Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
JFK, the Super Bowl and...Dundee United? The remarkable story of Lamar Hunt
MEET Lamar Hunt, the man who named the Super Bowl, pioneered the rise of soccer in the US, and whose family was linked to the JFK assassination.
He was also a Dundee United shareholder.
He was a man born into one of the greatest oil fortunes in the US. His father – the infamous Texan oil magnate HL Hunt – is said to have served as the inspiration for the larger-than-life character of JR Ewing in Dallas and his name even cropped up in some of the more far-fetched conspiracy theories about the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
While floundering in an investment in miniature golf courses, Hunt watched the 1958 NFL Championship Game at home on television.
It was from this game that he made several efforts to buy a team in the NFL before setting up a rival American Football League in 1959 at the age of 27.
He founded his own AFL team, the Dallas Texans, in 1960, which Hunt moved to Kansas City three years later where they were re-named the Chiefs.
The leagues merged in 1966, and decided to follow the example of baseball’s World Series by instigating an end of season play-off between their respective winners.
Hunt proposed the match-up should be called the Super Bowl.
By the mid-1960s, Hunt’s attentions had also turned to soccer and he founded the Dallas Tornado as members of the United Soccer Association (USA).
In the rush to get ready for the 1967 season, the 12 franchises of the USA decided to import overseas teams and Dundee United were invited to play as Dallas Tornado. The problem for
United was that Tornado wore blue and white.
United won the hearts of their 16,431 Dallas fans when they played their first game at the Cotton Bowl against the Houston Stars, which was Brazil’s Bangu.
“Both the size of the crowd and its enthusiastic reaction surprised me,” said Hunt.
“The attendance was twice what I had thought possible.”
United finished bottom of the Western Division with three wins from 12, although the average attendance was the second highest in the league.
After the 1967 season Hunt was gifted one share in United.
Hunt’s Tornado would go on to win the 1971 North American Soccer League (NASL) Championship and lay the foundation for soccer’s success in North Texas.
The links between the north and north-east of Scotland and US soccer continued when the NASL gained momentum in the 1970s. Jimmy Bone,
Bobby Clark, Charlie
Cooke, Jimmy Gabriel,
Davie Robb and Jocky
Scott were just some of the names who played in the league.
A legion of journeymen forged new careers in the NASL alongside superstars like Pele, Franz Beckenbauer, Johan Cruyff, Carlos Alberto and George Best.
In 1981, after 15 seasons and losses in the millions, Hunt and his Dallas Tornado partner Bill McNutt decided to merge with the Tampa Bay Rowdies.
Two years later, they sold the Rowdies to local investors, before the league collapsed.
Hunt returned to soccer as one of the founding investors of Major League Soccer in 1996 and operated FC Dallas, Columbus Crew and Kansas City Wizards.
He died aged 74 in 2006.
Lifelong Arab and former club historian Tom Cairns said Hunt wanted United to represent Toronto following the success against Barcelona in 1966.
“Hunt wanted a Scottish club and our choice was probably rubber-stamped when we defeated Celtic on Hogmanay 1966,” he said.
“We had certainly been chosen before we beat Celtic at Parkhead in May 1967, as I understand a TV crew from Dallas came and filmed that day. A friendship was
struck between the two clubs and we were invited back in 1969. As far as I know the family still own at least one share.”
Dundee United Who’s Who author Pat Kelly said: “The Hunt family from Dallas were one of the richest in the US,” he said.
“They knew all about making money and Lamar Hunt saw an opportunity in sport. Football, or soccer as it’s better known in the US, was a new medium. But here comes the interesting part.
Did he meet Jack Ruby the day before JFK’s assassination?” Ruby, of course, was the man who shot the president’s killer Lee Harvey Oswald on Sunday November 24 1963 at the Dallas Police Headquarters.
“Ruby was in the vicinity of Hunt’s office on November 21 1963,” said Mr Kelly. “Ruby would later tell the investigative authorities that he merely escorted a Connie Trammell, a young woman who had a job interview with Lamar Hunt.”
He added: “So, was there a link to the Hunt family, the president’s assassination and Dundee United?” said Mr Kelly.
“You have to admit, it is an interesting story.”