#4 – Ed Budde, LG, 1963. 8th pick.
“For he loved the Chiefs so much that he gave them his only son, so that the Chiefs will have everlasting left guards.”
We’ve all heard the stories about Otis Taylor, and how the Chiefs’ representative pretended to be a magazine interviewer and then snuck him out a window to steal him from the Dallas Cowboys’ bodyguards. But Otis wasn’t the only player who was involved in intrigue during the great bidding wars of the AFL and NFL.
The AFL draft took place before the NFL draft, and the Chiefs sent a representative to Budde’s house after the Chiefs drafted him. The guy took Budde and his wife to dinner, then sat in the car outside their house all night to be sure that no NFL teams came calling. The next day he took the Buddes to all three meals, then flew them to Buffalo to watch a game.
When they came back, the Eagles had drafted Ed, and he was a businessman, so he brushed off the Chiefs to meet with the Eagles. However, the Chiefs guy spent another night in the car outside his house, to make sure he didn’t leave with the Eagles. Eventually Budde signed with the Chiefs (who were actually still the Texans at that point), and he later reported that it was because of his admiration for Fred Arbanas. Arbanas made the winning sales pitch to him about how the team was full of good guys, and that the Chiefs’ believed in running a wide-open offense, which sounded fun to Ed.
His arrival with the Chiefs actually wasn’t his first encounter with a Chief, by the way. When he played for Michigan State, he played both offense and defense as needed. They played Minnesota, which featured future Chief Bobby Bell, who also played on offense and defense. Bobby Bell lined up with future Viking great Carl Eller on the offensive line on one play, because apparently Carl Eller also played offense and defense. (Those were different times.) Eller and Bobby Bell were assigned to double team Ed Budde. Bell reported that Budde dug in and the two of them were only able to push him back a couple of yards. So they called the same play again, with the same result. Bell reported that he and Budde joked about those plays during their playing years – two Hall of Famers, both playing opposite their famous NFL positions, were trying to block Budde, who was playing opposite his famous NFL position, and not succeeding.
Before joining the Chiefs, Ed had one final interesting college story. He was named to the College All-Star team (basically All-American), and the All-Stars traditionally played the NFL champion in an exhibition game. Ed Budde was named the offensive captain of the team, and the all-Stars beat the 1962 Green Bay Packers, who are often termed the most powerful team that Lombardi ever fielded. So yeah, Ed Budde was good.
Ed joined in a time of unusual tragedy for the Chiefs, and he almost joined them as a retired uniform of pathos. Stone Johnson died as the result of an on-field hit during Budde’s rookie season, and Mack Lee Hill died during a routine knee surgery in the middle of Budde’s second year. Fred Arbanas was blinded in one eye in a random street attack in that same year, and at the end of Budde’s rookie year he was hospitalized with a fractured skull when someone hit him over the head in a bar with a lead pipe. (Len Dawson came over to his house and helped care for his kids, which is yet another reason why Len Dawson is the Ultimate Chief.)
If you want the back story, Budde was in the Bagdad Lounge at 3712 Broadway in Kansas City when he got into an argument with a 220-lb. guy named John Vito Calia, a bartender (at a different bar) who lived at 1105 East Sixty-second street in Gladstone. They got into an argument near the entrance of the bar, and Ed punched Calia in the mouth. A fight started, and Calia's friend, 190-lb. beer truck driver Gus Charles Fasone, 27, of 1307 East Fifty-eighth street leapt into the fray. Running to the back of the bar, he grabbed an 18-inch lead pipe, then ran back to the fight and nailed Ed in the head several times. When Ed went down, Calia kicked him in the face several times. Ed had to have surgery, and Calia and Fasone were charged with assault with an intent to kill. I can't find out whether they were convicted or not, but four years later Fasone was arrested for being a strong-arm guy for a bookie against losing bettors, so I'm guessing he wasn't an innocent victim. I found Calia's obituary from his death last year, and it sounds like he was a solid citizen. Apparently neither of the guys had a police record at the time that this happened.
But Ed survived his lead pipe attack, and treated defenders as if he himself carried a lead pipe. Working side by side with Jim Tyrer, he formed a dominant left side for more the majority of the AFL’s existence. He was a seven-time pro bowler (two in the NFL, five in the AFL) and a two-time AFL all-pro, and is one of eight Chiefs who were named first string on the All-Time AFL team. (You would never guess the whole list, though – Jim Tyrer, Ed Budde, Fred Arbanas, Jerry Mays, Bobby Bell, Dave Grayson, Jerrell Wilson, and Johnny Robinson.)
While exact figures aren’t available, he started more than 160 games and was with the Chiefs for 14 seasons. He was the starter for his first twelve seasons before injuries knocked him out for most of his final two seasons. He retired just three seasons before his son Brad arrived to take over the job.
As an aside, I've seen this painting in different places over the years, and I have no idea about its provenance. Does anyone know anything about it?
I presume it's from this photo:
Here's Ed pulling out to lead a sweep in Super Bowl IV.
