1963 Kansas City Chiefs season

1963 Kansas City Chiefs season
OwnerLamar Hunt
General managerJack Steadman
Head coachHank Stram
Home fieldMunicipal Stadium
Results
Record5–7–2
Division place3rd AFL Western
Playoff finishDid not qualify
AFL All-StarsTE Fred Arbanas
G Ed Budde
OT Jim Tyrer
DE Mel Branch
LB Walt Corey
DB Dave Grayson
DB Duane Wood
S Johnny Robinson

The 1963 Kansas City Chiefs season was the 4th and inaugural season for the Kansas City Chiefs as a professional AFL franchise; Despite winning the AFL championship game the previous year, the Chiefs were 5–7–2 in 1963, third in the four-team Western division.[1] The Chiefs were winless for two months in the middle of the season and were eliminated from the postseason in mid-November after ten games.[2] They finished the season with three consecutive wins at home, with diminished attendance. Their 27–27 tie with the Buffalo Bills in September was the first tie in franchise history.

For the previous three seasons, the team was known as the Dallas Texans and played at the Cotton Bowl. Owner and founder Lamar Hunt moved the team following the 1962 AFL Championship. Despite enormous success in Dallas, the city could not sustain two professional football franchises[3] (the other being the NFL's Dallas Cowboys). The team was renamed the Kansas City Chiefs and moved into Municipal Stadium alongside the Kansas City Athletics baseball team. The Chiefs 59–7 victory over the Denver Broncos in week 1 set two franchise records that still stand as of the end of the 2021 season: points scored in a game (59) and largest margin of victory (52).

  1. ^ Kansas City Chiefs History 1960s Archived April 21, 2007, at the Wayback Machine KCChiefs.com
  2. ^ "Chargerw ship Bills as 38,592 watch". Eugene Register-Guard. Oregon. Associated Press. November 18, 1963. p. 2B.
  3. ^ Kansas City Chiefs History 1960's Archived April 21, 2007, at the Wayback Machine KCChiefs.com