KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Len Dawson, the Hall of Fame quarterback who led the Kansas City Chiefs to their first Super Bowl championship and was with the organization for six decades as a player and broadcaster, has died, his family announced early Wednesday morning.
He was 87.
Known as “Lenny the Cool” for his composure and guile on the field, Dawson was the Chiefs’ starter for 14 seasons, including their appearances in Super Bowl I and Super Bowl IV.
Dawson was an iconic symbol of Kansas City sports success, and his status ranks among a select company that includes the Royals’ Hall of Fame third baseman George Brett, pro golfing champion Tom Watson and the late Buck O’Neil of the Negro Leagues’ Kansas City Monarchs and a recent inductee into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
In addition to being the face of the Chiefs franchise from the time the club moved from Dallas to Kansas City in 1963 until he retired as a player in 1975, Dawson was known by future generations of fans for his work in television as the longest-tenured sports anchor in Kansas City history.
Dawson, a strapping 6-footer with wavy hair and a killer smile, began working as a sports anchor for KMBC-TV (Ch. 9) during his playing days in 1966, not stepping down until 2009. He also served as an NFL color commentator for NBC Sports for six years; was co-host for HBO’s “Inside the NFL” for 24 years; and was the Chiefs’ radio analyst from 1984 to 2017.
He entered hospice care on Aug. 12. Through KMBC, the Dawson family issued this statement: “With wife Linda at his side, it is with much sadness that we inform you of the passing of our beloved Len Dawson. He was a wonderful husband, father, brother and friend. Len was always grateful and many times overwhelmed by the countless bonds he made during his football and broadcast careers.
“He loved Kansas City and no matter where his travels took him, he could not wait to return home.
“Linda wants to acknowledge and thank the wonderful team of doctors, nurses and support staff at KU Med who showed tremendous amounts of love and compassion for Len.”
In 1987, Dawson was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, just 20 miles from his childhood home of Alliance, Ohio. Dawson, inducted into the Chiefs Hall of Fame in 1979, also was selected 1972 NFL Man of the Year, an award that honors a player’s contributions both on the field and in the community.
Dawson’s work as a broadcaster was recognized in 2012, when he received the Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award from the Pro Football Hall of Fame, 25 years after he was enshrined as a player. Dawson, Frank Gifford, Dan Dierdorf and John Madden are the only members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame who also received the Rozelle Award, which recognizes “longtime exceptional contributions to radio and television in professional football.”
“He was the leader, the general, he was Lenny the Cool,” former Chiefs guard Ed Budde once said of his longtime teammate. “He never, ever got rattled on the football field.”
Or as Jack Steadman, the Chiefs’ general manager during the early Super Bowl years, once put it: “He was Joe Montana before Joe Montana.”
Dawson is the second member of the Chiefs’ Super Bowl IV champions to have died this year. Linebacker Jim Lynch passed away on July 21.
“My family and I are heartbroken,” Chiefs chairman and CEO Clark Hunt said in a statement. “Len Dawson is synonymous with the Kansas City Chiefs. Len embraced and came to embody Kansas City and the people that call it home. You would be hard-pressed to find a player who had a bigger impact in shaping the organization as we know it today than Len Dawson did.
“I admired Len my entire life — first as a Hall of Fame player on the field, and later as he transitioned into a successful broadcasting career. Throughout his remarkable career, Len made it a priority to give back to the community that he loved. The franchise has lost a true legend. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Linda and his family.”
An upset for the ages
Dawson’s finest hour was in Super Bowl IV, when he was voted the game’s most valuable player as the Chiefs upset the heavily favored Minnesota Vikings 23-7 on Jan. 11, 1970 in New Orleans.
Not only did Dawson complete 12 of 17 passes for 142 yards, including a game-breaking, 46-yard touchdown to Otis Taylor, but he also played amid controversy.
