Logos and uniforms of the Kansas City Chiefs

The Kansas City Chiefs, a professional American football franchise from the National Football League, are known for their unique "KC" arrowhead logo and red and white uniforms—both almost unchanged since the franchise's relocation in 1963. From 1960 to 1962, the team was known as the Dallas Texans and had very similar team logos and uniforms.

Logos

At one of the initial organizational meetings of the American Football League in late ’59 the AFL owners choose their team colors. Lamar Hunt desired Columbia Blue and Orange for his Dallas Texans franchise. But before Hunt or any other owner can make a selection, Houston’s Bud Adams claims Columbia Blue for his Oilers franchise. Hunt reverted to Red and Gold for the Texans, which remains the primary color scheme for the Chiefs to this day.When the Dallas Texans began playing in 1960, the team's logo consisted of the state of Texas in white with a yellow star marking the location of Dallas. Since moving to Kansas City in 1963, the team logo has been a white arrowhead bearing the initials "K.C."

Team owner and founder Lamar Hunt originally sketched this logo on a napkin, inspired by the San Francisco 49ers' own logo [http://sportslogos.net/logo.php?lo=857 Kansas City Chiefs logo] ] . Prior to the inaugural American Football League season in 1960, Hunt’s Texans were represented by a whirling, spur-clad, 10-gallon-hat-wearing character that was featured on various promotional items. The logo eventually gave way to a more polished football-toting gunslinger set over the state of Texas, a design created by Bob Taylor, a cartoonist for the now-defunct "Dallas Times Herald". Although never part of the club’s uniform, Taylor’s updated Texans logo adorned everything from the club’s stationery to the billboard outside the team’s offices.

When the franchise moved in 1963, Taylor was commissioned to produce a new logo that remained strikingly similar to his original incarnation. Taylor’s new rendition featured a Native American figure running with the same stride and holding the pigskin in the same manner as the gunslinger with the states of Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Iowa and Arkansas serving as his backdrop. This logo was utilized prominently during the 1960s and was affixed to the club’s Swope Park headquarters on 63rd Street before the club moved to Arrowhead Stadium in 1972. The logo, embedded in the grass, still remains off the highway to this day.

Uniforms

The Chiefs' uniform design has essentially remained the same throughout the club's entire history. It consists of a red helmet, and either red or white jerseys with the opposite color numbers and names trimmed in yellow. White pants were used with both jerseys until 1968, when red pants were used with the white jerseys. In 1970 the Chiefs change from cloth jerseys to a more breathable mesh fabric, although the cloth jerseys were retained for colder weather games through 1973. In 1974 The club’s facemask changed from gray to white. A change in manufacturers resulted in a slightly smaller arrowhead logo on the helmet with a thicker black border compared to the design of the ‘60s. In 1994 the Chiefs changed to solid fabric jerseyscomplete taking the place of the mesh jersey.

The white jersey–red pants combination was not used between 1989 and 1999, primarily during the period when Marty Schottenheimer was the team's head coach. In 2006, under new head coach Herman Edwards, the Chiefs wore white uniforms with white pants at home against the Cincinnati Bengals. It is believed to be the first time the Chiefs had worn white for a home game since the early 1980s, when Marv Levy was the team's head coach. However, when the Chiefs played the Broncos in Denver the following week, they wore red pants.

Following Lamar Hunt's death on December 13, 2006, the Chiefs wore the all-white combination for road games against the San Diego Chargers on December 17 and Oakland Raiders on December 23. It is said the all-white combination was a tribute to Hunt, who reportedly favored the all-white uniforms. The team wore the all-white combination in their playoff game versus the Indianapolis Colts. The team did not wear the all-white combination during the 2007 season.

Even though many NFL teams in recent years have worn their dark jerseys with their dark pants, the Chiefs have to yet to unveil an all-red combination. The Chiefs also have yet to wear an alternate jersey in a game, although gold jerseys with red numbers trimmed in white, and black jerseys with red numbers trimmed in gold, are commonly available for sale in Kansas City-area sporting goods stores.

The Chiefs wore a patch with the American Football League logo with the initials "LH" located in the football of the American Football League logo on their jerseys for the 2007 season, ostensibly as a tribute to Lamar Hunt. On January 31, 2008 the NFL approved the patch to be a permanent fixture on the Chiefs' uniforms. [ [http://kcchiefs.com/news/2008/01/31/lamar_hunt_patch_becomes_a_permanent_part_of_the_chiefs_uniform/ Lamar Hunt patch becomes a permanent part of the Chiefs' uniform] "KCChiefs.com", 28 January 2008.]

References

External links

*http://www.kcchiefs.com/history/uniform/