Ted Ihde

Kansas City and Soccer

Kansas City has become the national leader for soccer development in the United States. So it seems rather fitting that as the Soccer Capital of America, Kansas City is also home to one of the forefathers in the formation of American soccer, Lamar Hunt.

Inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame in 1982, Lamar Hunt was an early investor in the North American Soccer League – the NASL. When the NASL ran into financial headwinds in the early ‘80’s – going from 17 teams to only 5 teams – the patriarch of the Kansas City Chiefs remained committed to the future of the NASL. And to the future of soccer in the United States.

A then-NASL franchise owner himself, Lamar Hunt’s team was the Dallas Tornado.

Hunt’s ownership of the Tornado goes back to the team’s inception in 1967.

Lamar Hunt owned the Dallas Tornado until the team folded in 1981. Hunt’s Dallas Tornado won the NASL championship in 1971. One year after Hunt’s Kansas City Chiefs won Super Bowl IV.

Dallas Tornado started out as a team in the United Soccer Association. The United Soccer Association merged with the National Professional Soccer League. Leading to the formation of the NASL.

While the Hunt name is known mostly through the family’s ownership of the NFL team that has won the Lamar Hunt Trophy as champions of the AFC 5 times since Patrick Mahomes arrived in Kansas City, early on, the NFL was no fan of Hunt’s commitment to soccer.

The NFL took steps to disallow an NFL team owner – I.e.: Lamar Hunt – from owning a professional sports team in more than one sport. This was an NFL-led effort to force the Hunt family to divest their interests in a soccer franchise. The NFL’s football-only rule ultimately failed. The Hunt family stayed in soccer.

In 1996, Kansas City Chiefs Chairman Clark Hunt, together with his father, Lamar Hunt, acquired two MLS teams. The Columbus Crew and the Kansas City Wizards (now Sporting KC).

Three years later, Lamar Hunt financed the construction of what was at that time the largest soccer-only stadium in the United States. In Columbus, Ohio. Columbus Crew Stadium.

In 2003, Lamar Hunt purchased his third MLS team. The then-Dallas Burn (now FC Dallas).

Lamar Hunt’s acquisition of the Dallas Burn was anchored through his commitment to finance a soccer-only stadium in Dallas. Lamar Hunt believed that sound economics for professional soccer in North America needed to be anchored through stadium ownership.

Today, Dallas Burn are owned by Hunt Sports Group.

The Hunt family sold the Kansas City Wiz in 2006. The Kansas City Wiz went on to win the MLS Cup that same year. In 2006.

Like America’s earlier professional soccer league – the NASL – the MLS ran into financial difficulties.

By the early-2000’s, only three MLS team owners remained committed to funding ongoing MLS operations. At that time, the MLS was hemorrhaging cash. Losing $250 million since its inaugural 1996 season. One of those three still-committed team owners was Lamar Hunt.

Lamar Hunt’s commitment to soccer-only stadiums led to the financial turnaround for American soccer. And for the MLS.

Further linking the Hunt family to American soccer, in 1999, U.S. soccer’s longest standing knockout competition – the U.S. Open Cup – was renamed the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup by the United States Soccer Federation. In honor of Lamar Hunt’s contributions to American soccer. While, so too, recognizing Lamar Hunt’s contributions to two American professional soccer leagues. The NASL. And later, the MLS.

The Hunt family’s FC Dallas won the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup two times. In 1997 and 2016.

Under the Hunt family’s leadership, Sporting KC also won the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup two times. In 2004 and 2012. While Lamar Hunt’s Kansas City Wizards won the MLS Cup in 2000.

Wichita

Darius Munger and William “Dutch Bill” Greiffenstein filed a plat in 1870 to lay out the first streets for what would go on to become Wichita, Kansas. Wichita incorporated in July of that same year.

One year later, Wichita and Southwestern Railroad Company formed. Soon thereafter, a Sedgwick County bond issuance boosted prospects for Wichita and Southwestern Railroad Company and for cattlemen.

A bond issuance was approved by Sedgwick County voters on August 11, 1871 for $200,000. These bonds enabled Wichita to finance the construction of a rail line connecting Wichita to Newton. This rail extension was a boon for Texas cattlemen who could now ship cattle to Wichita. Then along to Newton, Kansas. Where the cattle would be shipped off to markets on the East Coast.

Kansas City’s Manheim Park

As the Twentieth Century dawned, streetcar suburbs arose in Kansas City. One streetcar line ran down Troost Avenue.

