As Chiefs Kingdom mourns the death of the legendary Len Dawson, we’re also recalling some of his greatest moments quarterbacking the team.
Back in 2015, Dawson joined Sports Illustrated to look at some old photos and reminisce about his playing career. Asked about the one memory that stands out the most, Dawson recalled what was perhaps the most iconic play in franchise history.
“65 Toss Power Trap,” Dawson said.
The play didn’t even involve Dawson more than his ability to hand the football off to Mike Garrett, but the results of the play helped the Chiefs secure their first Lombardi Trophy.
Dawson went on to explain how he questioned the play call at the time, but he was ultimately quite glad that Hank Stram had decided to call it and that he decided to go with the flow.
“Gloster Richardson came in, we were inside the five-yard line against Minnesota,” Dawson said. “And Gloster Richardson came in with a play from Hank Stram. He said, ‘The coach wants 65 Toss Power Trap.’ I said, ‘Are you sure? We haven’t practiced that play in three or four weeks. You sure?’ He said, ‘Yeah, 65 Toss Power Trap.’ I said, ‘You better be right.’ And he was right because Mike Garrett took the ball untouched into the endzone and that made it 16-0 or something like that. And with our defense, the game was over.”
This story is extremely telling of Dawson’s character. In recalling the memory that stands out the most, it’s a play that he only had a small part in executing. It’s Hank Stram, Mike Garrett, the defense and even Gloster Richardson, who get all the credit from Dawson in this particular story. Yet, it was still a memory that stood out the most because of the impact that it had on the franchise, his teammates and Kansas City.
