During the entire 1969 professional 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 fans petitioned the 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".

Fans enlisted the support of AFL players. By the end of the season, after a request to Hunt by the Buffalo Bills' Jack Kemp (a request no doubt reinforced by the fact that Hunt's Chiefs would be in the final inter-league Super Bowl) Hunt agreed to have the Chiefs wear a ten-year AFL patch in Super Bowl IV.

AFL Hall of Fame coach Hank Stram supported the idea and used the patch as a motivating factor for his team. Stram was later 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.

External links

• www.superbowl.com article