One could hope onto that streetcar, leave the hustle bustle of the city behind and arrive at a streetcar suburb.

Those new streetcar suburbs which were being built were still located in Kansas City. Yet, those new streetcar suburbs did not espouse an urban feel. Manheim Park was one of the early streetcar suburbs.

To the north, Manheim Park touches 35th Street. To the west, Manheim Park touches Troost Avenue.

Troost Avenue…where one could hop onto a streetcar early in the Twentieth Century and be dropped off in Manheim Park. A new streetcar suburb.

Construction of new homes in Manheim Park took hold during the early years of the 1900’s. Drawing upon a general distaste for how new homes were then being built on what oftentimes were run-of-the-mill, “plain-jane vanilla” roads. Roads that ran straight. East to west. North to south. Homes which were considered to be too close to one another.

In Manheim Park, things would be different. In Manheim Park, your drive to one of those streetcar suburban homes would be a drive along a road with a unique contour.

The crooked roads…

To build new homes on any undeveloped land you need roads. In Manheim Park, new roads went in. Roads which did not necessarily run east to west. Roads which did not necessarily run north to south.

Those original Manheim Park roads were crooked. Creating a staple – all its own – for Manheim Park. Its crooked roads.

The Trolley Trail in Kansas City’s Brookside

Brookside is a charming, leafy neighborhood located on the southern end of Kansas City, Missouri…the largest contiguous master planned neighborhood in the country.

Part of the Country Club District, the original plan for Brookside was new homes built for middle-income, upper middle-income and for upper-income families.

The more expensive homes in Brookside were built to the west. Higher home values in Brookside are often determined by how far east or how far west of Main Street the home is located.

Brookside’s Trolley Track Trail. The Harry Wiggins Trolley Track Trail.

The trolley which once ran through Brookside was named for a Missouri state senator who was born in Kansas City. This senator was Harry Wiggins. Brookside’s Trolley Trail is a six-mile path.

Today there is no trolley that runs along Brookside’s Trolley Trail. There are no trolley tracks on the Trolley Trail either. But at one time, long ago, there was a trolley in Brookside which ran along what today is our Harry Wiggins Trolley Track Trail.

This old trolley run in Brookside was borne in the late 19th Century.

In the late 1800’s, comparable to cable cars one would have found in San Francisco at that time, the trolleys which ran through Brookside were propelled by underground cables. The earliest Brookside trolleys operated by gripping underground cables which were installed underneath the tracks.

As the 19th Century turned into the 20th Century, the means by which trolleys were propelled changed. Underground cables were replaced. The cable system trolleys used were replaced by electricity.

Those old Brookside trolley tracks have long since been torn up. The Harry Wiggins Trolley Track Trail is now occupied by walkers, joggers, baby strollers and cyclists. There are no trolleys. Trolley travel gave way to pedestrians on the old trolley track.

At its inception, the Harry Wiggins Trolley Track Trail fostered a trackbed, wooden cross ties and a ballast. This trolley line in Brookside was the Country Club Line.

The Country Club Line took riders south to Brookside shops found in the Brookside Shopping District. Where 63rd Street meets Brookside Boulevard was the heart of Brookside’s shopping district.

Founded in 1920, the Brookside Shopping District was Kansas City’s first suburban-themed shopping center. It was thirty-seven years after the Brookside Shopping District opened that the last Country Cub Line trolley ran through Brookside. That year was 1957…the end for trolleys in Brookside.

At one time, Kansas City had one of the most extensive trolley systems in the country.

Today, Kansas City’s rich trolley history has been reawakened with the city’s streetcar.

Long ago Brookside trolleys and streetcars found in center city represented a popular mode of transportation in Kansas City.

Times changed. And Kansas City – as did most cities by the mid-20th Century – replaced their trolleys and their streetcars with buses.

In Brookside, the end of trolleys led to a new constitution for the Harry Wiggins Trolley Track Trail. The new constitution for the Trolley Track Trail has been written for walkers, joggers and cyclists.

The Harry Wiggins Trolley Track Trail.

The Monmouth Patent

The beginning for Monmouth County, New Jersey came by way of the Monmouth Patent. The Monmouth Patent was an annexation of Dutch territory by Great Britain.

With this territory – once New Amsterdam – now part of the British Empire, conveyances of land to settlers from Great Britain took place.

