'62 AFL CHAMPS

The first Pro Football champion in North Texas? If you guessed the '71 Cowboys, you'd be wrong. The correct answer — Owner Lamar Hunt's AFL entry, the Dallas Texans. The Texans and Houston Oilers, winners of their divisions, faced each other for the 1962 AFL Championship on December 23. The Texans, led by Hall of Fame Head Coach Hank Stram and Rookie of the Year RB Curtis McClinton, dethroned the two-time champion Oilers, 21-17, in double-overtime on a 25-yard field goal by Tommy Brooker. The contest ranks as the second longest game in Pro Football history and the longest in AFL annals. In 1963, the Texans became the second AFL team to relocate. Hunt felt that despite winning the league championship in 1962, the Texans could not succeed financially competing in the same amrket as the Dallas Cowboys, who had entered the NFL as an expansion team in 1960. The team moved to Kansas City and was renamed the Chiefs.