Dawson was linked to a gambling investigation five days before the game. An NBC news story said a federal grand jury in Detroit was going to subpoena five football players, including Dawson. Dawson was brought into it because of a casual acquaintance with the subject of the investigation, Donald Dawson of Detroit. They were not related but met when Len Dawson played for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
During a hastily called evening news conference at the Chiefs’ hotel two nights before the Super Bowl, Dawson read a prepared statement explaining that he had barely known Donald Dawson and that he’d had no contact with him for nearly two years.
Commissioner Pete Rozelle reaffirmed his confidence in Dawson and the other four players (Joe Namath, Bill Munson, Karl Sweetan and Pete Lammons), and said they were innocent of any wrongdoing.
The other four players’ seasons were over. Dawson still had a Super Bowl to play, and because of the stress of the week, he barely ate and lost about eight pounds.
But he was still able to deliver an inspiring performance in leading the Chiefs to the first major championship in Kansas City sports history.
“That game taught me a lot about life, self-control and the ability to single-mindedly focus on what is at hand,” Dawson said when he was voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1987. “After going through that ordeal, I knew I could handle most anything.”
Dawson also led the Chiefs to Super Bowl I against the Green Bay Packers. The Chiefs qualified for the first game between the NFL and AFL the hard way, having to beat Buffalo on the road. Dawson completed 16 of 24 passes for 227 yards and two touchdowns in a 31-7 victory over the Bills on a frigid day in Buffalo’s War Memorial Stadium.
The Chiefs weren’t as fortunate in Super Bowl I, losing to Green Bay 35-10. The Chiefs trailed just 14-10 at halftime, and if Dawson could replay one pass from the 3,929 he threw during his 19-year career, it would be the one he threw on the opening drive of the second half.
Dawson, under a tremendous rush, attempted a pass in the flat for tight end Fred Arbanas. But Dawson’s arm was hit, and the ball fluttered to safety Willie Wood, who intercepted it and returned it 50 yards to the Green Bay 5. The Packers went on to score a touchdown for a 21-10 lead, and the Chiefs never recovered.
“That first Super Bowl, we were playing for a whole league, not just ourselves,” Dawson said, still disconsolate years later about that performance.
‘Seventh son of a seventh son’
Leonard Ray Dawson was the ninth of 11 children born to James and Annie Dawson in Alliance, Ohio, and took pride in the fact he was “the seventh son of a seventh son,” he said at his Hall of Fame induction speech.
“They say that means you’re lucky,” Dawson said. “That seems to have been true. I have been blessed with a certain amount of ability, and a lot of good fortune.”
Dawson began his high school football career as a 125-pounder who was often knocked down when he held the tackling dummies. He became a star quarterback at Purdue University, where one of the offensive assistant coaches was a man named Hank Stram.
Before Dawson made his college debut in the 1954 season opener against Missouri, Stram sidled up to the young sophomore and wished him good luck.
Dawson replied: “Thank you Coach, but you don’t need luck. You need ability.”
That day, Dawson threw four touchdown passes and led Purdue to a 31-0 victory over Don Faurot’s Tigers. The next week, he threw for four touchdowns in a 27-14 win over Notre Dame. He’d go on to lead the Big 10 in passing three straight seasons.
In 1957, the Pittsburgh Steelers, after winning a coin-toss with the Cleveland Browns, took Dawson with the fifth overall pick of the NFL Draft, one spot ahead of running back Jim Brown of Syracuse.
And for the next five years, Dawson sat on the bench, starting one game for Pittsburgh in 1957 and one for Cleveland in 1960 and another for the Browns in 1961. In five seasons, Dawson attempted just 45 passes, completing 21 with two touchdowns and three interceptions.
After the 1961 season, Dawson went into the office of Cleveland coach Paul Brown and asked to be released. Brown accommodated, though not until June 1962, enabling Dawson to join Stram, who was head coach of the Dallas Texans in the fledgling American Football League.
Stram had recruited Dawson out of high school and coached him at Purdue. Stram believed Dawson could succeed as a pro quarterback in the new, pass-happy AFL despite not getting a chance in the stodgy NFL.
“I knew what was inside Lenny, even though his ability was covered by rust,” Stram said at Dawson’s induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. “I always said, he was sterling silver that had just gotten a little tarnished.
