Lamar Hunt

Lamar Hunt was a very important businessman in American sports.

He helped build many professional leagues that people love today. He was a key founder of the American Football League, also called the AFL. He also helped start Major League Soccer, which is known as MLS. Hunt even helped create World Championship Tennis. This helped start the Open Era of tennis. Because of his hard work, he was put into several halls of fame. He joined the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1972. He also joined the National Soccer Hall of Fame in 1982. Finally, he joined the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1993.

Hunt had a very interesting way of building his sports teams. In 1959, he and other businessmen started the AFL. They were sometimes called the "Foolish Club." Hunt owned the Dallas Texans, which was one of the first AFL teams. In 1963, he moved the team to Kansas City. He renamed them the Kansas City Chiefs. The team became very successful in the 1960s. They won the AFL Championship in 1962 and again in 1966. They even won Super Bowl IV in 1970. Hunt was so proud of the team that he asked to be called the founder instead of just the owner.

One of the most famous things about Hunt was a special name. In 1966, the AFL and the NFL agreed to merge into one big league. Hunt wrote a letter about the big championship game. He jokingly called it the "Super Bowl." He said the name might have come from a toy called a Super Ball. His children used to play with that toy. Even though the leagues used a different official name at first, the media loved his idea. By 1969, the name Super Bowl became the official name for the big game. This name is now known all over the world.

Hunt also worked very hard to make soccer popular in the United States. He loved soccer after seeing a game in Ireland in 1962. He even went to many FIFA World Cup tournaments. In 1967, he started the Dallas Tornado team. This team was part of the North American Soccer League, or NASL. Hunt later helped start Major League Soccer in 1996. He owned the Columbus Crew and the Kansas City Wizards. He also owned the Dallas Burn, which is now called FC Dallas. He even helped pay for large stadiums just for soccer players to use.

Besides sports, Hunt was a builder of many other things. He helped start two theme parks in Kansas City. These are called Worlds of Fun and Oceans of Fun. He also helped make a huge underground business space. It is a manmade limestone cave called SubTropolis. This cave is very large and is used by many businesses. Hunt was born in El Dorado, Arkansas, in 1932. He grew up in Dallas and studied geology at Southern Methodist University. He lived a long and busy life until he passed away in 2006. He left behind a huge legacy in the world of sports.