RIVER FALLS, WIS. ? Had Lamar Hunt persuaded either of his first choices to coach the newly founded Dallas Texans, football might have taken a different path.

But Oklahoma’s Bud Wilkinson said no to the wealthy young sportsman who was creating the upstart American Football League. Next, Hunt talked to a brainy young assistant coach with the New York Giants. But Tom Landry wasn’t interested either.

So Hunt flew south one day in 1959 and hired a relative unknown by the name of Hank Stram off the staff of the University of Miami.

Hunt will be in Canton, Ohio, next week when the 80-year-old Stram is inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

“It’s an exciting time,” Hunt said Monday after watching his Kansas City Chiefs practice. “It’s hard to say when credit should come. I’m just pleased it’s come now. I’m sorry it’s coming this late.”

Stram led the Texans to more titles than any other team in the 10-year history of the AFL. The Texans moved from Dallas to Kansas City and became the Chiefs, and played in two of the first four Super Bowls, helping the AFL force the merger that led to the current NFL.

Hunt, a member of the Hall of Fame himself, put his considerable prestige as well as the Chiefs’ public relations machine into an all-out effort to get Stram elected this year.

“Hank personified the American Football League,” Hunt said. “He was a salesman. He was an innovator. He wasn’t afraid to try new things.”