FEBRUARY 4, 2016 By Christopher Klein
On January 15, 1967, the Green Bay Packers defeated the Kansas City Chiefs 35-10 to win the first Super Bowl. As the Carolina Panthers and Denver Broncos prepare to take the field for Super Bowl 50, read about 10 ways in which the hastily arranged first Super Bowl differed from today’s modern-day sporting spectacle.
In June 1966, the venerable National Football League (NFL) signed an agreement to merge with the upstart, seven-year-old American Football League (AFL) after the completion of the 1969 season. In the interim, the two rival leagues agreed to stage an annual season-ending contest between their respective champions. The first Super Bowl featured the Green Bay Packers, who had defeated the Dallas Cowboys to win the NFL title, against the Kansas City Chiefs, who had beaten the Buffalo Bills to capture the AFL crown. Legendary Packers coach Vince Lombardi, who had never so much as watched an AFL game on television, was wound extra tight leading up to the game. He felt pressure not only to win—but to win big. “We got to win by 21 points to prove that the National Football League is superior to the AFL,” Lombardi told his team, which were 13.5-point favorites. The Packers ultimately won by 25 points.
AFL principal founder and Kansas City Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt suggested that the new championship game be known as the “Super Bowl,” an idea inspired by the ultra-bouncy Super Ball toy from Wham-O—producers of the Frisbee and Hula Hoop—that was popular with his kids and millions of others across America in the 1960s. NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle, however, thought the name too gimmicky and lacking the weight worthy of his league. He suggested calling the championship game the “Pro Bowl” or even “The Big One” before settling on the “AFL-NFL World Championship Game.” That was quite a mouthful, however, for fans, journalists and broadcasters who instead followed Hunt’s lead and referred to the game informally as the “Super Bowl.” Not until the championship game’s third edition did Rozelle agree to follow suit and officially refer to the game as the Super Bowl.