Former Chiefs offensive lineman Ed Budde died Tuesday, his family announced. Budde was 83.
Budde spent his entire 14-year pro career with the Chiefs and entered the team’s Hall of Fame in 1983, seven years after his retirement.
“He was a cornerstone of those early Chiefs teams that brought pro football to Kansas City,” Chiefs chairman Clark Hunt said in a statement Tuesday. “He never missed a game in the first nine seasons of his career, and he rightfully earned recognition as an All-Star, a Pro Bowler and a Super Bowl champion.”
The Chiefs made Budde the eighth overall pick of the AFL in 1963, four picks after the Eagles drafted him in the NFL draft. He chose to sign with Hank Stram’s Chiefs.
Budde appeared in 177 games, starting 161.
He was a leader on the Chiefs teams that won AFL titles in 1966 and ’69, and then beat the Vikings in Super Bowl IV. Budde made five AFL all-star teams and two Pro Bowls.
He was a member of the All-AFL team.
Budde’s son, Brad Budde, was an All-American offensive lineman at Southern California before he was drafted by the Chiefs with the 11th overall pick in 1980. They remain the only father-son duo to be first-round picks by the same NFL franchise.
The elder Budde remained active in the Kansas City area after his playing career. He was one of the 10 founding members of the Kansas City Ambassadors in the early 1990s, and he also served as the longtime president of the Kansas City Chapter of the NFL Alumni organization.
The Highland Park, Michigan, native attended Michigan State, where he earned first-team All America honors in 1962. He was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 1998 and the MSU Athletics Hall of Fame in 2012.
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