Those of us who have been around long enough to remember the days of the St. Louis Football Cardinals can quickly say that they were not relevant this time of the year.
In 28 seasons, the only postseason game they ever won was the Playoff Bowl at the end of the 1964 season. That 24-17 win over Green Bay (in Miami, where Super Bowl LIV is being held, by the way) was so monumental that Packers’ coach Vince Lombardi actually referred to it as the “Losers’ Bowl” – a game played by the runners-up in the NFL’s two divisions at the time. Of course The Great Lombardi would feel that way. He would have five NFL titles and the first two Super Bowls under his belt. His Packers only lost one playoff game that did count in his time in Green Bay.
But back to the Big Red. That was a franchise that never gave their loyal fan base a Super Bowl appearance. They had some really good seasons, but never good enough.
1969 wasn’t one of those seasons. The year before they had come within a half-game of a division title, so big things were expected. Instead, they fell flat on their faces with what would be one of four 4-9-1 seasons over the next five years. And yet, the St. Louis Football Cardinals played a significant role for the team that did win the Super Bowl that year.
I was reminded of this as I read Michael MacCambridge’s excellent photo-filled recount of that season, appropriately titled, “’69 Chiefs.”
You won’t find his name on the roster, but Dr. Fred Reynolds played as big a part in the Kansas City Chiefs winning the championship as perhaps anyone on the roster.
A doctor, you say? Do tell.
It was the final year of the old American Football League. The league's swan song as they would officially be taken into the older, more established National Football League. The Chiefs were the AFL’s best team over their decade of existence; led by coach Hank Stram and quarterback Len Dawson, the franchise owned by the founder of the league, Lamar Hunt, won three championships.
They were embroiled in one of the great rivalries in sports with Al Davis’ Oakland Raiders. However, the Raiders had won seven of their last eight head-to-head meetings. Someone derisively once said that it’s not a rivalry if one team can’t beat the other. But the blood spilled on the field between the two teams would suggest otherwise. The Chiefs got to the Super Bowl by finally beating the hated Raiders in the AFL’s final game.
Actually, the name 'Super Bowl' was coined by Lamar Hunt. It wouldn’t take effect until the following year, so the game the Chiefs would win was not officially given the title the Chiefs owner devised; instead, it was called The Fourth AFL-NFL Championship Game.
But now I’ve gotten ahead of myself.
Dawson was the linchpin of that team, as much for his leadership as for his passing skills. But that 1969 season would prove to be the most challenging of his career. It began with Dawson playing the season opener with a banged-up hand and then got worse. In Week 2, the man they called “Lenny the Cool”, woke up the morning after a win over the Boston Patriots with a painful, swollen knee. An initial diagnosis of the injury was a tear in his MCL. With no arthroscopic procedures available at that time the only known recourse was a season-ending operation.
Goodbye, championship hopes and dreams. Not so fast.
Instead, Hank Stram chose to hold off on canceling the season.
If you’ve ever seen the NFL Films recap of Super Bowl IV, you’ve seen Stram at his best; “Matriculate the ball down the field, boys,” “65 Toss Power Trap,” and so on. The pepper pot coach wasn’t going to toss in the towel without a fight. He would have his quarterback matriculate the country in search of an answer not beginning and ending with surgery. He put Dawson and his wife on a flight to Oklahoma City for a second opinion with an orthopedic specialist, with strict instructions to not agree to an operation if the injury diagnosis was confirmed.
It was confirmed, but Stram kept calling doctors. Dawson was still under general anesthesia in Oklahoma when his coach told him to head back to Kansas City for yet another exam.
Enter Dr. Fred Reynolds.
Dr. Reynolds was the head of the Washington University Orthopedics department, and was a member of the Football Cardinals’ medical staff. After getting a call from Stram, he examined Dawson’s knee and he, too, saw a tear in the MCL. But he offered a different treatment suggestion. “With proper care and rehabilitation,” Stram said in a statement,” the knee would mend without surgery and he could possibly play in six weeks.”
And so the Chiefs gambled that they would still have a shot at the playoffs by the time Dawson would be able to take the field again.
The Chiefs lost to Cincinnati the following week, and lost backup quarterback Jacky Lee to a broken ankle. Rookie quarterback Mike Livingston was pressed into service, and he was good enough to put points on the scoreboard while the Kansas City defense led the way to seven straight wins. By then, Dawson had returned and by the time 1969 turned into 1970, the Chiefs became the last AFL representative in a Super Bowl.
As a postscript, let it be said that Dawson’s travails weren’t over. As Kansas City prepared to meet the Minnesota Vikings in New Orleans, NBC News linked Dawson the quarterback in an investigation to a Detroit gambler named Donald “Dice” Dawson. The passer admitted he was an acquaintance of the other Dawson, but denied any other involvement. The Chiefs’ quarterback was cleared of any wrongdoing, but the rumors swirled through the Crescent City while Kansas City also dealt with being a 12-point underdog in the game a few days away.
Just like the year before, the AFL team turned out to be much better than the oddsmakers gave them credit for. As NFL Films captured Stram’s exhortations via wireless mic, (“C’mon, Lenny! Pump it in there, baby!”) Dawson masterfully executed a game plan that confused the Vikings’ defense while the KC defense throttled Joe Kapp and Minnesota’s pedestrian offense.
Jack Buck described the 23-7 victory on CBS-TV, a game that probably wasn’t that close. Dawson was named the game’s MVP, and took a congratulatory phone call in the locker room from President Richard Nixon.
The Chiefs went another fifty years before finally returning to a Super Bowl. Dawson is still a folk hero in Kansas City, serving as a television sports anchor and gameday broadcaster for many years. If you do a Google search you’ll likely come up with a photo of Dawson having a smoke and a Fresca in the locker room at halftime of the first Super Bowl/AFL-NFL Championship Game.
But to many, Dawson and the Chiefs beating the Vikings was at least as important as the New York Jets shocking the Baltimore Colts the year before. Joe Namath’s guaranteed win was monumental for the AFL, but had Kansas City lost to Minnesota that win would have been viewed as nothing more than a fluke. Dawson and the Chiefs gave the AFL legitimacy as it walked into the door of sports history.
As for Dr. Reynolds, he continued on to lead Wash U. Orthopedics until 1972. He was honored by the school, as the title of head of the department now bears his name. It’s not determined if the Chiefs awarded the good doctor a Super Bowl ring, but without him the Chiefs may likely be down in Miami holding as many Super Bowl titles as the Football Cardinals.