Once home to Chiefs legend Len Dawson, this 1969 mid-century modern home captured the hearts of new owners who honored its legacy while making it their own.
enny and Joan Putnam, owners of a home they had built in Olathe, noticed five years ago a ranch-style house in the Country Lane Estates area of Kansas City that became available. They knew it had once belonged to a former Kansas Chiefs player, but soon realized that the player was the most popular in his day—Len Dawson.
“We were really looking to downsize, but when we walked into this house, we just fell in love,” Kenny recalls. “We were like, ‘This is so cool.’ Not just the history, but the house itself.”
The former Chiefs quarterback and media personality, who died in 2022, built the house of slightly less than 5,000 square feet in 1969, the season the Chiefs went on to win Super Bowl IV and Dawson was named the game’s MVP.
The Putnams changed plans, buying Dawson’s former house and upgrading from their approximately 3,000-square-foot home.
Kenny remembers the first time he reached the rear of the house: “We got to the outside, and that’s really what I loved—the outside area because it has a little wooded area in the pool area.”
The backyard pool resembled the shape of a football, though not pointed on each end—rather, a rounded oval and appearing more like a rugby ball.
Regardless, the home’s overall layout struck Joan.
“The sunken living room, all the windows across the back,” she says. “It was just a rare find and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity knowing that we can own something like that.”
5 Facts About Len Dawson
- As one of 11 children in his family from Alliance, Ohio, Len Dawson knew about raising a family in Kansas City.
2. He is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame as a player and a broadcaster.
3. He was the Super Bowl MVP in 1970, after the Chiefs’ first Super Bowl championship.
4. He was nicknamed “Lenny the Cool” because the late Hank Stram, the Chiefs’ first head coach, said Dawson would never let you see him sweat.
5. He was recognized by the NFL in 1973 as the Man of the Year for his philanthropic contributions to the Kansas City community.
After the move, the Putnams put their own fingerprints on the house.
But there were a couple of areas the Putnams left alone to pay homage to Dawson—his trophy room outlined in elaborate wood on the main floor and the finished recreation area in the basement with the bar that had been built.
“The wood is not like that cheap stuff,” Kenny says. “When they built this house, it was very well-made.”
As Chiefs fans, the Putnams hung their own framed Len Dawson jersey on the wall of the trophy room, signed by the Hall of Famer himself.
The Putnams enjoyed their five years there and invited family and friends for their own Super Bowl gatherings. They sold it earlier this year with plans to downsize. Again.
Who knows if that changes should they come across another house enriched with history?
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