Ever wondered about the first Super Bowl year? It wasn’t even called the Super Bowl back then. Honestly, the whole thing felt more like a forced marriage than a cultural phenomenon.
It was 1967.
January 15, to be exact. The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum was the spot, but it wasn't the sold-out madhouse you’d expect. Imagine a stadium today with 30,000 empty seats for the biggest game of the year. That actually happened.
The Green Bay Packers from the established NFL took on the Kansas City Chiefs from the upstart AFL. People basically thought the AFL was a joke. The NFL owners looked at the AFL like a "junior varsity" league. They were wrong, of course, but it took a few years for the rest of the world to catch up to that reality.
The 1967 Showdown: More Than Just a Game
Technically, the official name was the "AFL-NFL World Championship Game." Not exactly a catchy title for a t-shirt.
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Vince Lombardi, the legendary Packers coach, was under an insane amount of pressure. He wasn't just coaching for a trophy; he was coaching for the reputation of the entire National Football League. If he lost to Kansas City, it would have been an embarrassment he’d never live down.
Why 1967 Felt So Different
The vibe in 1967 was lightyears away from the spectacle we see now.
- Two Networks: It’s the only time the game was broadcast on two different networks simultaneously—NBC and CBS. They even used different announcers.
- Cheap Seats: You could get in for $12. Adjusting for inflation, that’s about $100 today. Still a steal compared to the five-figure tickets people hunt for now.
- Halftime: No Rihanna. No Prince. We're talking marching bands from the University of Arizona and Grambling College. Oh, and some guys flying around with jetpacks.
The Packers ended up winning 35-10. Bart Starr, the Green Bay quarterback, was the MVP, but the real story was how the game paved the way for the massive merger that happened later.
The Name "Super Bowl" Was a Total Accident
So, where did the name come from if 1967 wasn't technically "Super Bowl I" at the time?
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Lamar Hunt, the owner of the Kansas City Chiefs, saw his daughter playing with a "Super Ball" toy. It was one of those high-bouncing rubber balls. The name just stuck in his head. He suggested it during a meeting, and while the league thought it was too "informal," the media absolutely loved it.
By the third year, the NFL finally gave in and officially called it the Super Bowl.
The Stakes Were Higher Than You Think
While we view it as a holiday now, the first super bowl year was a gamble. The two leagues had been in a literal arms race for players, signing rookies to massive contracts just to keep them away from the "other" league. The 1966 agreement to merge meant they needed a final game to settle the score.
The Packers winning reinforced the idea that the NFL was superior. But Kansas City’s performance in the first half—they were only down 14-10 at the break—showed that the "upstart" league actually had some teeth.
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Legacy of the 1967 Inaugural Game
What’s wild is that the footage of this game was almost lost forever. Since both networks used the same feed for parts of it, they actually taped over the original broadcasts to save money. It took years for researchers to piece together a full version of the game from various sources.
Today, the Super Bowl is a multi-billion dollar machine. But in January 1967, it was just a nervous experiment in a half-empty stadium.
If you're looking to dive deeper into football history, your next step is to check out the 1967 "Ice Bowl" which happened just weeks before the first Super Bowl. It’s widely considered one of the most brutal weather games in history and set the stage for the Packers' trip to Los Angeles. You should also look up the 1970 AFL-NFL merger details to see how the two leagues finally became the powerhouse we know today.