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The Ten-Year AFL Patch is a shoulder patch adapted for use on American Football League (AFL) team uniforms.
quoted
as saying ''"You could not believe it when you saw the faces of the players. These were great men, and great pros, but they were like kids in a candy shop when they saw that patch."'' Years later, Chiefs linebacker Willie Lanier]
remarked
''"It lit us up. We knew what it meant."'' Wearing the AFL patch, the Chiefs went out and defeated the Vikings 23–7. Thus, the final record in the only series of Professional Football championship games to be played between the champions of two leagues was: NFL 2, American Football League, AFL 2, proving for posterity that the unfairly maligned and visionary American Football League was the full equal of the established, conservative NFL.
After Hunt's death in 2007, a modified version of the AFL patch, this time rendered as a disc instead of a federal shield, and with his "LH" initials replacing the "AFL" letters on the football, became a permanent part of the Chiefs uniform on its left side as a memorial to the league and the team's founding owner, along with being an icon within the end zones of Arrowhead Stadium to identify the team's conference, replacing the post-merger American Football Conference, AFC logo used by the league until 2009.
www.superbowl.com articleChiefs website story on uniform history
{{American Football League American Football League 1969 American Football League season
History
During the entire 1969 in sports, 1969 professional American football, football season, all NFL players wore a shoulder patch on their uniforms, reading "50 NFL", marking the 50 years which had passed since the league's initial organization. American Football League fan Angelo F. Coniglio, Ange Coniglio petitioned the American Football League, AFL owners to have their players wear a patch commemorating the league's 10 years, especially since it was the AFL's final year. The AFL owners declined, in Lamar Hunt's words, because they felt that a patch would make the uniforms ''"too busy"''. Coniglio enlisted the support of AFL President Milt Woodard and of AFL players. At his urging, the idea was also advanced by Jack Kemp in a request to Pete Rozelle. As reported in the ''Kansas City Chiefs' 2006 Press Guide'', Woodard had a patch made to be used by whichever team won the final AFL Championship. It turned out that AFL founder Lamar Hunt's Kansas City Chiefs, Chiefs would be in the final Professional American football championship games, AFL-NFL World Championship Game, and Hunt agreed to have the Chiefs wear a ten-year AFL patch in Super Bowl IV. The outline of the patch resembles that of the U.S. Route shield, United States highway shield, itself based on the Great Seal of the United States.Support
AFL Hall of Fame coach Hank Stram supported the idea and used the patch as a motivating factor for his team. Stram was latequoted
as saying ''"You could not believe it when you saw the faces of the players. These were great men, and great pros, but they were like kids in a candy shop when they saw that patch."'' Years later, Chiefs linebacker Willie Lanier]
remarked
''"It lit us up. We knew what it meant."'' Wearing the AFL patch, the Chiefs went out and defeated the Vikings 23–7. Thus, the final record in the only series of Professional Football championship games to be played between the champions of two leagues was: NFL 2, American Football League, AFL 2, proving for posterity that the unfairly maligned and visionary American Football League was the full equal of the established, conservative NFL.
Legacy
After Hunt's death in 2007, a modified version of the AFL patch, this time rendered as a disc instead of a federal shield, and with his "LH" initials replacing the "AFL" letters on the football, became a permanent part of the Chiefs uniform on its left side as a memorial to the league and the team's founding owner, along with being an icon within the end zones of Arrowhead Stadium to identify the team's conference, replacing the post-merger American Football Conference, AFC logo used by the league until 2009.
References
External links
www.superbowl.com article
{{American Football League American Football League 1969 American Football League season