KC Sports Legend Hank Stram Dies

[theultimatekcchiefsfan]

http://www.thekansascitychannel.com...238/detail.html

KC Sports Legend Hank Stram Dies
Stram Led The Chiefs To 2 Super Bowl Appearances

POSTED: 1:31 pm CDT July 4, 2005
UPDATED: 3:29 pm CDT July 4, 2005

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Hank Stram, a legend in Kansas City sports history, died Monday in New Orleans following a lengthy illness.

Hank Stram
He was 82.

Stram led the Chiefs to their only two Super Bowl appearances: In Super Bowl I the Chiefs lost to the Green Bay Packers, and in Super Bowl IV in 1970, the Chiefs defeated the Minnesota Vikings.

He was inducted into the National Football League's Hall of Fame in 2003 and the Chiefs Hall of Fame in 1987.

Stram was the Chiefs all-time winning coach.

[lazarus]

Updated: July 4, 2005, 6:18 PM ET

Stram still Chiefs' all-time winningest coachAssociated Press

NEW ORLEANS -- Hank Stram, who took the Kansas City Chiefs to two Super Bowls and was known for his inventive game plans, died Sunday at a hospital in suburban New Orleans, his son said. He was 82.

Stram had been in declining health for several years and Dale Stram attributed his father's death to complications from diabetes. He died at St. Tammany Parish Hospital, near his home in Covington, across Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans. He had built the home during his two-year stint as coach of the Saints and he retired there.

"Pro football has lost one of its most innovative and creative coaches and one of its most innovative and creative personalities as well," Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt said in a telephone interview.

Stram was the Chiefs' first coach. He took over the expansion Dallas Texans of the upstart AFL in 1960 and coached them through 1974, moving with them to Kansas City where they were renamed the Chiefs in 1963.

The gregarious, stocky, blazer-wearing Stram carried a rolled up game plan in his hand as he paced the sidelines. He led the Chiefs to AFL titles in 1962, '66 and '69 and to appearances in two of the first four Super Bowls, beating Minnesota in 1970.

He was the first coach to wear a microphone during a Super Bowl and Stram's sideline antics, captured by NFL Films, helped bring the league into the video age.

Stram later coached two seasons with the Saints and enjoyed a successful second career in CBS' television and Monday Night Football radio booths as a color commentator.

He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2003. The then-80-year-old had to be pushed onto the stage in a wheelchair and his induction speech was videotaped.

Len Dawson, the Hall of Fame quarterback who played under Stram at Kansas City, also called him an innovator.

"He was responsible for doing a lot of the things in the '60s that teams are still using now," said Dawson, citing the moving pocket and the triple stack defense.

"His whole life was football that's what he was born for, I think. He had a passion for it, not just a liking," Dawson said. "He was really sincere when he talked about the team being a family. Everybody really loved him."

[Raider3:16]

Even though he coached for the enemy, I had alot of respect for him. You could tell how geniue he really was.
My prayers go out to his family , the Chiefs and to you all!