Editing Ten-year AFL patch

{{short description|Shoulder patch used by American Football League teams}}
[[Image:AFL 10-year patch.jpg|200px|right|thumb|The shoulder patch worn by the [[American Football League|AFL]]'s [[Kansas City Chiefs]] in the fourth [[Super Bowl IV|AFL-NFL Championship game]]]]
The '''Ten-Year AFL Patch''' is a shoulder patch adapted for use on [[American Football League]] (AFL) team uniforms.

==History==
During the entire [[1969 in sports|1969]] professional [[American football|football]] season, all NFL players wore a shoulder patch on their uniforms, reading "50 NFL", marking the 50 years which had passed since the league's initial organization.  American Football League fan [[Angelo F. Coniglio|Ange Coniglio]]<ref>{{cite book|last=MacCambridge|first=Michael|title=Lamar Hunt: A Life in Sports|year=2012|publisher=Andrews NcMeel Publishing|location=Kansas City|isbn=978-1-4494-2339-1|pages=206}}</ref>  petitioned the [[American Football League|AFL]] owners to have their players wear a patch commemorating the league's 10 years, especially since it was the AFL's final year.  The AFL owners declined, in [[Lamar Hunt]]'s words, because they felt that a patch would make the uniforms ''"too busy"''.

Coniglio enlisted the support of AFL President [[Milt Woodard]] and of AFL players.  At his urging, the idea was also advanced by [[Jack Kemp]] in a request to [[Pete Rozelle]].  As reported in the ''[[Kansas City Chiefs]]' 2006 Press Guide'', Woodard had a patch made to be used by whichever team won the final AFL Championship. It turned out that AFL founder [[Lamar Hunt]]'s [[Kansas City Chiefs|Chiefs]] would be in the final [[Professional American football championship games|AFL-NFL World Championship Game]], and Hunt agreed to have the Chiefs wear a ten-year AFL patch in Super Bowl IV. The outline of the patch resembles that of the [[U.S. Route shield|United States highway shield]], itself based on the [[Great Seal of the United States]].

==Support==
AFL Hall of Fame coach [[Hank Stram]] supported the idea and used the patch as a motivating factor for his team.   Stram was later [http://www.superbowl.com/features/insider/chiefs quoted] as saying ''"You could not believe it when you saw the faces of the players. These were great men, and great pros, but they were like kids in a candy shop when they saw that patch."'' Years later, Chiefs linebacker [[Willie Lanier]] [http://www.superbowl.com/features/insider/chiefs remarked] ''"It lit us up.  We knew what it meant."''  Wearing the AFL patch, the Chiefs went out and defeated the Vikings 23–7.  The AFL-NFL Championship Game's final record was NFL 2, [[American Football League|AFL]] 2, showing that the upstart American Football League could capably compete with the established NFL.

==Legacy==
[[File:Chiefs 361 (51615694173).jpg|left|200px|thumb|Chiefs tight end [[Travis Kelce]], pictured in 2021, in uniform with a Lamar Hunt memorial patch on his left side inspired by the Ten-Year AFL Patch.]]
After Hunt's death in 2007, a modified version of the AFL patch, this time rendered as a disc instead of a federal shield, and with his "LH" initials replacing the "AFL" letters on the football, became a permanent part of the Chiefs uniform on its left side as a memorial to the league and the team's founding owner, along with being an icon within the end zones of [[Arrowhead Stadium]] to identify the team's conference, replacing the post-merger [[American Football Conference|AFC]] logo used by the league until 2009.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2020/01/31/chiefs-afl-jersey-patch-lamar-hunt/|title=Chiefs' jersey patch is a nod to their AFL roots and late owner Lamar Hunt|last=Allen|first=Scott|date=31 January 2020|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|access-date=17 November 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Lamar Hunt patch becomes a permanent part of the Chiefs' uniform |url=http://kcchiefs.com/news/2008/01/31/lamar_hunt_patch_becomes_a_permanent_part_of_the_chiefs_uniform/ |publisher=Kansas City Chiefs |date=2008-01-28 |accessdate=2008-12-31 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20081007010259/http://kcchiefs.com/news/2008/01/31/lamar_hunt_patch_becomes_a_permanent_part_of_the_chiefs_uniform/ |archivedate=October 7, 2008 }}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}} 

==External links==
*[http://www.superbowl.com/features/insider/chiefs www.superbowl.com article]
*[http://remembertheafl.com/AFLpatch.htm Web article about the patch]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20080614173523/http://www.kcchiefs.com/history/uniform/ Chiefs website story on uniform history]

{{American Football League}}

[[Category:American Football League]]
[[Category:1969 American Football League season]]