“His acquisition was really the turning point of our franchise,” added Stram, who died in 2005, two years after his own election to the Hall of Fame.
Dawson seized the starting job and led the Texans to the AFL Championship, culminated by a 20-17 double-overtime victory over Houston.
The Texans subsequently moved to Kansas City in 1963 and became the Chiefs.
Dawson won AFL Player of the Year honors in 1962; was all-AFL in 1962 and 1965; played in five AFL All-Star Games; and was MVP of the 1969 game. He also played in the 1972 Pro Bowl.
Dawson may not have had the strong arm of a Johnny Unitas or the flair of a Joe Namath, but his passes were deadly accurate. He led the league in completion percentage eight times, an NFL record. His six consecutive seasons as the most accurate passer also is a league record.
Dawson led the league in passing four times, and only Sammy Baugh and Steve Young, who led the NFL six times, have topped that. Dawson led the league in touchdown passes four times, tying Johnny Unitas, Steve Young and Brett Favre for second all-time to Tom Brady’s five times.
In his 19-year professional career, Dawson completed 2,136 passes in 3,741 attempts for 28,711 yards, 239 touchdowns and 183 interceptions. His 183 games played for the Chiefs ranks third among non-kickers to only Will Shields’ 224 and Tony Gonzalez’ 190. And Dawson completed more passes (2,115) for more yards (28,507) and more touchdowns (237) than any quarterback in Chiefs history.
Dawson’s best day as a pro may have been a six-touchdown, 435-yard, performance in a 49-39 victory over Denver in 1964.
Known for his ability to roll out in Stram’s moving pocket, Dawson also rushed for 1,293 yards and nine touchdowns. Dawson played in an era where the quarterbacks called their own plays, and his leadership in the huddle was never questioned.
“Some quarterbacks rah-rah you,” teammate Arbanas once said. “Some try to tough-guy you. Lenny was neither of those. He led you by the force of his presence.”
The brawl against Oakland
One of Dawson’s most memorable moments was not a pass but a brawl.
During a game against arch-rival Oakland on Nov. 1, 1970, Raiders defensive end Ben Davidson speared Dawson after the quarterback had gained 19 yards for a first down that would’ve sealed a key AFC West victory at Kansas City’s Municipal Stadium.
Dawson was still on the ground with about a minute left and the Chiefs ahead 17-14 when Davidson dived, helmet first, into his back.
Wide receiver Otis Taylor came to the aid of Dawson and traded punches with Davidson as they tumbled to the ground. A bench-clearing brawl ensued, and once order was restored, the referee called offsetting penalties, nullifying Dawson’s first down, and ejected Taylor from the game.
Having to replay the down, the Chiefs failed to pick up the first down and had to punt. The Raiders drove to the Kansas City 41, setting up a George Blanda field goal for a 17-17 tie that ultimately cost the Chiefs the division title.
Looking back years later, Dawson said of the play: “Knowing the Raiders, I knew it wasn’t over. “Their philosophy was, ‘Take the cheap shot, so what?’ He committed a foul and wound up with a bonus. I could have gone to a knee, and we would have won the game.”
Life after football
Those days spent sitting on the bench in Pittsburgh and Cleveland taught Dawson a valuable lesson. Football would not last forever.
So in 1966, in Dawson’s fourth season in Kansas City, he was hired as a sports anchor by KMBC-TV (Channel 9), which was looking to boost its ratings as the Chiefs were seeking more television exposure.
Dawson would still be in pads interviewing teammates after practice, and then he’d hustle down to the television station to anchor the sportscast. Thus began a nearly 40-year career with Channel 9, though it was interrupted during the time he was with NBC.
“I not only asked the players to interview them, but I’d tell them the questions and give them the answers,” Dawson joked in March 2009 when he stepped down from full-time anchor duties. “The only experience I had was being interviewed. Being interviewed, you can stop talking whenever you want to. It’s a little different when you’re trying to carry a show.”
