"Inside the Stacks: Exploring important documents in Chiefs history" is a series of columns based on never-before-seen documents and correspondence from the Lamar Hunt archives, including many from the founding and early days of the American Football League, the merger with the National Football League, and other historic moments up until the time of Hunt's death.
International games have been a focus of the National Football League in its scheduling of pre-season games for 37 years, and the league schedule began to include regular-season play in 2012. This year, the Chiefs will kick of the season in Brazil against the Los Angeles Chargers.
But long before any thought of featuring American football outside the country was taken up by the NFL, Chiefs Founder Lamar Hunt sought to take his favorite sport and his American Football League beyond America's borders.
As early as 1965, Hunt envisioned an exhibition game in Mexico City. The Chiefs were already playing what today we call pre-season games in various locations outside of Kansas City and had done so when they were based in Dallas. Spreading the word on the American Football League was part of Hunt's motivation as the club traveled to Tulsa, Okla.; Abilene, Texas; Little Rock, Ark.; Midland, Texas; Fort Worth, Texas; Miami, Fla.; Lithonia, Ga.; Seattle, Wash.; and Wichita, Kan., in the first six years of operation.
Fort Worth, Texas, was a familiar location for Texans/Chiefs in the pre-season, but Hunt liked the idea of a game outside the confines of the United States.
He believed that it made sense that a game be played between Kansas City and Houston given the proximity of the two teams to Mexico, and said in a letter to what appears to be a promoter that "I can almost assure you of getting a game" there.
The game never took place, but in 1996, Hunt's Chiefs met the Dallas Cowboys in Monterrey, Mexico, and in 2019 faced the Chargers in Mexico City.
In all, the Chiefs have played in NFL sanctioned out-of-the-country games in Berlin, Germany (a first for professional football); Tokyo, Japan (twice); London, UK; Frankfurt, Germany; Monterrey, Mexico City; and soon São Paulo, Brazil.
SOURCES: "Team Operations Exhibition Games Hunt to Mr. Tommy G. Mercer, July 7, 1965.
