Fans stream into Arrowhead to pay homage

Wednesday, February 9th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Hundreds of Kansas City Chiefs fans, many with their cars decorated with No. 58 and team decals, streamed into the Arrowhead Stadium parking lot to pay homage today to Derrick Thomas. In one parking lot, radio stations KMBZ and KYYS did a simulcast and collected donations for Third and Long, the foundation Thomas, who wore No. 58 for the Chiefs since 1989, founded to promote reading and literacy among children.

Three hours after they began accepting donations in two cardboard boxes, workers had to go to a bank across the street to open an account. "I don't know how much money we had in there, but the boxes were both full. They wouldn't hold any more," said Max Floyd, a radio personality on KYYS. Some people dropped in loose change, others stuffed checks into the box, and one man in a business suit took a $100 bill out of his pocket and dropped it through the slot. "This is so sad, it's hard to talk about," said Robin Henson, Kansas City, Kan. "I'm a school bus driver, and those kids this morning were just devastated. They all felt like they knew him."

Melissa Fox of Kansas City, Kan., said children at the inner city school where her husband works wept at the news Tuesday morning that the star linebacker had died at a Miami hospital 16 days after a fatal one-car accident had left him paralyzed form the chest down. "What's so awful is we thought he was getting better," said Rita Boyer of Kansas City. "We heard that he was sitting up in bed and that his spirits were high. We were looking forward to that wonderful day when he would walk back onto the field and you would hear the loudest ovation in this town's history." "This morning, when I took my daughter to school, we were talking about Derrick and she helped me decorate the car with Chiefs' stuff," said Jeyn Miller of Shawnee, Kan. Before theypulled out of the driveway, her 6-year-old daughter, Stephanie, spoke. "She said, `Mom, you decorated the car for Derrick. Now put your seat belt on for him,"' Miller said. She wiped a tear from her eye. "I never used to use my seat belt. Now I'll never fail to use it."

Thomas, and his friend, Michael Tellis, were not wearing seatbelts when the car Thomas was driving spun out of control on an icy highway Jan. 23. Tellis was killed instantly. A third person in the car, who was wearing a seat belt, walked away.