Len Dawson: Kansas City Chiefs legend Dawson dies at 87

(CTN News)-KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback and popular radio and TV sports personality Len Dawson has died. He was 87.

In 1970, he led the Kansas City Chiefs to their first Super Bowl win. In addition to guiding Chiefs fans through ups and downs, “Lenny the Cool” also served as a broadcaster for more than 50 years.

Dawson went into hospice care earlier this month. KC Chiefs released a statement saying, “Len Dawson is synonymous with the Chiefs.”

Len embraced and came to embody Kansas City and the people who call it home. You wouldn’t find a player who shaped the organization as we know it today like Len Dawson,” said Clark Hunt.

Len Dawson was born in Alliance, Ohio, in 1935. Fifty-two years later, he stood at the Hall of Fame in nearby Canton, inducted after a football Carrer.

He was only the third person to enter the Hall of Fame as a player and a broadcaster, after Frank Gifford and Dan Dierdorf.

“I was into working,” Dawson said with a laugh in 2017, when the broadcasting booth at Arrowhead Stadium was formally dedicated to him.

“Because my parents didn’t have a whole lot and they taught me something: ‘If you want something, find a way to earn it to get it done.'”

As Holthus said, “I had my mom make me a crude, stitched jersey with the numbers 1 and 6 on it so that I could look like Lenny Dawson,” referring to Dawson’s No. 16 jersey.

Dawson was a first-round draft pick out of Purdue by the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1957 but was unable to get any significant playing time with the Steelers or in his two years with the Cleveland Browns in 1960 and 1961.

Meanwhile, Lamar Hunt founded the American Football League in 1960.

KMBC-TV and radio management began discussions about including Dawson in their broadcasts without Dawson’s knowledge in 1966.

“I didn’t have any idea he was doing that, so it ended up starting my broadcasting career,” Dawson said.

Besides being a major figure in Kansas City, he started a groundbreaking show on HBO called “Inside the NFL.”

Hall of fame quarterback.

Len Dawson has died.

 

FF

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