The Super Bowl is not only one of the most watched annual sporting events in the world but, because of it’s massive popularity, it now transcends sports and has become as much of a pop culture event as a championship.
The game itself was actually the result of a major rivalry between two American football leagues in the 1960’s. When those leagues finally agreed to settle their rivalry on the football field, the Super Bowl was born. So who played in that inaugural game and what was the outcome? Here’s the story of the first ever Super Bowl.
To fully understand it, though, we have go further back than the 1960’s to opening night of the 1950 NFL season. That Saturday night game, played on Sep 16, featured two champions of two completely different leagues facing off in a non-exhibition game. It was the first time such a game happened. The Philadelphia Eagles were the defending two-time NFL champions but the Cleveland Browns were the defending four-time AAFC Champions.
The first game of champions
The AAFC (All-America Football Conference) began play in 1946. It was surprisingly popular and is the first league to push pro football outside of the northeast area of the Untied States. All NFL teams were in the northeast until the Cleveland Rams moved to Los Angeles in 1946 partly because of the arrival of the Browns and the fact that the AAFC were going to have multiple teams from California (Los Angeles Dons and the San Francisco 49ers). Playing in the 93,000 seat capacity of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum was also a major factor.
Despite outstanding overall attendance for the AAFC, some believed it was a league that just wasn’t good enough to compete with the NFL. It’s popularity proved that there was a significant demand for pro football post-World War II. Finally, as the other AAFC teams struggled financially, three teams from the young league signed to join the NFL. The AAFC had not been able to merge entirely with the NFL, so the Browns, 49ers, and the Baltimore Colts (unrelated to the later team of the same name) joined the NFL beginning in 1950.
That’s when the first Champion vs Champion game was scheduled. The NFL had their champion face the AAFC champion to open the season. To everyone’s surprise, the AAFC’s Cleveland Browns won, beat the Eagles again later in the season, then hosted and defeated the Rams, formerly of Cleveland, in the 1950 NFL Championship Game. It was a storybook season, to say the least.
As the Browns dominated the Eastern Conference of the NFL for the rest of the 1950’s, winning two more NFL titles in the process, another rival league was about to get started.
Origins of the AFL
In the late 1950’s, Lamar Hunt, son of an oil tycoon, wanted to own and run an NFL team in Dallas, the city he was raised. The NFL didn’t seem interested and denied him multiple times. Inspired by the defunct AAFC, Hunt decided to create a whole new football league. In the process, he also created his dream: a pro football team in Texas. Thus was born the Dallas Texans and the league known as the AFL (American Football League). They began play in 1960, with Hunt watching another Texas team, the Houston Oilers, claim the first two AFL titles.
Prior to the AFL’s debut, the NFL became nervous about the rival league. The AAFC was technically successful as their champion won multiple NFL titles, and the AFL was filled with owners who had a lot of money to spend. The NFL countered by creating the Dallas Cowboys who began play in 1960.
When Lamar Hunt’s Dallas Texans defeated the Houston Oilers in the third AFL Championship Game in 1962, it would be the last game his team played representing Dallas. Realizing competing with the Dallas Cowboys would not end well, Hunt moved his beloved Dallas team to Kansas City and rechristened them the Chiefs. The move proved wise as the AFL began to grow in popularity, spurred by their network television contract and by their rich team owners who were able to spend mini-fortunes on certain players, such as the collegiate star Joe Namath. The war for his pro contract is now the stuff of legend but, for this story, it’s only important to note that he chose to sign with the NFL’s rival.
The battle between the leagues reached a peak off the field as it created a mad scramble for players coming out of college. Both leagues tried to convince future stars to join their respective league, with money usually being the deciding factor. Finally, the NFL gave in. It was time to settle things on the field.
Before doing that, however, why not celebrate together in the success of the sport? The NFL and AFL thus agreed to merge completely and made the announcement of their joint venture on June 8, 1966. The merger would not officially happen until 1970 but, until then, a championship game would be played after each season between the two respective league champions to decide who truly is the best team each year.
Birth of a super game
Photo by Bettmann / Getty Images
The Super Bowl was thus born, although it wasn’t actually called the Super Bowl yet. Following the 1966 football season, the two champions collided in the first ever AFL-NFL World Championship Game, which is now retroactively called Super Bowl I.
The Green Bay Packers dominated 1960’s NFL, thanks in part to head coach Vince Lombardi who led the team to five NFL titles from 1961-67. Winning the NFL title in 1966 gave the Packers a second consecutive championship, their fourth overall title of the decade, and it also made them the NFL’s first representative in the Super Bowl.
The Buffalo Bills had hoped to win their third consecutive AFL title in 1966. They were beaten in the 1966 AFL Championship Game by the Kansas City Chiefs, however, meaning that Lamar Hunt – who had created the AFL and was the single most instrumental figure in the AFL-NFL title game happening – was about to witness the team he owned play in the historic game.
The first ever Super Bowl
The Green Bay Packers were expected to win easily. They seemed invincible and they represented the more established NFL. The Kansas City Chiefs were determined to change minds. On Jan 15, 1967, worlds collided.
At halftime, the game was close. The Packers led by a score of 14-10 making some of the 61,000 fans at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum believe that the Chiefs might be able to pull off an upset.
Max McGee, a backup Packers receiver, was the surprise performer. He spent the night before partying until dawn yet came onto the field hours later, thanks to a Boyd Dowler shoulder injury, and made a one-handed catch of a ball thrown behind him which he took for the game’s first touchdown, and the first touchdown in Super Bowl history. McGee added another in the second half.
Halftime featured two men blasting off in jet packs and some 4,000 pigeons released who were kind enough not to litter the field with droppings.
Early in the third quarter, the belief that the Chiefs could win disappeared as Packers safety Willie Wood intercepted a Len Dawson pass and returned it 50 yards to the Kansas City five yard line. On the next play, Elijah Pitts scored a touchdown and the Packers controlled the rest of the game, scoring two more touchdowns en route to a 35-10 victory.
The game featured five future Hall-of-Famers playing for the Chiefs and 11 future Hall-of-Famers playing for the Packers. It also featured a future movie star in Fred “The Hammer” Williamson. After claiming he would knockout both of Green Bay’s receivers, it was Williamson himself who was knocked out while trying to make a tackle.
Bart Starr was the game’s MVP, tossing two touchdowns in the contest.
It’s not one of the greatest Super Bowl’s of all-time, but it’s certainly amongst the most important.
The aftermath
The Packers then won the following year’s edition of the AFL-NFL Championship Game by defeating the Oakland Raiders before the Baltimore Colts shockingly lost in Super Bowl III (the first time it was called the Super Bowl) to the New York Jets who were led by quarterback Joe Namath.
The final Super Bowl before the two leagues merged under the umbrella of the NFL name was Super Bowl IV. It would be another upset as the AFL champion defeated the NFL title-holders, the Minnesota Vikings. That AFL Champion were Lamar Hunt’s Kansas City Chiefs.
This Sunday, the Chiefs represent the AFC (American Football Conference) as they face the NFC Champion Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LVII.
In case you’re wondering who came up with the name “Super Bowl,” it partly comes from collegiate games being known as bowl games, which inspired a man to coin the NFL title game the “Super Bowl” after seeing his daughter bouncing a small ball in the driveway that she said is called “The Super Ball.” He immediately thought that the AFL-NFL Championship Game should be coined “The Super Bowl.”
That man was Lamar Hunt