Blast from the past - Week 5

August 23rd 1967: Kansas City Chiefs 66 – Chicago Bears 24

In January 1967, the Kansas City Chiefs faced the Green Bay Packers in the first ever SuperBowl. The pundits unanimously declared that the new AFL was no match for the established AFL – and so it proved, with the Packers running out 35-10 winners after the Chiefs had kept the game in the balance until half-time.

The Chiefs went back to Missouri to lick their wound and to build up a chip on their shoulders over the summer, and by the time the new season was dawning it was payback time. The NFL’s Chicago Bears came to KC’s Municipal Stadium for a pre-season exhibition game, and the Chiefs saw a chance for revenge against the rival league.

Quarterback Len Dawson had a bout of flu in the run-up to the game but was desperate to play. He started the game on fire as the Chiefs ran up a 39 to 10 half time lead. Dawson had 11 yard passing TDs to both Chris Burford and Gloster Richardson, and a pair of touchdown passes to Otis Taylor (this was a sign of things to come, as Taylor would have a fine 1967 season, scoring 12 touchdowns in the regular season).

Mike Garrett (pictured) completed the scoring with a short rushing play – running back Garrett was a star of the team with over 30 touchdowns in his five seasons. His pair of rushing touchdowns in the AFL Championship match on New Year’s Day 1967 had sealed the Chiefs’ spot in the SuperBowl.

After the break, Dawson was replaced as quarterback by his back-up Pete Beathard, but the points kept coming. Beathard connected with Gloster Richardson for an 80-yard play and Richardson’s second score of the game – before the quarterback then got on the scoreboard himself with a short rush. As well as a Gene Thomas rushing TD, we also had a 99 yard kick-off return by Noland Smith – Smith would actually go on to better this later in the year, with a 106 return for a touchdown at Mile High Stadium against the Broncos.

The Chiefs put together a decent season following this pre-season extravaganza, but a record of 9 and 5 saw then fall just short in their attempt to return for another crack at Green Bay in the second SuperBowl game.

Elsewhere in the NFL at the time:

This was the first year of officially arranged AFL versus NFL exhibition games, which were the forerunners of the post-merger preseason games. Despite the big win for KC, the games didn’t go so well overall for the AFL – they lost 13 games to 3 overall, including a 50 point to 7 thrashing of the Chargers by the Rams.

Elsewhere in the world:

It was the original summer of love and the Beatles, Stones, and Doors are all at the height of their talents. But it wasn’t all joy in Coventry, as their football manager Jimmy Hill resigned to concentrate on a career in television.