65 Toss Power Trap: Remembering the Mentor – any series of articles on the “Greatest Chiefs,” must include the head coaches. Prior to even doing the background for today’s piece, I decided that I would cover the three greatest head coaches that ever led our beloved Chiefs. I didn’t need to rely on Google, I already knew: Hank Stram, Marty Schottenheimer, and Andy Reid. Honorable mentions were to include Dick Vermeil, Marv Levy, and Gunther Cunningham (his impact as Chiefs defensive coordinator earns him this honor).
However, as I started researching, I began with Coach Stram… and I never left. It became all too clear that to include the others with the often irascible Stram would do him an injustice. So, while I tip my hat to Levy, Cunningham, Vermeil, Schottenheimer, and Reid… my focus today is on Hank Stram, the original Chief of the Chiefs.
The Chiefs have had thirteen head coaches in their storied sixty-year history. Among these, Coach Stram looms the largest by far.
It was in 1959, that AFL co-founder and Dallas Texans founder, Lamar Hunt, tapped the young son of Polish immigrants and WWII Army veteran to lead the Texans in the inaugural season of the AFL. Coach Stram would fulfill that role for fifteen seasons, longer than any other Chiefs coach (Schottenheimer is second with ten seasons).
In those fifteen years, Coach Stram proved himself an innovative, pioneering genius that changed the game of football. It was Coach Stram who first lined a defensive tackle over the center. He designed the moving pocket and two-tight-end formation to buy his quarterback, the legendary Len Dawson, more time. The 3-4 defense (three down lineman and four linebackers) was his creation.
The always sharply dressed Coach Stram struck a colorful figure when roaming the Chief’s sidelines on game day. NFL Films captured the coach’s quirky sense of humor and memorable, pithy one-liners when they mic’d him up during Super Bowl IV.
NFL Films Steve Sabol later mused, “I knew Hank was funny, but I never expected him to be that loose… It was like having Henny Youngman coach a football team. Everything was a one-liner.”
Coach Stram had his own vernacular and nicknames that he used in his coaching style. The offense did not drive down the field, they ‘matriculated’ the ball. He was the Mentor, his players were the Rats, the team priest was a blackbird, and referees were sausage stuffers.
Coach Stram was a player’s coach. He cared not about the color of one’s skin, their nationality, religion, nor anything else. Hank just wanted people who could play football.
At a time in America where race relations were at a boiling point, Coach Stram cared not. He rattled the cages of many Chiefs fans when he named Willie Lanier his starting middle linebacker (the first African-American ever to start the position in professional football). He further irritated football fans when he announced that Lanier and the player whose position Lanier had taken, the white Jim Lynch, would be roommates.
After drafting Lanier, Coach Stram told the astonished media,
“We don’t care what color he is, or what nationality he is. The only thing we care about is bringing him in and competing for our squad. If he earned a right to be a member of our squad, he is going to be here.”
Coach Stram did not think in terms of black and white, he thought in terms of wins or losses and went after those who could help get him the W.
“I always felt if you were going to be successful, make sure you get good people. You win with great players. Coaches don’t win games. Players win games.”
Coach Stram surrounded himself with good people who could ball, and he never forgot them. In his Hall of Fame acceptance speech, Coach Stram said, “Someone said that friends are angels in disguise. If this is true, I have been surrounded by angels for most of my life.”
It was Coach Stram who recruited and developed Hall of Famers Len Dawson, Bobby Bell, Buck Buchanan, Curley, Culp, Willie Lanier, Jan Stenerud, Emmitt Thomas, and Johnny Robinson. Eventually, Coach Stram would join them.
It was not until 2003, that the NFL finally saw fit to induct Coach Stram into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. For several years he was the only head coach among those who won played in the first 14 Super Bowls. The NFL inducted former Minnesota Vikings coach Bud Grant, whom Coach Stram beat in Super Bowl IV, nine years earlier.
“I’ve lived a charmed life,” he once said. “I married the only girl I ever loved and being able to do a job I truly loved with the Chiefs. I’m a lucky fellow.”
Coach Stram won more games than any other in the history of the AFL. His other accomplishments include:
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- Super Bowl Championship (IV)
- Three AFL Championships (1962, 1966, 1969)
- UPI AFL Coach of the Year Award (1968)
- Pro Football Weekly AFL Coach of the Year Award (1968)
- 136 Career Wins
In his HOF acceptance speech, the ever-quotable Coach Stram quipped, “As I matriculate my way down the field of life, I will never forget this moment and you wonderful people who helped make this day possible.”
July 4th, 2019 marks the 14th year since Coach Stram left us in 2005 due to complications from diabetes.
So this Thursday, as you enjoy BBQ, fireworks, friends, and families, and celebrate the independence of our country over 200 years ago, take just a moment to reflect on and remember the life of a remarkable man who was the most remarkable Chief.
Coach Hank Stram is the Chiefs! When they were a rag-tag outfit known as the Dallas Texans, Coach Stram was there. When they moved to the city of fountains and became the Kansas City Chiefs, Coach Stram was there. When his hard work, dedication, and belief in his players paid off with the Chiefs’ Super Bowl IV victory, Coach Stram was there.
So in Miami, on the 2nd of February 2020, when Coach Reid and Patrick Mahomes hoist the very trophy that Coach Stram, himself, held aloft fifty years ago, you can bet your sweet patootie that Coach Stram will be there.
Bonus Fun Fact: Coach Hank Stram required yellow Dial soap in the locker room showers because he thought it reduced infections.
Michael Travis Rose — ArrowheadOne
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