVP) in 1962 and selected to six AFL All-Star games. Dawson also guided the Chiefs to three AFL championships and the franchise's first Super Bowl title in Super Bowl IV, of which he was named MVP. The Chiefs revered Number 16 may be best remembered for his gritty performance as he led the Kansas City to a 23-7 upset over the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl IV. In that game Dawson connected on 12 of 17 passes for 142 yards.

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Hank Stram

Born January 3, 1923, in Chicago, Illinois, was Hank Stram. He was an American football coach who is best known for his 15-year tenure with the Dallas Texans / Kansas City Chiefs of the AFL and National Football League.

He played college football at Purdue University, where he was a two-way player. After graduating from Purdue, Stram served in the United States Army during World War II. After the war, Stram began his coaching career as an assistant at Purdue. He then served as an assistant at Notre Dame and Miami (Florida) before being hired as the head coach of the Dallas Texans in 1960.

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In addition to Len Dawson, mentioned above, here are some of the outstanding players that were on the roster of the franchise during the era under considertation:

• Buck Buchanan was a defensive end for the Chiefs from 1963 to 1975. He was one of the most dominant defensive players in NFL history, and he was named the AFL's Defensive Player of the Year twice.
• Bobby Bell was a linebacker for the Chiefs from 1963 to 1974. He was one of the most versatile players in NFL history, and he was named the AFL's Defensive Player of the Year once.
• Jan Stenerud was a kicker for the Chiefs from 1967 to 1985. He was one of the most accurate kickers in NFL history, and he was named to the Pro Bowl 15 times.

Willie Lanier

Born August 21, 1945 - Clover, Virginia - Willie Lanier the a linebacker from Morgan State University from 1963 to 1966 was born. Lanier earned first team All-America honors after his junior season under the instruction and training of Hall of Fame coach Earl Banks. Willie was a member of some great Morgan State squads that went to bowl games in 1965 and 1966, winning both and holding opponents to 0 total yards offense in the 1965 game. Yes ZERO yardage in a bowl game! That same 1965 season, Lanier led a stubborn defense that held opponents to 129 yards rushing all season and 732 yards in total offense. In 1966, as an offensive guard, he used his strength to open holes for the offense, which rushed for 2,220 yards in eight games per the FootballFoundation.org. Lanier still holds the school record for tackles in a game with 26. Willie Lanier is remembered in the College Football Hall of Fame for his outstanding play. After college "Honey Bear" played pro ball for the Kansas City Chiefs where he was a five-time all-pro middle linebacker. Years later, in 1986, Willie Lanier was elected into the Professional Football Hall of Fame. To learn more about the great Willie Lanier make sure to get a copy of our friend Joe Zagorski's book on the player titled, America's Trailblazing Middle Linebacker: The Story of NFL Hall of Famer Willie Lanier .

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Here are the numbers on the Dallas Texans/Kansas City Chiefs of the 1960s era we are looking at:

Above information is courtesy of Pro-Football-Reference.com.

With all of that said here are the finidings compared to the Dynasty Criteria:

1. The franchise was NOT a winning and contending team for at least six consecutive seasons in their respective league in the AFL In the eight seasons considered from 1962 through 1969, the Chiefs had one sub 0.500 season in 1963 when they were 5-7.
2. That franchise DID win three championships in the equivalence of the AFL title during that span. They may have lost what has been known as Super Bowl I but the AFL was technically seperate from the NFL that season still. They also won it all in 1962 as the Texans and in 1969 when they won Super Bowl IV.
3. The team did NOT make the grade on winning.  The Texans/Chiefs held a winning percentage of .657 so they just missed out on the requirement of a winning percentage of at least .660 during the considered span of years.
4. There were some other contenders in the 1960s AFL during that same span that have valid contention for being the top AFL team of the 1960s. The Chiefs did NOT meet the no other teams better in the League criteria.
5. The franchise in that 8-year span reached a Dominance Level score of of 0.500 and did NOT hit the required threshold of .620 or better. 
6. The Dallas KC teams of the era DID go above the average Point Differential per game of Seven points by reaching 9.47 in PD. 
7. They DID rank in the top 20% of the league(s) they played in over the span.

The final result the 1960s era Kansas City Chiefs teams had some very good teams, and people on staff but do not meet the criteria to be called a Pro Football Dynasty as they net only (3) of the seven pieces of criteria. The golden traingle of Stram, Hunt, and Dawson might be able to make up for one of these such as just missing on the winning percentage, however there are still three glaring holes in making the status of dynasty.

The Verdict

The 1960s Kansas City Chiefs are not a dynasty but are a Darn Good Team filled with legendary people, plays, games, and stories that we can all appreciate.

There may be an era for the KC franchise that does meet the grade... and we will look at them in a future episode.

Special thanks to Pro-Football-Reference and the cropped image from Wikimedia Commons of the KC-135 performs flyover at Kansas City Chiefs game on December 31, 2022.