Artifacts located in the Chiefs Hall of Honor or stored in the team's offices inside the caves of SubTropolis represent powerful tools that bring the team's and the American Football League's history to life. They forge an emotional connection that crosses time and space, bringing fans closer to the past in a way that words alone often cannot do. Over the coming year, look as we identify a team artifact and tell you its story.

How his players looked was very important to head coach Hank Stram, who was known in the parlance of the day as something of a clotheshorse.

In the early days, first in Dallas and later in Kansas City, when the Chiefs were on the road, Stram enforced a strict professional code requiring players to wear a specific coordinated mode of dress that reflected what he insisted was a strict sharp image.

Stram's philosophy was if the players looked well dressed, they would play well. The same dress code applied to the assistant coaches.

Each blazer carried the Chiefs' embroidered logo emblazoned over the chest pocket. The jacket was first red in color when the franchise played in Dallas, and then black after it moved to Kansas City. It was often, in Stram's personal case, double-breasted.

Shirts were white with black ties. Slacks were black-and-white houndstooth. Turtleneck sweaters were permitted, and Stram fancied those himself from time to time.

Stram's grooming rules were also strict with no facial hair permitted or hair longer than the head coach's own.

"I told everybody," Stram said to the squad a day before the team's picture day at the opening of training camp in 1969, "that I wanted them clean shaven – no mustaches, no goatees, no over-exaggerated sideburn[s]."

The Chiefs presented a distinctive contrast to their long-time rival Oakland Raiders who had few rules in dress and hair length. It matched their style of play, or so it was believed at the time.

We have a number of copies of the blazer for Lamar Hunt, Jim Tyrer and Mays in our collection. When on display, they may be found along the Chiefs Hall of Honor championship row.

Stram also had travel coats for his team, and we have Chuck Hurston's leather coat he donated to us. "I want everybody to wear them," Stram insisted, "not 39, 38, but 40 [player roster limit]. I don't want to hear any excuses about how they are in the laundry or in the cleaners. Just remember [it] will cost you $500 [if you are found not wearing it when we travel to games]."