Conecuh County has strong ties to Kansas City Chiefs, first Super Bowl

Smith is 2016 with Golden NFL football in honor of Frazier.

I’m sure that many sports fans in the reading audience watched the Super Bowl on Sunday and saw the Kansas City Chiefs beat the San Francisco 49ers, 31-20, in Miami Gardens, Fla. Kansas City finished the season with a 12-4 overall record, and San Francisco went 13-3. Kansas City was favored by 1-1/2 points and more than covered the points spread.

I think it’s interesting that in the NFL’s 100^th season, the Kansas City Chiefs made it to (and won) the Super Bowl. Kansas City appeared in the very first Super Bowl in 1967, but came up short against Vince Lombardi’s Green Bay Packers. Green Bay won, 35-10.

Of course, for Conecuh County residents, it’s hard to separate the first Super Bowl and the Kansas City Chiefs from Wayne Frazier. Frazier was a standout athlete at Evergreen High School in the 1950s and went on to star on the football field at Auburn University. He entered the pro football ranks after finishing college and ended up as a starter for the Kansas City Chiefs in the first Super Bowl.

It’s been said, and I believe it to be true, that during the pre-game festivities for the first Super Bowl, Frazier happened to be the first player introduced to the crowd by the public address announcer at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. When you think about all of the great players who have appeared in the Super Bowl over the years, it’s pretty remarkable that a player from Evergreen was the first player introduced in Super Bowl history. That’s something that will never happen again.

Not long after I began working at The Courant, Wayne Frazier stopped by the office and that was the first time I’d ever met him in person. I’d heard about Wayne Frazier all my life, and I enjoyed finally getting to meet him face to face. He was truly a living legend.

Sometime after that, I happened to be in the audience when Frazier spoke to the Rotary Club here in Evergreen. It was the meeting right before that year’s Super Bowl, and he regaled us with tales of his playing days. If memory serves me correctly, he was Mark Williams’ guest that day.

Frazier passed away in 2012.

A few years ago, Hillcrest head coach Clinton Smith called me up to the school, where I took a picture of a golden football that the NFL had sent the school. That year, the NFL sent a golden football to every school in the country that had a player appear in the Super Bowl. If you go up to the school today, you’ll find that golden football in the school’s trophy case.

With that said, I look to the future. Hillcrest football standout Cam Riley is following Fraizer’s steps and is headed to Auburn to play football. I look for Riley to excel at Auburn, and I won’t be surprised to see him go on to the NFL. Once in the NFL, who’s to say that he won’t play in the Super Bowl. When that happens, I look forward to making another trip up to Hillcrest as Smith puts another golden football in the trophy case.