In April of 1665 Great Britain’s deputy-governor for New Amsterdam granted patents for a triangular parcel of land in today’s Monmouth County. This was the Monmouth Patent.

Early families to acquire land through the Monmouth Patent were the Bowne family, the Holmes family, the Cotterell family and the Stout family.

The Holmes family’s tract of land stretched north of Ramanessin Brook to Hop Brook Farm – the Holmes Tract.

John Bowne’s tract of land touched the northernmost boundary of the Monmouth Patent triangle.

Eliezer Cotterell was the recipient of two land conveyances – 100 acres and 130 acres.
Richard Stout acquired a tract of land within the triangle east of Ramanessin Brook – the Richard Stout, Senior Tract.

Another Monmouth Patent land conveyance was the Bray Tract. Named for a Baptist minister, John Bray.

The Bray Tract consisted of 50 acres stretching from the easternmost point of the Monmouth Patent triangle – at Bray’s Brook – to the east side of Hop Book.

Rumson

Rumson, New Jersey is a seven square mile New York City bedroom community. Two of those seven square miles consist of water.

Long before Rumson became Rumson, Rumson was Navarumsunk. Or, Narumsum. And later, Ramson’s Neck.

British settlers purchased Navarumsunk/Narumsum – located between the Navesink River and the Shrewsbury River – from the Lenape Indians.

Negotiations for the sale of Navarumsunk/Narumsum began in 1663.
Two years later, Governor Richard Nicholls confirmed the sale within constructs available to British Governors through the Monmouth Patent. No longer Lenape territory, Navarumsunk/Narumsum became Ramson’s Neck.

The catalyst for this 1665 land sale was colonial expansion – a British land conveyance.

The British took New Netherlands – in which Navaramsunk/Narumsum was located – from the Dutch. Establishing framework for the land sale.

Britain was led by King Charles II. Charles II granted this land – then controlled by the Dutch – to his brother James, The Duke of York.

The Duke’s real estate holdings stretched from Connecticut to Delaware. Expansive, yet undeveloped. So the Duke enlisted Governor Richard Nicholls to establish settlements.

The Monmouth Patent bestowed upon Governor Nichols the responsibility to attract one hundred settlers within three years to the region. These settlements were to be established in a section of the Duke’s territory which today is Monmouth County, Ocean County and Middlesex County.
Governor Nicholls needed one hundred settlements to take hold to prevent the territory from reverting back to the Duke.

To attract settlers Governor Nicholls marketed a benefit: self governance.
Settlers were Patentees. Aptly named, as settlements were established according to the Monmouth Patent.

The establishment of British settlements according to the Monmouth Patent ran into a road block in 1674 when the Dutch retook New Netherlands. One year later, the English regained control of New Netherlands. Restarting settlements.

Seven years later, the goal set for Governor Nicholls by The Duke of York – one hundred settlements – was exceeded.

Rumson…

By 1682, four settlements were established near Ramson’s Neck. Ramson’s Neck at that time consisted of thousands of acres of plantations. These Ramson’s Neck settlements, over time, evolved into boroughs. Such as Rumson.

Up through the Revolutionary War, Ramson’s Neck (known as Rumson), Fair Haven, Red Bank, Little Silver and Shrewsbury were part of Shrewsbury Township.

Rumson was part of Shrewsbury until becoming an independent borough in 1907.

Rutgers

In 1766 Benjamin Franklin’s son William founded a college along New Jersey’s Raritan River.

William Franklin founded Queens College. Queens College was later changed to Rutgers. Named for Revolutionary War hero Colonel Henry Rutgers.

Henry Rutgers was born in New York City in 1745. A graduate of King’s College, Henry Rutgers went on to become a New York assemblyman.

A wealthy New Yorker, Henry Rutgers donated land to schools, charities and churches. Manhattan’s Henry Street and Rutgers Street are named for Henry Rutgers.

Across the Hudson in New Jersey, Queens College was struggling. Closing its doors to students due to financial difficulties. Henry Rutgers provided a financial lifeline to Queens College. After which, Queens College became Rutgers College. The year was 1825.
Rutgers is the second oldest university in New Jersey…20 years younger than Princeton.

The Trolley Trail in the Bookside Neighborhood of Kansas City

Brookside is a charming, leafy neighborhood located on the southern end of Kansas City, Missouri…the largest contiguous master planned neighborhood in the country.

