MIAMI – Edward Lee Hubbard had no idea his beloved Kansas City Chiefs were playing in the Super Bowl the last time they made it to the big game, nor did he learn that they had won the championship on Jan. 11, 1970, until three years after the fact.
Hubbard instead was living in a 6-by-6 prison cell as a prisoner of war.
The Kansas City, Missouri, native had been flying a mission over North Vietnam when he was shot down by two surface-to-air missiles. After running through the jungle for a number of hours, the first lieutenant was captured by Viet Cong soldiers and put in a prison camp, where he subsisted on 300 calories a day for what wound up being 2,420 days.
When NFL officials heard his story, they decided to make sure Hubbard wouldn’t miss the Chiefs in their return. So with a special invitation from league commissioner Roger Goodell, the 81-year-old Hubbard will be in Hard Rock Stadium on Sunday night to watch Kansas City make its first Super Bowl appearance in 50 years.
The Chiefs (14-4) will take on the San Francisco 49ers (15-3) at 6:30 p.m., with Fox televising the game.