The Kansas City Chiefs cheerleaders — whose auditions only recently concluded — are part of the team's history that dates back to 1963 when Lamar Hunt moved his Dallas franchise here.
One aspect of game day that didn't come north with the then-called Texans, and soon to be called Chiefs, was a "Queen" — a young woman named Kay Sutton. Her role harks back to an earlier time that may not be familiar to many of today's younger fans.
Kay Sutton was a popular figure in the early days of the franchise.
Chiefs Cheerleaders today retain a share of the popularity of a team that Sutton helped to establish in the early days of the American Football League, as she brought lots of attention to a struggling new league at the outset of what was to become the turbulent '60s.
Described as a "statuesque Oak Cliff [TX] beauty" in an early team newsletter, Miss Sutton was selected by a jury of newspaper and radio media to be Miss Dallas Texan.
Sutton was well known in beauty pageant circles, having competed locally in the Miss Universe contest, and was considered to be the most photographed woman in Texas at the time. To no surprise, she was elected the team's first "Miss Dallas Texan."
Sutton was expected to know her football. Consequently, she was prepped after each game by team publicist Bob Halford to be ready for any manner of question that might be thrown her way.
"They insisted that I knew every aspect of the game and our team," she remembered.
Indeed, an early newspaper clipping from the Dallas Morning News in October of 1960 has her issuing forth on a recent Texans loss to the Boston Patriots. "[Head coach] Mr. Stram's right," she says. Sutton was agreeing with the Dallas head coach questioning an official's no-call on an offsides that reportedly cost the Texans the game.
Over time, Sutton became a familiar figure to Texans followers and was almost as well recognized as some team members. She hosted a series of events associated with the fledgling franchise and was seen as an important promotional tool.
"Every day I was cutting ribbons, doing photo sessions or going to important luncheons representing the team," she recalled. Sift through enough old newspaper clippings from that era and you'll see Sutton in a myriad of promotional photos sitting with a favored Texans player, helping to sell tickets from as far away as Abilene and Wichita Falls, or even showing up at the team's first training camp in Roswell, New Mexico.
"It was great fun for such a young girl to have these experiences," she offered, looking back on her formative years. Expected to serve a role even at road games where she was prepped by Halford, Sutton did television interviews upon arrival and was promoted to, in her words, "give my opinion about the state of the Texans team and its players."
As for game day at the Cotton Bowl, fans would find her riding around the field in a convertible, and on rainy days, braving the mud dressed in the regal wear of a traditional beauty queen.
Those who can remember early broadcasts of football games in Texas will surely recall the Kilgore Rangerettes, who performed at any number of collegiate contests. Sutton had been a Rangerette, and as Miss Dallas Texan, was often expected to twirl a baton at halftime as she was carried on the field on a large drum built especially for her.
All this public exposure caught the eye of Columbia Pictures vice-president and general sales manager Rube Jackter, who made arrangements for Sutton to go to Hollywood for a screen test. With more worlds opening up for her and not one to rest solely on a Texas following, Sutton eventually migrated to New York and the top modeling houses of the Ford and Wilhelmina agencies. She also studied dance with Martha Graham and The American School of Ballet in Los Angeles.
Her face soon adorned hundreds of major magazine covers and advertisements over the next twenty years, but it was acting that was her passion, and eventually, she began teaching it at her own workshop in Beverly Hills after winning the Drama-Logue Critics Award.
In time, she took a family name, Lena Harris, because she wanted to go into acting. She went on to operate Lena Harris Studio and wrote a book, "Twenty-Five 6 Minute Power Scenes."
"I had a wonderful time as Miss Dallas Texan," she remembered of her two-year reign, "and I worked with many great people who became lasting friends."
