The Kansas City Chiefs are used to winning Super Bowls in the modern NFL, and as 2024 draws near, Patrick Mahomes and team aim to take home the Lombardi Trophy for the third time in a row.
Despite the Chiefs’ incredible run of success, which has seen them win three titles in the previous five seasons and four Super Bowls since 2019, there was a protracted stretch during which the NFL team was never even close to winning the championship game.
Jim Kearney, the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl champion, has passed away.
The Kansas City Chiefs had not won a Super Bowl since 1969, the year the AFL split off to become the NFL, but they did lose the AFC Championship game to the Buffalo Bills in 1993. Len Dawson was awarded the game’s MVP after throwing for 142 yards and one touchdown as the Chiefs defeated the Minnesota Vikings 23-7 in Super Bowl IV.
At Tulane Stadium in New Orleans, the Kansas City Chiefs defense dominated Super Bowl IV despite the wet circumstances by restricting the Minnesota offense to only 67 running yards, forcing three interceptions, and recovering two fumbles.
Jim Kearney, who played for the Chiefs for nine of his twelve NFL seasons, was one of the game’s defensive standouts.
Over 115 games, he never missed a start with the Chiefs. In an interview with The Star in 1981, Kearney said that he battled for his job on a weekly basis. He remarked, “You have to prove yourself every single week.”
Jim Kearney, the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl champion, has passed away.
Kearney, a record-setting safety for the Chiefs who began in Super Bowl IV, passed away, the team said on Monday. He was eighty-one. In 1972, Kearney’s best season ever, he tied an NFL record by returning four interceptions for touchdowns. In the game’s fourth quarter against the Denver Broncos, he also made history as the first player from the Chiefs to return two picks for touchdowns.
Hank Stram, the coach of the Kansas City Chiefs, referred to Kearney as “the most underrated safety in the AFL” in 1969. At Prairie View A&M, Kearney was a quarterback for the All-SWAC and NAIA All-America teams. He also played college ball with Otis Taylor, a future wide receiver with the Chiefs. In 1964, Kearney and Taylor connected for 12 touchdowns. Kearney started working at Washington High as a science instructor and coach. In 1993, he told The Star that teaching gave him a lot of happiness.
When Kearney misplaced his Super Bowl IV ring in 2022 while using the driving range at Kansas City’s Shoal Creek Golf Course, the story went viral. Later on, according to Kansas City Chiefs Chairman and CEO Clark Hunt, it was discovered on the golf course parking lot. “Jim played for nine years in Kansas City, where he led the Chiefs defense to victory in Super Bowl IV with a 23-7 score as a member of an AFL Championship team. Jim made his Chiefs debut in 1967 and didn’t miss a game for the following eight years. Nevertheless, Jim’s life’s most noteworthy moments took place off the field. He went on to become a high school coach and teacher after his playing career.
He served as a mentor to numerous kids in the Kansas City region, and he will be cherished as an exceptional athlete, educator, and human being. My family and I am sending Shirley and the Kearney family our sincere sympathies.
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