Welcome to Kansas City

On Sunday night the New Orleans Saints set a franchise record when they scored 62 points in a drubbing of the Indianapolis Colts. The next morning we profiled on Profootballhof.com the high-water mark for each National Football League team in terms of most points scored in a game. All of the point totals are impressive and not surprisingly each team won handily in each game.

The one note that I did find extremely interesting was the point total registered by the Kansas City Chiefs. Why? The team's 59 points against the Denver Broncos at Mile High Stadium happened to be the team's first-ever game as the Chiefs.

The Chiefs started as the Dallas Texans in 1960 in the American Football League and won the AFL championship in 1962. Team owner and founder Lamar Hunt however did not think the Dallas market could sustain two professional football teams (the NFL's Dallas Cowboys also began play in 1960) and quietly began talks to move the team to Kansas City. On May 22, 1963 the move was official.

In that first game on Sept. 7, 1963 future Hall of Famer passer Len Dawson did all he could to showcase his team's talents to his new community. The All-Pro signal caller put on a masterful performance by completing 12 of 15 passes for 278 yards and five touchdowns. Dawson's main target that day was wide receiver Frank Jackson who hauled in seven passes for 149 yards and two TDs including an 81-yard scoring strike in the third quarter.


The 59-7 final score that day still represents the largest margin of victory (52 points) in franchise history.