The 1965 Kansas City Chiefs season was the sixth season for the

Kansas City Chiefs The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Chiefs compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The ...

as a professional AFL

franchise Franchise may refer to: Business and law * Franchising, a business method that involves licensing of trademarks and methods of doing business to franchisees * Franchise, a privilege to operate a type of business such as a cable television p ...

and the third in Kansas City; they finished with a 7–5–2 record, third in the Western division. For the 1965 season, the Chiefs were caught in the middle of the AFL and NFL's bidding wars for college talent. Kansas City made running back

Gale Sayers Gale Eugene Sayers (May 30, 1943September 23, 2020) was an American professional football player who was both a halfback and return specialist in the National Football League (NFL). In a relatively brief but highly productive NFL career, Sa ...

from the

University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and several satellite campuses, research and educational centers, medical centers, and classes across the state of Kansas. T ...

their first-round

draft pick A draft is a process used in some countries (especially in North America) and sports (especially in closed leagues) to allocate certain players to teams. In a draft, teams take turns selecting from a pool of eligible players. When a team selec ...

(sixth overall), but Sayers signed with the Chicago Bears, who had selected him fourth overall in the NFL's draft. The Chiefs lost running back Mack Lee Hill late in the year when he suffered torn ligaments in his right knee in the next-to-last regular-season game at Buffalo on December 12. Following what was expected to be a routine surgery two days later at Menorah Hospital in Kansas City, Hill died from what was termed "a sudden and massive

embolism An embolism is the lodging of an embolus, a blockage-causing piece of material, inside a blood vessel. The embolus may be a blood clot (thrombus), a fat globule (fat embolism), a bubble of air or other gas ( gas embolism), amniotic fluid (am ...

." Hunt called Hill's death "the worst shock possible." Five days after Hill's unexpected death, the mourning Chiefs defeated the

Denver Broncos The Denver Broncos are a professional American football franchise based in Denver. The Broncos compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The team is headquar ...

to finish with a 7–5–2 record.

Schedule

Source: Pro Football Reference

Standings

References

Kansas City Chiefs seasons

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