Clark Hunt has looked back to the example set by his father, Lamar Hunt, as he works with the team to address issues of social justice.
The Kansas City Chiefs franchise has long been involved in the fight for social justice. In the 1960s, the Chiefs were at the forefront of breaking racial barriers in professional football, largely thanks founder Lamar Hunt and head coach Hank Stram.
Hunt hired Lloyd Wells, the first full-time Black scout in professional football. Wells then helped the team find and draft numerous players from Historically Black Colleges and Universities including Pro Football Hall of Famer’s Buck Buchanan and Willie Lanier. Hunt and Stram looked beyond race — they treated Black and White players equally in a time when many were not willing to do so.
Fast forward to today and Chiefs CEO and President Clark Hunt, son of Lamar, is faced with issues surrounding social justice and inequality. He has found himself looking back at the example set by his father when it comes to how he can support his players in making a difference.
“Going back to the beginning of summer, we’ve had a lot of conversations with the leadership group on the team related to the social justice issues,” Hunt told reporters. “It’s not something that’s new to the Kansas City Chiefs. Really going all the way back to the 1960s and 1970s. My dad [Lamar Hunt] really encouraged the players to get out there and use their platform to make a difference in the community. A lot of those efforts over the decades have been focused on things that benefit the minority communities and we’re certainly more focused on that than ever.”
Hunt has taken cues from the team leaders, those who’ve been out doing work in the local community.
“What I’ve really appreciated the last couple of years, is how engaged the leaders on our team are and I’ll just take Patrick (Mahomes) and Tyrann (Mathieu) as examples, that they’re very engaged, they want to make a difference, they want to do things that are going to make our country better, things that are going to help us get along as a country.”
Perhaps the greatest legacy that Lamar left behind is how he treated people with dignity. Within the context of what’s going on today, Clark is reminding people of that and how important it is.
“My dad set a great example for me and my siblings on a lot of issues. And probably his greatest strength was how he treated people,” Hunt said. “He didn’t care where you came from, what your background was, what your race was, he treated everybody he met with respect and appreciation. That’s been a lesson that we’ve all learned, and just bring it forward to what’s going on with racial equality and social injustice. I think Andy (Reid) probably said it as well as anyone—we just need to love our neighbor. And if we all do that, this world is going to be a whole lot better place.”
Mahomes, Mathieu and the rest of the Chiefs’ organization have honed in on the way they can actively work to make the local community and country a better place. The team has already done a lot according to Hunt, but they still have one last goal in mind as they look to create change. That goal, of course, is turning Arrowhead Stadium into a polling place for the November elections.
“You referenced Arrowhead being a polling station,” Hunt said. “That’s one of their big issues, is voter registration and getting people out to vote. We’ve worked with them and we’re working with some organizations here locally to try to encourage people to get out to vote. We’ve made an effort to get all of our players registered to vote here. The icing on the cake would be if we could have Arrowhead be a polling station. We don’t know if that’s going to work out, but we’ve had some really good dialogue at some of the highest levels with the state and we hope it does.”
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