1963 Kansas City Chiefs season The 1963 Kansas City Chiefs season was the inaugural season of Kansas City ’ s new football franchise . Despite winning the 1962 AFL Championship the previous year , the Chiefs finished the year 5 – 7 – 2 and third in their division . For the previous three seasons , the team was known as the Dallas Texans . Owner and founder Lamar Hunt moved the team following the 1962 AFL Championship . Despite enormous success in Dallas , Texas , the city could not sustain two professional football franchises ( the other being the NFL ' s Dallas Cowboys ) . The team was renamed the Kansas City Chiefs and moved into Municipal Stadium alongside the Kansas City Athletics baseball team . Goin ' to Kansas City . After three seasons in Dallas , Texas — including an AFL championship in 1962 — it was apparent that Dallas couldn ’ t support two teams . Hunt investigated opportunities to move his team to several cities for the 1963 season , including Miami , Florida , Atlanta , Georgia , Seattle , Washington and New Orleans , Louisiana . Hunt wanted to find a city to which he could commute easily from Dallas , and when he was unable to secure Tulane Stadium in New Orleans because the university didn ’ t want its football program to compete with a pro team , he was persuaded by Mayor H . Roe Bartle to move to Kansas City , Missouri . The negotiations in Kansas City were conducted in secrecy . On several occasions Hunt and Jack Steadman , the team ’ s general manager , were in Kansas City and met with businessmen . Bartle introduced Hunt as “ Mr . Lamar ” in all the meetings with other Kansas City businessmen . Steadman was introduced as “ Jack X . ” Most impressive about this move was the support the team received from the community even before the team announced the move . Hunt made the move dependent upon the ability of Mayor Bartle and the Kansas City community to guarantee him 35 , 000 in season ticket sales . Hunt had arrived at this number because that was the Texans ' average attendance at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas . An ambitious campaign took shape to deliver on Bartle ’ s guarantee to Hunt of tripling the season - ticket base the Texans had enjoyed in Dallas . Kansas City ’ s mayor also promised to add 3 , 000 permanent seats to Municipal Stadium , as well as 11 , 000 temporary bleacher seats . Along with Bartle , a number of other prominent Kansas Citians stepped forward to aid in the efforts , putting together more than 1 , 000 workers to sell season tickets . Bartle called to his office 20 business leaders and called upon them to form an association later known as " The Gold Coats " , whose sole objective was to sell and take down payments on the 35 , 000 season tickets required . Not an easy task when one considers the move was still secret and " The Gold Coats " had to sell season tickets to people without knowing the team name , where it was coming from , who the owner was , which football league they played in , who the players or coaches were , when the team played its first game in Kansas City , or where it played . Hunt gave Bartle a 4 month deadline . Bartle and " The Gold Coats " made good in only 8 weeks . Later , Hunt admitted he was really only hoping for 20 , 000 , for which he still would have moved the franchise . On May 22 , Hunt announced he was moving the franchise to Kansas City , Missouri . Hunt , with a roster replete with players who had played college football in Texas , wanted to maintain a lineage to the team ’ s roots and wanted to call the club the Kansas City Texans . " The Lakers stayed the Lakers when they moved from Minnesota to California , " he reasoned . " But Jack Steadman convinced me that wasn ’ t too smart . It wouldn ’ t sell . " The team was renamed the Chiefs — one of the most popular suggestions Hunt received in a name - the - team contest and began playing in Kansas City ’ s Municipal Stadium in 1963 . A name also considered at the time for the team was the Kansas City Mules . The name , " Chiefs " is derived from Mayor Bartle , who 35 years prior , founded the Native American - based honor society known as " The Tribe of Mic - O - Say " within the Boy Scouts of America organization , which earned him the nickname , " The Chief . " The Chiefs ' first Kansas City home was at 22nd and Brooklyn , called Municipal Stadium , which opened in 1923 and had 49 , 002 seats . The Chiefs shared Municipal Stadium with the Kansas City Royals of Major League Baseball . The first appearance of the Chiefs in Municipal Stadium attracted just 5 , 721 fans for a 17 – 13 preseason victory against Buffalo on August 9 . Season background . The Chiefs ' inaugural season in Kansas City began with owner Lamar Hunt ’ s trade of quarterback Cotton Davidson to the Oakland Raiders , which landed the number one overall selection in the AFL Draft ( which Kansas City used to select Buck Buchanan . Ironically , the Raiders would later select Gene Upshaw in 1967 for the express purpose of blocking Buchanan . The Chiefs tabbed offensive guard Ed Budde from Michigan State with their own number one selection , while stealing another future Hall of Fame inductee , Bobby Bell from Minnesota in the seventh round . Buchanan , Budde and Bell all became starters on their way to a combined 526 games with the team and all three of them played their entire careers with the Chiefs . Rookie running back Stone Johnson , who was a sprinter in the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome , suffered a fractured vertebra in his neck in a preseason game against Oakland on August 30 in Wichita , Kansas . He died 10 days later on September 8 and his jersey number 33 was subsequently retired . The Chiefs finished their first season in Kansas City with a 5 – 7 – 2 record and failed to reappear in the AFL Championship game for a consecutive year . Regular season . Coming off the longest game ( at that point ) in football history against the Houston Oilers in the AFL Championship , the Chiefs could not find the same swagger in their new home in Kansas City for their inaugural season . The Chiefs finished with a 5 – 7 – 2 record by the end of the year . Postseason . With their 5 – 7 – 2 record , the Chiefs failed to reappear in the AFL Championship for a consecutive year .