The 1964 Kansas City Chiefs season was the fifth 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 tea ...

as a professional

AFL AFL may refer to: Sports * American Football League (AFL), a name shared by several separate and unrelated professional American football leagues: ** American Football League (1926) (a.k.a. "AFL I"), first rival of the National Football Leagu ...

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 second season in

Kansas City The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more ...

following their move from

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

. The Chiefs began the year with a 2–1 mark, then dropped three consecutive games as several of the team's best players, including

E.J. Holub Emil Joseph Holub (January 5, 1938 – September 21, 2019) was an American football Center (American football), center and linebacker in the American Football League (AFL) and the National Football League (NFL) for the Kansas City Chiefs, Dallas ...

Fred Arbanas Frederick Vincent Arbanas (January 14, 1939 – April 16, 2021) was an American football tight end. He played college football for the Michigan State Spartans. Arbanas was drafted in the second round (22nd overall) in the 1961 NFL Draft by the ...

, and Johnny Robinson, missed numerous games with injuries. Arbanas missed the final two games of the year after undergoing surgery to his left eye, in which he suffered almost total loss of vision.

Running back A running back (RB) is a member of the offensive backfield in gridiron football. The primary roles of a running back are to receive American football plays#Offensive terminology, handoffs from the quarterback to Rush (American football)#Offen ...

Mack Lee Hill Mack Lee Hill (August 17, 1940 – December 14, 1965) was an American football player, a running back at Southern University and for the American Football League's Kansas City Chiefs. He died suddenly after undergoing knee surgery, two days afte ...

, who signed with the club as a rookie free agent and received a mere $300 signing bonus, muscled his way into the starting lineup and earned a spot in the

AFL All-Star Game The American Football League All-Star game was the annual game which featured each year's best performers in the American Football League (AFL). The game was first played in 1961 and the final AFL All-Star game occurred in 1969, prior to the leagu ...

. The club ended the season with a pair of wins to finish at 7–7, runner-up in the AFL Western Division, 1½ games behind the

San Diego Chargers The San Diego Chargers were a professional American football team that played in San Diego from 1961 until the end of the 2016 season, before relocating to Los Angeles, where the franchise had played its inaugural 1960 season. The team is now ...

. An average attendance of just 18,126 for the seven home games at Municipal Stadium prompted discussion at the AFL owners' meeting about the Chiefs future in Kansas City. Quaterback Lenny Dawson proceeded to have the best season of his career completing 199 passes out of 354 attemps for 2,879 yards and 30 touchdowns with 18 interceptions for a passer rating of 56.2 and a completion percentage of 89.9

Schedule

Standings

References

Kansas City Chiefs seasons

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...

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