Ah, Jack Steadman.
What a bold, imposing figure he was on the Kansas City sports and civic scene for so long.
I read with sadness that he had died over the weekend at age 86. Also disturbing to me was reading that in recent years he had suffered from Alzheimer’s…It’s hard for me to envision Steadman without that steel-trap, all-business mind.
Jack was not one of those people of whom you’d hear people say, “What a teddy bear,” or “He was such a nice guy,” or “He’d give you the shirt off his back.”
No, none of those were Jack, although I’m sure his friends and close associates would say he was a nice guy…and I’m sure he had some warm moments…and undoubtedly he was generous at times.
But that’s not how I remember Jack, and I don’t think that’s how anybody who dealt with him very much will remember him.
Lennie, “The Mentor” and Jack
Don’t get me wrong; I’m not saying Jack was mean or unfriendly or difficult to get along with. What he was was Lamar Hunt’s hammer and enforcer. Lamar could go around smiling and waving and shaking hands with tailgaters in the Arrowhead parking lots, knowing all the while that Jack had his back.
Lamar recognized early on that Jack, the accountant and bare-knuckles negotiator, was a resolute protector of the Hunts and their fortune. Jack was the Dale Earnhardt of the Chiefs “family” — the man you had to get past to forge a deal with Lamar. Whenever he felt it necessary, which was a lot of the time, Jack could be tart, and he was always direct. He didn’t care; he was doing Lamar’s business.
**
I didn’t know Jack extremely well, but I encountered him enough in the course of my KC Star reporting to exchange casual greetings with him and to understand exactly what his role was.
I first met him in the early- or mid-1970s, when I was covering the Jackson County Courthouse. The county, of course, paid most of the construction costs of the Truman Sports Complex, and I was covering the county when the stadiums were going up in 1971 and 1972. As you would expect in the course of a $100-million construction project (a phenomenal deal for taxpayers), there were several hitches along the way, including a labor strike and arguments among the various parties involved in the project.
Steadman was in the middle of some of the dust-ups. I remember one time when he got into it with someone — can’t remember who or over what — and he wrote the guy a nasty letter. I will never forget this line in that letter: “I am not going to be your whipping boy!”
I don’t think I had ever heard that term, and to see it on paper from a person of Steadman’s stature riveted my attention.
As I recall, that letter was one reason I decided to do a feature story on Jack in the early or middle 1970s. I talked to several people about him, but no one was willing to go on the record with critical quotes. I used one unattributed, off-the-record quote from a key member Sharp-Kidde-Webb contracting consortium — I believe it was from Don Sharp Sr. — who called Steadman a “knife-in-the-back” or “knife-in-the-gut” kind of person…I caution, Sharp was speaking figuratively.
I interviewed Steadman at what was the Arrowhead Club — I think it’s gone now — and he bought lunch. The greeter and wait staff all bowed and scraped and called him “Mr. Steadman.”
Very naively, I said, “They all know you.”
To which he replied, curtly, “They should.”
Another thing I remember about the interview is that when we were talking about the Chiefs and the new stadium — which had been opened a couple of years at that point — Steadman said, “We’ve only had one or two exciting games there.”
I was a wild Chiefs’ fan at that point, even though the team was well into its decline, and I was taken aback; I thought every game was exciting.
“One or two?” I said. “Really?”
“Well, maybe three or four,” Steadman said with a slight smile.
I don’t remember too much else about the interview, or the story, and I didn’t save the story…It’s one of many “clips” that I pitched a few years after The Star’s library staff returned to us the by-lined stories we had built up over the years.
(An aside: For decades, the librarians neatly folded those stories and maintained them in gold, No. 10 envelopes. When we needed to refer to something in “the clips,” we called the library — often in a dither, on deadline — and one of the librarians would put the pertinent envelopes on a metal lift that clanked and clanged its way between the third-floor library and the second-floor newsroom. A red light would come on to indicate the shuttle’s arrival on the second floor.)
…But back to Jack. That was the only time I wrote about him in depth.
Years later I saw him at City Hall one day when I was on that beat (1985-1995). He was chairman or past chairman of the board of Starlight Theatre, as a I recall, and he had played a big role in rejuvenating the theater. Jack wasn’t supposed to know why he had been summoned to City Hall, but I think he sensed he was going to be honored for his Starlight achievement. I had looked at the council agenda and knew about the resolution honoring him.