Though Dawson might stumble on some multi-syllable names of hockey and tennis players, he was the same Lenny the Cool, whether he was wearing a dark suit and tie in front of the camera’s red light or taking the field in a football uniform.
And he was as admired by those in the newsroom as he was in the locker room.
“When we bring new people in, you’re almost inclined to tell them, ’Just watch Len Dawson,’’’ Wayne Godsey, then president and general manager of KMBC, said at the time of Dawson’s decision to relinquish full-time anchor duties.
“If there is anybody on staff that has a reason to have an ego or swelled head, it would be Lenny Dawson, and he is probably the opposite end of the spectrum. He comes in, does his job, does it quietly and effectively and is always willing to share time with either new people on our staff or people who come in to visit.”
Dawson was so successful on Channel 9 that he also joined HBO’s “Inside the NFL,” in its second year in 1978, at a time when cable television was in its infancy. He spent the next 24 years as a fixture on cable TV’s longest-running series.
At the time he began working for HBO, Dawson once said, he didn’t get to see the show at home because he didn’t have cable.
“His 24 years may be one of the longest runs in the history of television for an announcer,” HBO president Ross Greenburg said. “We’re grateful to Len Dawson. He is a Hall of Famer on and off the field.”
Advocate against cancer
Dawson had not been in any discomfort in December 1991, but he decided to undergo a screening for prostate cancer at the urging of his wife, Linda, who had read about Sen. Robert Dole’s prostate surgery.
Dawson’s oldest brother also had been stricken with prostate cancer, and he was told that could increase his chances of having it. Sure enough, a cancerous growth was detected. But because of early detection, Dawson, who was 56 at the time, made a full recovery.
Since then, the Dawsons were active in promoting National Prostate Cancer Awareness Month, and Len Dawson even appeared with Dole in front of a Senate Special Committee on Aging to emphasize the importance of early screening for men older than 40.
Ten years later, during a physical examination for former NFL players, a doctor found a blockage around Dawson’s heart, and he had successful quadruple-bypass surgery. Dawson quickly resumed his busy schedule with Channel 9, the Chiefs and making myriad commitments on behalf of charities, as well as taping commercials for companies he represented.
“It all comes back to me being a seventh son of a seventh son,” Dawson said during Christmas 2001. “What more can I tell you? I’ve been blessed.”
Three standout games
Three games stood out in Dawson’s mind when he looked back on his career at the time of his induction into the Chiefs Hall of Fame in 1979.
The first was Super Bowl I and how he had to live with that costly interception and the embarrassment the 35-10 loss represented for the AFL.
The second was a 1967 exhibition game the following season in which the Chiefs took out their frustrations by routing one of the prides of the NFL, George Halas’ Chicago Bears, 66-24.
“I’ve been to two Super Bowls as a player, and we were never as high as we were for that game,” Dawson remembered. “We put 66 points on the board, and everybody wanted to score 100.”
The third, of course, was Super Bowl IV.
“It was such a tremendous feeling looking up at the clock at the end of the game,” Dawson said. “But then, it was more of a sense of relief than of joy. It was just a relief to get the monkey off my back from Super Bowl I and from what I had been through during the week.”
More important to Dawson was the contribution he and the Chiefs played in Kansas City, a town searching for its major-league identity.
“The games themselves don’t mean that much,” he said. “You tend to forget the details. But our success was important to Kansas City. I like to think our football team played a part in changing the minds of people about Kansas City. That is the most significant thing to me.”
And next to Lamar Hunt, who brought the team that would be known as the Chiefs to Kansas City, perhaps no one played a bigger role in making Kansas City major-league than Len Dawson.
“When I look at Lenny, I think of honor, class, style, grace, dignity,” Stram said in introducing Dawson at his 1987 Hall of Fame induction. “When I look at Lenny, I think of winning, because he played the dominant role in our becoming the winningest team in the history of the American Football League.
“The bigger the game, the better he played. He was our leader. He was our man. Greatness is measured by the best of time, and Lenny passed that test with flying colors.”
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(Randy Covitz covered sports, including the Chiefs and the NFL, for The Star from 1981-2015.)
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