Lynne Dawson, who led the Kansas City Chiefs to victory in Super Bowl 4 and was elected to the Professional Football Hall of Fame as a player and announcer, has died at the age of 87, according to his family.
“With wife Linda by his side, we are deeply saddened to inform you of the passing of our beloved Lynne Dawson,” the family said in a statement to KMBC in Kansas City, where Lawson previously worked as a sports broadcaster. “He was a wonderful husband, father, brother and friend. Lynn has always been grateful and overwhelmed him many times with the myriad bonds he made during his football and radio career.
“He loved Kansas City, and no matter where his travels took him, he couldn’t wait to go home.”
Dawson, who entered aged care in Kansas City on August 12, has worked for The Chiefs for nearly half a century: 14 years as mediators and 33 as a radio analyst.
He spent the first five years of his 19-season career as a little-used backup for the Pittsburgh Steelers and Cleveland Browns, but his career took off after he was signed in 1962 to play for the Dallas Texans in the NFL (soon to be Kansas City) Chiefs ) to play under Hank Stram, who was an assistant at Purdue during Dawson’s stellar team career.
The man Stram once called “the most accurate pass in professional football” immediately showed that he deserved to be the team’s number one quarterback, leading the AFL in achievement percentage (61.0) and winning the 1962 Player of the Year award while carrying the Texans to the title. league.
After moving to Kansas City, the team’s success continued under Dawson, who was a seven-time All-Star/Pro Bowler and two-time first Pro All-Team.
In 1966, the Leaders took to another NFL title, which for the first time meant a trip to what became known as the Super Bowl. Dawson played well (16 of 27, 211 yards), but the Chiefs were overtaken by Vince Lombardi’s Green Bay Packers in a 35-10 loss.
The Chiefs returned after three seasons to face the Minnesota Vikings at Super Bowl IV. Although Joe Namath and the New York Jets upset the Baltimore Colts the year before, the NFL was still seen as superior and the Vikings came as a double-digit favorite.
But the Kansas City defense dominated and Dawson played a typical strong game (12 of 17, 142 yards), including a 46-yard touchdown pass to Otis Taylor in the third quarter that sealed a 23-7 win.
Dawson was named the second-team quarterback, behind Namath, on the NFL’s All-Time Team in 1970.
He was elected to the Professional Football Hall of Fame as a player in 1987 and as an announcer in 2012, after a television and radio career that began as a sports announcer on Kansas City Television in 1966 while still playing for the Chiefs, often going to KMBC after rehearsing for a broadcast. Sports report for that night. Dawson went on to become a game analyst on NBC as well as a longtime host of HBO’s Inside the NFL.
After a string of health issues that included prostate cancer and quadruple heart surgery, Dawson retired from broadcasting in 2017 after 33 years as a radio color analyst for the Chiefs.
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