Accompanying him that day was Anita Gorman, who was also on the Starlight Board. I knew her very well from covering her when she was on the Park Board.
Anyway, on my way to the 26th-floor council chamber, the elevator doors opened and in the car were Anita and Jack. I got on, we exchanged greetings, and then there was an awkward silence. I broke it, saying, “Well….”
And Jack instantly cut me off, snapping, “Well what?!”
Just like that he nipped in the bud any possible allusion to why he was in City Hall.
**
The last time I saw him was a few years ago at Bruce Smith Drugs in Prairie Village. Time had taken its toll, and he was no longer the erect, intimidating figure he had been for so many decades. I didn’t approach him. I don’t know why; I just didn’t. It wasn’t like we were old buddies.
But Jack was a great one. A legendary, towering figure on the Kansas City scene. A difference maker…For one thing he was instrumental in convincing Lamar to bring the Chiefs to Kansas City instead of taking them to New Orleans, which also wanted the team. We owe Jack our gratitude for that, if nothing else.
…I really liked Lamar — whom I also wrote a feature story about — and I miss him. I miss Jack, too. He wasn’t your ordinary second banana.
At a game last October, with his wife Judy and Clark Hunt
JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC 
A poignant tribute to Jack Steadman, Jim.
Would be great if his wife and the Chiefs organization could read it.
All best,
Laura
Thanks, Laura…Sometimes, magically, these posts get disseminated beyond the usual borders. If family members do see it, I hope they don’t mind my description of Jack being tart and curt at times. I tried to put that in the full context of who he was, at least from the public perspective.
Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play? Jesus, Jimmy, you called him a back stabber. Stop being like Hearne, and writing these veiled mean “take ’em down a peg” obits, when the dead cannot defend themselves or reply, and only their loved ones, who cared for an Alzheimer’s victim for years, and are now in deep grief, read them.
You are not being a Christian when you resort to this crap. If you want to write about famous people, then do it before they die. And definitely NOT the week AFTER. Ask your new minister about this–I bet she performs funerals. Do you think she’d get up and tell a story like that? To the nice widow? Of course not.
It reveals your complete lack of judgment and character that you then have to justify your meanness, (which you cannot even document from the news clip, since even YOU tossed it years ago.)
Stop this!
And as for Laura–no, it would not be “great” if his wife and the Chiefs could read it. It would be hurtful and cruel this week. You never wrote mean things when you worked for the Star. You might be out of touch if you found this a flattering portrayal. Yes, parts were good. But the poison contained within is delivered by someone who didn’t have the balls to tell the story in life, so there is no reason to tell it now.
Hearne Christopher believes his job in life, as a rich child of privilege, is to always pillory the dead. In his exact words, “take them down a peg.” He even stood in the lobby of Mike Murphy’s wife’s funeral and told mean unsubstantiated stories. Same with Dick King, and dozens of others. Egads. This is not behavior to be emulated.
I’m workin’ on your obit now, Tracy; you’re gonna LOVE IT!
I probably shouldn’t get in the middle of this but, wow, what a shorts-snapper.
Hearne Christopher’s remarks about Dick King after his death were appalling. I complained to whoever the Reader’s Rep was at the time. And I remember Mike Burke being very upset about it too. With that said, I don’t mind seeing Fitz adopting this kind of style for his blog. It’s balanced and attempts to give a complete perspective on the man. And it allows the space to expound on why he was the way he was, mixed in with the personal perspective.
Thanks for the defense, Mike…I think people with extremely high profiles should not be glossed over when they die. Good biographers don’t gloss over; they tell the whole story of their subjects.
As I recall, and won’t bother to check, the Dick King obit was in KCConfidential, not the Star. So, nobody but Hearne to complain to.
My problem with the funeral week obit it is lazy and mean. A thoughtful historical and researched biography does not come out that week. It is edited and then published (ha, now mostly self-published) months later. It is LAZY for any writer to muscle in during this most sensitive week of grieving. Period. Enterprise away, Fitz, on a respectful timetable rather than pile on.
You “twisted the knife”, Fitz, and are now trying to justify it.
