January 15, 1967. Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. It wasn't the spectacle you know today. There were no $7 million commercials featuring celebrities eating snacks in slow motion. Honestly, there weren't even enough fans to fill the stadium. About 30,000 seats sat empty, which is unthinkable now. If you bought a ticket today for the Big Game, you'd be out thousands of dollars; back then, you could get in for twelve bucks.
The Super Bowl 1 story is weirdly messy. For starters, nobody called it "Super Bowl 1" at the time. The official, clunky title was the "AFL-NFL World Championship Game." It was the result of a bitter, expensive corporate merger between the established National Football League and the upstart American Football League. The two leagues hated each other. This wasn't just a game; it was a turf war.
The Two-Network Mess and the Lost Tapes
Imagine turning on the TV today and finding the Super Bowl on two different channels at the exact same time. That’s exactly what happened in 1967. Because CBS held the rights to the NFL and NBC held the rights to the AFL, both networks broadcasted the game. It’s the only time in history this happened. They used different announcers, different camera angles, and different production styles.
The crazy part? For decades, we didn't even have a full recording of it.
Networks back then were notoriously cheap with videotape. It was expensive stuff. So, instead of archiving what would become the most important sporting event in American history, they wiped the tapes. They recorded soap operas and game shows over them. It wasn't until a nearly complete version was found in an attic in Pennsylvania around 2005 that the sports world realized how close we came to losing the visual history of Super Bowl 1 forever. The NFL eventually used digital technology to stitch together footage from various sources to recreate the broadcast, but the original tapes are still the "Holy Grail" of sports memorabilia.
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Max McGee: The Unlikely Hero with a Hangover
If you want to understand why the first game was so different, look at Max McGee. He was a veteran receiver for the Green Bay Packers. He didn't expect to play. He spent the night before the game out on the town, breaking curfew, and reportedly didn't get back to his room until the sun was coming up. He was, by all accounts, feeling pretty rough.
Then, Boyd Dowler got hurt on the second series of the game.
Vince Lombardi called McGee's name. Max had to borrow a helmet because he’d left his on the bench. Despite being severely hungover and playing in a league he thought was vastly superior to his opponents, McGee went out and caught seven passes for 138 yards and two touchdowns. He scored the first touchdown in Super Bowl history on a one-handed snag that looked more like luck than skill, but it set the tone for the entire afternoon.
Why the NFL-AFL Rivalry Was So Personal
You've got to understand the cultural gap here. The NFL was the "Old Guard." They were the "Green Bay Packers" and the "New York Giants"—teams that played "three yards and a cloud of dust" football. They were coached by legends like Vince Lombardi, a man who treated football like a religious war. On the other side, the AFL was the "Junior Circuit." They were flashy. They threw the ball more. They had names on the backs of their jerseys.
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Lombardi was under immense pressure. NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle made it clear: losing to the AFL was not an option. It would have humiliated the established league.
The Kansas City Chiefs, led by Hank Stram, weren't pushovers, though. They had future Hall of Famers like Bobby Bell and Buck Buchanan. For the first half, it was actually a game. The Packers were only up 14-10 at halftime. There was a genuine sense in the Coliseum that the AFL might actually pull off the upset. But the Packers were deeper, meaner, and better conditioned. They blew the game open in the second half, eventually winning 35-10.
The Half-Time Show Was Just... Birds?
If you're expecting Usher or Prince, you're looking at the wrong decade. The first halftime show featured marching bands from the University of Arizona and Grambling State University. They released hundreds of pigeons into the air. One of the jetpack pilots—yes, they had Bell Aerosystems jetpacks—flew around for a bit. It was high-tech for 1967, but by today’s standards, it looks like a high school science fair gone wrong.
The Name "Super Bowl" and a Child's Toy
Where did the name come from? Lamar Hunt, the owner of the Kansas City Chiefs and a founder of the AFL, is the guy who coined it. He saw his daughter playing with a "Super Ball," a high-bounce toy that was popular in the 60s. The name stuck in his head. He suggested "Super Bowl" as a shorthand.
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Lombardi actually hated the name. He thought it was undignified. He wanted to call it "The Big One" or something more professional. But the media loved it. By the third year, the league officially adopted the name, and the rest is marketing history.
The Legacy of the First Game
When you look back at Super Bowl 1, you see the blueprint of the modern NFL. You see the merger of entertainment and athletics. Even though the stands weren't full, the television ratings were massive. About 51 million people tuned in. That proved to advertisers that football was the new national pastime, overtaking baseball in the hearts of the American public.
The game also solidified the legend of Vince Lombardi. The trophy awarded to the winner every year is now named after him for a reason. He demanded perfection, and on that day in Los Angeles, he got enough of it to ensure the NFL's dominance for decades to come.
Key Statistics from the Game
- Final Score: Green Bay Packers 35, Kansas City Chiefs 10.
- MVP: Bart Starr (Packers QB), who threw for 250 yards and two touchdowns.
- Attendance: 61,946 (The only Super Bowl never to sell out).
- Winning Share: Each Packer player took home $15,000. Each Chiefs player got $7,500.
Moving Past the Myths of 1967
A lot of people think the AFL was a "bad" league. That’s a mistake. While the Packers won handily, the AFL would go on to win the next two out of three Super Bowls (the Jets in III and the Chiefs in IV). The gap wasn't as wide as Lombardi wanted everyone to believe. The "AFL-NFL World Championship" was the moment the sport stopped being a regional curiosity and started becoming a national religion.
If you’re a fan of the modern game, you owe a lot to that sunny afternoon in LA. It was the birth of the "Super Sunday" tradition. Even with the hangovers, the empty seats, and the lost videotapes, it changed everything.
Actionable Ways to Explore Super Bowl History
To truly appreciate how far the game has come, you should look into these specific historical artifacts:
- Watch the Reconstructed Broadcast: The NFL Network occasionally airs the digitally restored version of the game. It’s the closest you’ll get to seeing what people saw on their grainy tubes in '67.
- Research the "Super Ball" Toy: Look up the original Wham-O Super Ball. It’s a fun piece of trivia that connects a multi-billion dollar industry to a 98-cent bouncy ball.
- Visit the Pro Football Hall of Fame: They have the original jersey worn by Max McGee and several programs from the game. Seeing the physical size of the equipment from that era puts the modern players' athleticism into perspective.
- Compare the Playbooks: If you can find old film of the Packers' "Power Sweep," compare it to modern zone blocking. You’ll see that while the athletes have changed, the fundamental geometry of the game was already being perfected by Lombardi in Super Bowl 1.