The Kansas City Chiefs family has a personal connection all the way to Huntsville, Ontario via Wall Street. But it’s not a player or coach on the National Football League (NFL) team.
Instead, it’s in the form of longtime close friends Scott Hutcheson and Chiefs owner Clark Hunt.
For nearly four decades, Hutcheson has been cheering on his friend’s team, from the first time Lamar Hunt (Clark’s legendary father) brought them to a game and he got to see the mammoth team members.
The late patriarch founded the American Football League, now called the American Football Conference after the AFL-NFL merger in the 1960s. The AFC champions receive the Lamar Hunt Trophy each year.
“Lamar was a beautiful, gentle man with a soft-spoken voice,” says Hutcheson. “He was a great community man . . . He invested in a theme park in Kansas City and built two or three businesses because he felt he should be a community builder.”
Hutcheson and Hunt met in 1987 as grad students working with a group of contemporaries for Goldman Sachs on Wall Street. They became fast friends with more than just studying finances in common.
“Clark and I became good friends quickly,” says Hutcheson. “We worked to help each other. He would check my math, and I would check his . . . we teamed up well. I didn’t know his background; I didn’t know his grandfather or his dad’s name. I innocently found a friendship there. Our friendship grew naturally.”
Huntsville’s Bob Hutcheson, Scott’s father, shared many characteristics with Hunt’s father. As successful and driven businessmen, they shared a similar strong work ethic and other ideals, including a deep sense of community. Growing up around those values helped develop and strengthen the bond between their sons.
“The value systems of hard work and to try to stay humble, to study your profession and have integrity in the way you work, and to invest in your community,” explains Hutcheson of both Bob and Lamar. “Those were things we shared from day one and it helped us become close friends.”
Their bond strengthened over the years, and eventually, they were in each other’s wedding parties, continued taking vacations together, and stood by each other through thick and thin.
What’s funny is Hutcheson didn’t even follow the NFL until he met the Hunt family. He was a Canadian Football League (CFL) guy and a fan of the Toronto Argonauts.
Now, Hutcheson is a fixture at NFL games – particularly when Kansas City is in the playoffs and Super Bowl – and one of the biggest Chiefs fans around. He has posed for pictures on stage with the Lamar Hunt trophy, been invited along with his wife to the sidelines, and lived the dream of many sports fans.
Though he was among the many disappointed supporters following the Philadelphia Eagles 40-22 win over the Chiefs in this year’s Super Bowl, he looked back at the recent successes and said the team should be proud in what they’ve accomplished.
They were the first team in the Super Bowl era to have a shot at the three-peat, as previous back-to-back winners didn’t make the big game. They’ve also played in five of the last six Super Bowls, winning three of them. Not too shabby in a league where winning the title comes at a premium.
Only 20 of the league’s 32 teams have ever won the Vince Lombardi Trophy – awarded to the winning team in the Super Bowl. And four teams have never even made it to the NFL’s final game.
“Close to a third of the teams have never won a Super Bowl,” says Hunt. “You’ve got a look at that, and I’m so proud of Clark for doing something that’s never been done in 100 years.”
Besides, as they say in the professional sports game, there is always next year. And surely, these two great friends will be side-by-side cheering on the Chiefs.
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