Jack Remembers: A game with the Chiefs & Jets

Most avid sports fans would give anything to sit in the owners box and watch a football game with the two owners. My grandson said the ticket would be priceless, and he thought at an auction for charity a ticket would bring 20 to 30 thousand dollars. He said he would easily give a thousand dollars for the honor.

My best friend Bill McCoy and I sat in the owners box back in 1970 when the New York Jets played the Chiefs and I can’t even remember thanking Jimmy Jones for inviting me.

In 1970 I was the President of the Missouri Horse Breeders Association, which was formed to help legalize para-mutual betting on horseracing. Jimmy Jones, who with his father Ben trained seven Kentucky Derby winners including Triple Crown winners Whirlaway and Citation, at that time was manager of Monmoth Race Track in Oceanport, New Jersey. Jimmy flew in to Kansas City in his personal plane and the two of us toured Missouri promoting horse racing and became good friends.

Later that year, one Sunday morning I got a call from Jimmy wanting to know if I would like to eat lunch with the Jets, who were playing Kansas City at 3:00 pm. I picked up my best friend Bill McCoy and we headed to the Muehlbach Hotel. I handed out a buckeye to each player and to the owner Sonny Werblin who not only owned the Jets, but also owned Monmoth Race Track where Jimmy was manager, and good friends with Werblin.

We then headed to the stadium and the owner’s box seats where Werblin told Lamar Hunt that I had given him a buckeye, and that good luck symbol was going to cause the Jets, who were the underdogs, to win. Kansas City was ahead by three points when the Jets intercepted a pass and went for a touchdown. At that point, Lamar Hunt came over to where Jones, Werblin, McCoy and I were sitting and said to me, “Hackley, I don’t care how you have to do it, but get that buckeye back from Werblin.”

Jack can be reached at PO Box 40, Oak Grove, MO 64075 or jackremembers@aol.com