Stram tapped into his talent, helping Dawson to quickly become one of the league’s prolific passers as the Texans went 11-3 and won the first of three championships. With newfound freedom to sign anywhere, Dawson jumped to the upstart AFL and the Texans, lured in part by the chance to play for one of his old coaches at Purdue. The Steelers ultimately traded him to the Browns, where Dawson was unable to beat out Milt Plum for the job and was released. By the end of his college career, Dawson had thrown for more than 3,000 yards, despite playing in an era that favored ground-and-pound football.ĭawson was chosen by the Steelers in the first round of the 1957 draft, but he wound up riding the bench behind Earl Morrall as a rookie and then failed to beat out Bobby Layne for he starting job the following season. He led the NCAA in passing efficiency as a sophomore while also playing defense and kicking, and helped lead an upset of Notre Dame during that 1954 season. He was a three-sport athlete at Alliance High School, setting records in both football and basketball, and turned his success on the gridiron into a scholarship offer from Purdue. Bill Ray / The LIFE Picture Collection / Shutterstockĭawson was born June 20, 1935, the ninth of 11 children that filled the house of James and Annie Dawson in the blue-collar manufacturing town of Alliance, Ohio. Quarterback Len Dawson in the Chiefs' locker room during Super Bowl I in 1967.
And it perfectly captured a man that embodied poise and self-assurance. But he always had time for fans, whether a photograph or signature, the latter often on an iconic black-and-white photo from halftime of that first Super Bowl: The exhausted quarterback, white uniform caked with mud, sitting on a folding chair with a cigarette in his mouth and a bottle of Fresca at his feet. “I could not have accomplished so much without my teammates and colleagues, and I’m grateful for each of them.”ĭawson always remained a beloved figure in Kansas City, even though he cut back on public appearances several years ago when his health began to fail. “Looking back on my career, I’ve been blessed for what I had the opportunity to do,” Dawson said told The Associated Press in 2017, shortly after he announced his retirement from his second career as a Hall of Fame broadcaster.
They proceeded to win two more AFL titles, one in 1966 when they lost to the Green Bay Packers in the first Super Bowl, and the other in ‘69, when Dawson returned from an injury to help beat the Vikings at Tulane Stadium in New Orleans. The coach and quarterback won the AFL championship together in 1962, their first year together, and became bona fide stars the following year, when club founder Lamar Hunt moved the team to Kansas City and rechristened it the Chiefs. There, Dawson reunited with Hank Stram, who had been an assistant with the Boilermakers, and together they changed the franchise. Focus On Sport / Getty Imagesĭawson personified the Chiefs almost from the start, when the suave standout from Purdue lost out on starting jobs in Pittsburgh and Cleveland and landed with the nascent franchise, then located in Dallas. You would be hard-pressed to find a player who had a bigger impact in shaping the organization as we know it today than Len Dawson did.” Quarterback Len Dawson of the Kansas City Chiefs on the sidelines in the mid-1970s. “Len embraced and came to embody Kansas City and the people that call it home. “Len Dawson is synonymous with the Kansas City Chiefs,” owner Clark Hunt said in a statement on Wednesday. Len was always grateful and many times overwhelmed by the countless bonds he made during his football and broadcast careers.”ĭawson was the MVP of the Chiefs’ 23-7 Super Bowl victory over the Minnesota Vikings in January 1970. “He was a wonderful husband, father, brother and friend. “With wife Linda at his side, it is with much sadness that we inform you of the passing of our beloved Len Dawson,” the family’s statement read.
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