Lamar Hunt: The Gentle Giant Who Revolutionized Professional Sports

When Lamar Hunt died in 2006 at age 74, the United States lost a pro sports visionary. While most fans know that Hunt was the founder of both the Kansas City Chiefs franchise and the American Football League (which merged with the National Football League to form the most successful sports league in U.S. history), football was only one of Hunt's interests.

Lamar Hunt

Lamar Hunt: The Gentle Giant Who Revolutionized Professional Sports

By David A.F. Sweet

 

CONTACT: Bill Ames, Triumph Books, 312.252.1248, b.ames@triumphbooks.com

 

Lamar Hunt was best known as the founder of both the Kansas City Chiefs and the AFL, which later merged with the NFL to form the most successful sports league in U.S. history.  In the new biography Lamar Hunt: The Gentle Giant Who Revolutionized Sports, author David A.F. Sweet writes about how football was only one of the many interests in Hunt's life and business ventures.

 

Hunt was the son of H.L. Hunt, who was at one time the richest man in America.  While many may surmise that Lamar's successes came easily, they could not be more wrong.  Hunt often battled with a host of rival leagues. Lawsuits and countersuits were common, including one he filed one against the NFL, the organization he would eventually join. When Hunt started leagues or circuits, he had to be willing to endure huge losses at the outset.  Regardless, Hunt seemed to be omnipresent in the sporting world, playing major roles in the following:

• Helped develop the now-defunct North American Soccer League
• Helped form Major League Soccer where he opened the first professional stadium dedicated to the sport
• Created the modern pro tennis tour and forced open tournaments like Wimbledon to non-amateurs
• Was inducted into halls of fame in football, soccer and tennis
• One of the original investing partners of the Chicago Bulls
• Created SubTropolis, a massive underground business complex near Arrowhead Stadium

 

Fittingly, 2010 is the AFL's 50^th anniversary.  Author David A.F. Sweet delves deep into Hunt's impact on sports in Lamar Hunt: The Gentle Giant Who Revolutionized Sports, revealing never-before-disclosed details of this soft-spoken man's true importance to many different popular sports. Hunt's human side is brought to light as well.  As a teenager, he had said his ambition in life was simply, "To do bigger and better things than my dad." His lifelong love of sports transformed the sporting landscape into the massive industry that everyone recognizes today.

 

About the Author:

David A. F. Sweet was hired as executive sports editor of the daily Glendale News-Press and two other Tribune-owned papers near Los Angeles in 1990. He later worked as a reporter and as a columnist for the Wall Street Journal Online, where he launched the column "Nothing but Net" in 1998. He also served as a columnist for MSNBC.com and for SportsBusiness Journal. He is currently an editor at Sun-Times Media outside of Chicago and lives in Lake Forest, Illinois, with his wife Tricia and their three children-Hannah, David, and Ford.

 

###