How They Got Their Name: Kansas City Chiefs

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As the Kansas City Chiefs prepare to take on the Philadelphia Eagles in the Super Bowl this evening, let’s dive into how the team got its name.  While the Chiefs’ gameday atmosphere is reliant on Native American themes such as the tomahawk chop, headdresses, playing home games at Arrowhead Stadium, and using an arrowhead as their logo, you would think their name was derived directly from Native American culture.  But that is not the case at all.  They are named after Harold Roe Bartle, who was the mayor of Kansas City during the early 1960s.

It started in Dallas, Texas when the upstart American Football League’s Dallas Texans were one of the eight charter members of the league in 1960.  But after local football fans were far more invested in the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys, Bartle helped convince Texans’ owner Lamar Hunt to move his team to Kansas City in 1963.  The Kansas City Texans obviously didn’t work, so Hunt let the locals pitch in suggestions for a new name, which included the Royals, Stars, and Mules.  Once again the mayor played a convincing role and influenced Hunt to name the team the Chiefs, after himself.  Bartle was very involved in the Boy Scouts of America throughout his life, as a supervisor, council executive, and even created his own scout group, The Tribe of Mic-O-Say.  In his leadership roles, he gained the nickname “Chief Lone Bear” and was often referred to as “The Chief.”  I have to say the “Chiefs” sound better than the Kansas City “Harolds” or “Bartles.”

Garett