Part of the Country Club District, the original plan for Brookside was new homes built for middle-income, upper middle-income and for upper-income families.

The more expensive homes in Brookside were built to the west. Higher home values in Brookside are often determined by how far east or how far west of Main Street the home is located.

Brookside’s Trolley Track Trail. The Harry Wiggins Trolley Track Trail.

The trolley which once ran through Brookside was named for a Missouri state senator who was born in Kansas City. This senator was Harry Wiggins. Brookside’s Trolley Trail is a six-mile path.

This old trolley run in Brookside was borne in the late 19th Century.

As the 19th Century turned into the 20th Century, the means by which trolleys were propelled changed. Underground cables were replaced. The cable system trolleys used were replaced by electricity.

Those old Brookside trolley tracks have long since been torn up. The Harry Wiggins Trolley Track Trail is now occupied by walkers, joggers, baby strollers and cyclists. There are no trolleys.

Trolley travel gave way to pedestrians on the old trolley track.

At its inception, the Harry Wiggins Trolley Track Trail fostered a trackbed, wooden cross ties and a ballast. This trolley line in Brookside was the Country Club Line.

The Country Club Line took riders south to Brookside shops found in the Brookside Shopping District. Where 63rd Street meets Brookside Boulevard was the heart of Brookside’s shopping district.

At one time, Kansas City had one of the most extensive trolley systems in the country.

Today, Kansas City’s rich trolley history has been reawakened with the city’s streetcar.

Long ago Brookside trolleys and streetcars found in center city represented a popular mode of transportation in Kansas City. Times changed. And Kansas City – as did most cities by the mid-20th Century – replaced their trolleys and their streetcars with buses.

The Harry Wiggins Trolley Track Trail.

Kansas City’s first Chief was a Boy Scout leader, a pianist and a debate champion

The original Kansas City Chief never donned a crimson helmet endowed with an arrowhead.

The original Kansas City Chief never played in a Super Bowl. The original Kansas City Chief never was a quarterback. The original Kansas City Chief did not play defensive end. Even though the original Kansas City Chief – standing 6’4 feet in height and weighing nearly 400 pounds – was larger than Chris Jones.

The original Kansas City Chief did win a championship. The original Kansas City Chief was a championship debater in college. He was also a Boy Scout leader. And a skilled pianist.

The original Kansas City Chief was Kansas City’s two-term mayor, Harold Roe Bartle. The 47th mayor of Kansas City, Missouri.

Harold Roe Bartle. a gentleman who, when he became Kansas City’s mayor in 1956, was well-known as an in-demand public speaker. The original Kansas City Chief participated in hundreds of speaking engagements each year. And on any given Sunday in the Fall, the original Kansas City Chief would likely have opted to host a Boy Scout camping trip rather than to head over to Arrowhead to catch a football game.

A little about Kansas City’s original Chief and his accomplishments as mayor.

During Harold Roe Bartle’s two terms as mayor, Kansas City’s hospitals were desegregated. And African-Americans were for the first time able to pursue a career as a police officer or as a firefighter. Causes Harold Roe Bartle held close to his heart. Choosing to throw his political weight as mayor behind each socioeconomic advancement for African Americans.

The football team’s nickname, Chiefs…

According to legend, when Harold Roe Bartle was living in Wyoming, he was inducted into a Arapaho tribe. As the story has been told, the Arapaho bestowed upon Harold Roe Bartle the nickname of Lone Bear. That nickname of Lone Bear for Harold Roe Bartle was later changed to Chief Lone Bear. And here we have the origin for Harold Roe Bartle becoming “Chief.” He was given this alias of “Chief” by an Indian tribe.

Born in Richmond, Virginia, Harold Roe Bartle relocated to Missouri. In time, becoming Kansas City’s 47th mayor. With his physically imposing 6’4, near 400-pound frame, Kansas Citians called their mayor Chief.

Kansas City’s football team…

The Kansas City Chiefs started out as a Texas team – the Dallas Texans. The Dallas Texans were an AFL team. The Texans-Chiefs won the AFL championship three times. In 1962 as the Dallas Texans. And in 1966 and 1969 as the Kansas City Chiefs.

In 1960, the AFL’s Dallas Texans encountered a National Football League interested in getting their own team in Dallas. That NFL team went on to become the Dallas Cowboys.

In 1950, Dallas’ population was 434,000. Dallas was growing. The NFL recognized Dallas this.