I also would invite you to fact check your SELF, because I met you in Wheeler’s office in the mid-70’s. With Roger Moore. You were certainly not covering KCMO City Hall in the 90’s==by that time you had been banished by the Star to the gulag, er, KCKs/aka The Dot. I will leave it to others to tell the tales of your tendless lazy fact-checking and other transgressions that led to that.
And the stadium was not built in the decade you cited, so perhaps your recall is off. Both you and Hearne desperately needed editors. Still do.
Now when you write my epitaph, and publish it while I can still fact check you and kick your ass, yes, be sure to include that I was a staunch defender of widows and children and the just-departed.
I also work for FREE, fighting and defeating tax increases that would mostly subsidize the ultra rich. That included BiState II and Big Soccer, which both would have enriched the owners of Arrowhead Stadium as well as Cerner’s Neil Patterson, who tried to elect his secretary wife, Jeannie “I don’t know how a bill becomes a law” Patterson to Congress.
So I am no fan of the Hunts or their soldiers.
I did like Gayle’s shorts snapper line. Clever, she.
Worked a gas station in Westport where Jack was a regular customer in his red Mercedes 2 seater…Jimmy has hit the nail on the head…Jack’s sour demeanor was by his choice…why do we owe him a glossy send-off when he himself wouldn’t do us the same? No one is entitled…
Bingo right back to you, JimmyB.
I think it’s a good, insightful article. I don’t see the vitriol that tracy does.
Tracy’s just trying to soften me up so I don’t write about “the real Tracy” in the obit I’m preparing.
(Love the “shorts-snapper” line, Gayle.)
I Googled Dick King and Hearne but couldn’t find the blog being referenced. Did find a couple of comments that were written strongly criticizing what he had said. Who was Dick King and what did HC say about him?
http://blogs.kansascity.com/unfettered_letters/2006/09/insensitive_kin.html
So, Hearne did write for the Star at the time. I stand corrected!!!
In his gossip column, Hearne dredged up a 30 year old story about Dick King–that was STILL mostly unconfirmed, about stealing coats from a restaurant in eastern Jackson County.
At the time, King was an active alcoholic, not in recovery. This led to the “coat incident” which the VICTIMS never even prosecuted, to my knowledge. But Hearne could not let it go. And in death, Dick King couldn’t rise from the grave and kick his butt. So the only point to telling the story the week after King died was mean 30-years old gossip that hurt his widow, in order to knock someone down from what Hearne calls the pedestal of privilege.
King had been a very popular mayor of Independence. In recovery, he then moved and ran for Mayor of KCMO. He went on to be a VERY successful development attorney. His law partner was Mike Burke. Following King’s sudden death of a heart attack in his 50’s, Burke (at his wife’s urging, and to support the two families and the law firm) dropped out of a planned KCMO mayoral race.
And THAT is how we got stuck with goofy Mark Funkhouser and Gloria (“I think my husband was Abe Lincoln in a past life and I was Mary Todd Lincoln”) Squitiro.
Burke finally did run for mayor, four years ago, against Sly James. This was the first time in history that the traditional holders of the mayoral office, the development attorneys–lost a mayoral race–to an attorney backed by the trial lawyer fraternity: Sly James. Fitz worked on Burke’s campaign. But Burke is a shy, reticent, behind the scenes guy. His heart was not in it, and he was not gifted at debate.
I wrote about the King coat incident, too. It came to mind after The Star reported a bunch of New Year’s Eve revelers had their coats ripped off while attending a party at Downtown Airport.
https://jimmycsays.com/2015/01/04/your-winter-coat-more-than-a-garment-its-your-winter-security-blanket/
P.S. I’m pretty sure Dick King acknowledged the coat theft; he never contested it, for sure.
Thank you both. Yes, that was very mean-spirited of Christopher.
Tracy, when I depart from this Earth and go to my reward, I want you to write my obit and NOT HEARNE OR FITZPATRICK! They know who I was before I entered the Witness Protection Program.
I’d be honored, Julius. And I’ll be sure to get a nice quote and a good story from our mutual friend, Eddie Meltzer. Reassure your family, we will highlight your many accomplishments and praise your good nature and loving heart.
Thank you, Tracy!
As Rev. Cleaver used to say, “Every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.”
Wonder if Cleaver was defending himself when he said that…
Not purposefully.
Spot on, Jim. I’ll elaborate over the fence
There are sources far and sources near…