Chiefs look for history in city full of football magic

NEW ORLEANS (KMIZ) -

If the Kansas City Chiefs are to make history as the first team in NFL history to win three titles in a row, they'll do it in the city that started their championship legacy.

The Chiefs won Super Bowl 4 in 1970 23-7 over the Minnesota Vikings at the old Tulane Stadium. A part of the stadium where the field existed now serves as a student athletic field on campus. Students can now perform their best Len Dawson or Otis Taylor impressions on the same spot those players did 55 years ago.

Steve Barrios, a Louisiana native, was there, but has no $15 ticket stub to show for it. Instead, he sneaked into the stadium through a door he and some of the members of his Tulane University Green Wave football team learned would be open that day. The doors, unlocked, led him past the coaches' offices, underneath the stadium and into the concourse where he watched the Chiefs and Vikings play.

"I can say that now. I think the statute of limitations has run out now," Barrios said.

Super Bowl 4 marked the first of eleven NFL title games that would come to New Orleans. Barrios remembers the city feeling excited to host the game at the stadium that also hosted the Sugar Bowl. Barrios said his Green Wave team would often draw about 30,000 fans for a game, but the stadium filled with 80,000 that January day in 1970.

That meant Barrios had to utilize some of his wide receiver skills that day - staying mobile and staying open.

"We just walked around, if there was an empty seat some place, you sat down for a while until somebody bumped you and you got up and moved around a little more," Barrios said.

The Chiefs won the game with two Otis Taylor receiving touchdowns, including one where Taylor broke several tackles on the way to the end zone in the third quarter. The Kansas City defense forced five turnovers on bruising Vikings quarterback Joe Kapp, including three interceptions and two fumble recoveries.

Barrios put the Taylor touchdown as one of his favorite Super Bowl moments in New Orleans. He also remembers Brett Favre winning Super Bowl 31 at the Superdome in 1997. Favre made his college quarterback debut against Tulane when he substituted in for Southern Miss's struggling starter.

Different people throughout Super Bowl week have given different answers on their favorite Super Bowl moments in a city that is about to host its eleventh big game. Curt Menefee, host of the Fox Sports Sunday show, said the Super Bowl 36 halftime show by U2 helped a nation still reeling from the September 11 terrorist attacks.

"I think it did a great job of bringing American back together and making it OK to move forward," Menefee said. "So for all of us who were old enough to remember that, there was a couple months that we were like "is it OK to smile, is it OK to be happy?' And I think that halftime show proved that it was."

Beyond moments, the state of Louisiana has produced exceptional football players. The city, state and Tulane all honored one of those native sons - former Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Terry Bradshaw, a Shreveport man who led the team to a Super Bowl 9 win at Tulane over the Vikings. The school honored Bradshaw when the New Orleans City Council declared Feb. 5 Terry Bradshaw Day.

""This is a great football state," Bradshaw told ABC 17 News. "You talk about Texas, Florida, California, Ohio maybe, but Louisiana is a great football state. It was a cool day, really cool."

Barrios had a brief professional football career after leaving Tulane as a decorated wide receiver, holding records like most average yards per catch in a season and its career receiving yards record holder. Barrios would play with Chiefs defensive back Johnny Robinson from that Super Bowl team and was on a Saints team led by former Chiefs head coach Hank Stram.

His entrance to Super Bowl 4 may have been secretive. But his and the region's love of football and its history are not.

"I feel like that's all I wanted to do is play football," Barrios said. "Summer, winter, didn't matter. I just had a love of the game, and I feel that's how a lot of the kids growing up here feel about football."