By 1960, Dallas’ population was closing in on 700,000. Dallas was a growing market. The NFL wanted in.

In 1960 Lamar Hunt’s Dallas Texans were the only football team in Dallas. But Lamar Hunt’s Dallas Texans were an AFL team. Not an NFL team. With an NFL team coming to Dallas – two football teams – fan loyalty would be split. The NFL would have the Dallas Cowboys. The AFL would have the Dallas Texans.

Lamar Hunt decided to move his team. First, Lamar Hunt considered moving his Texans to Atlanta. Hunt also considered Miami. Enter Kansas City’s Chief.

Harold Roe Bartle proposed an idea to Lamar Hunt, the Texas oil tycoon. The idea Harold Roe Bartle presented to Lamar Hunt was to forget about Atlanta. To forget about Miami.

Rather, Harold Roe Bartle suggested a Midwest home for Hunt’s team. Harold Roe Bartle spoke of how advantageous it could be to attract a fan base from a multi-state region in the Midwest. Lamar Hunt could do this by relocating his Texans to Kansas City.

Kansas City would be the perfect home for the Texans. The Texans could play their home games in Kansas City’s Municipal Stadium.

The Kansas City Athletics played in Municipal Stadium from 1955 until their relocation to Oakland in 1967. The A’s old stadium in Kansas City – Municipal Stadium – sat empty.

The proposal Harold Roe Bartle made to Lamar Hunt involved a lease. Hunt’s team would pay the City of Kansas City, Missouri $1.00 per year in rent. While 14,000 additional seats would be added to the old stadium located at 2133 Brooklyn Avenue. The additional seating would accommodate a ready, waiting and eager fan base.

In a grass roots effort undertaken to recruit the Texans to Kansas City, Harold Roe Bartle launched a citizen’s outreach program. His program involved selling season tickets to Chiefs.

Lamar Hunt’s Dallas team did relocate to Kansas City. The Texans moved to Kansas City in the Spring of 1963. As a tribute to how hard Harold Roe Bartle worked to recruit the Texans to Kansas City, Lamar Hunt’s team was rebranded in honor of Harold Roe Bartle contributions. The Texans were now the Kansas City Chiefs.

Harold Roe Bartle served as Kansas City’s mayor from 1956 to 1963. Lamar Hunt’s Kansas City Chiefs played their home games on Brooklyn Avenue in Municipal Stadium from 1963 (Bartle’s last year as mayor) until 1971. Before the Chiefs moved to Arrowhead.

Bartle’s role in bringing the Chiefs to Kansas City notwithstanding, the passions of Harold Roe Bartle, who was born in Virginia and was a lawyer by trade, were less routed in football than they were in children. Which brings us to the Boy Scouts.

Harold Roe Bartle organized the Boy Scouts’ Tribe of Mic-O-Say. Tribe of Mic-O-Say was started in Agency, Missouri.

Today, Tribe of Mic-O-Say is a Boy Scout honor society. Harold Roe Bartle served as a Scout executive at the St. Joseph Council for the Boy Scouts (now the Pony Express Council).

The camp Harold Roe Bartle established is the Bartle Scout Reservation. Mic-O-Say. At Mic-O-Say, Boy Scouts prove their competency in camping, while demonstrating leadership skills.

Attendance at Harold Roe Bartle’s Boy Scout camp increased year-by-year. Boy Scouts attending Harold Roe Bartle’s camp shared in customs, trends and activities of Native Americans. The curriculum for Mic-O-Say, routed in Harold Roe Bartle’s love of Native American culture. It was, after all, Native Americans who bestowed upon Bartle his handle of Chief.

Bartle’s Mic-O-Say camp is still in operation today. The camp is now located in Osceola, Missouri.

The Kansas City Chiefs now play at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium.

The Order of the Arrow is a Boy Scouts of America honor society.

The “ingredient” to use with outdoor kitchens

Bluestone…

Bluestone is a weather resistant natural stone removed from the ground by drilling, blasting and excavating. Naturally aesthetic and slip-resistant, bluestone is a popular choice for outdoor kitchens, patios, driveways, and walkways.

Bluestone is a type of flagstone. Flagstone is sedimentary rock that can be split into flat, rectangular pieces. Sedimentary rock is formed through the accumulation of deposits along waterways.

The word “flagstone” emanates from Old English – flagge.

Flagge means turf. Flagstone – red, bluff or blue in color – is sandstone. Its composition? Fieldspar and quartz.