January 15, 1967. It wasn't even called the Super Bowl yet. Back then, it was the clunky "AFL-NFL World Championship Game." If you walked into the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum that afternoon, you would have seen something unthinkable today: empty seats. Thousands of them. Roughly 33,000 tickets went unsold because, honestly, most people thought the game was going to be a total blowout.
The Green Bay Packers ended up winning that first matchup, and it wasn't particularly close.
They took down the Kansas City Chiefs with a final score of 35-10. But the score doesn't really tell the whole story of how high the stakes were. For Vince Lombardi and the NFL, this wasn't just a game. It was a matter of survival and pride. They viewed the American Football League (AFL) as a "mickey mouse" league—a collection of castoffs and inferior athletes. Lombardi was under immense pressure to prove that the established NFL was the only "real" pro football league.
What Team Won the 1st Super Bowl and Why It Mattered
So, the Green Bay Packers took the trophy, but the atmosphere leading up to it was pure chaos. Imagine two rival businesses being forced to merge, but they still hate each other's guts. That was the NFL and the AFL in the mid-sixties. They had spent years overpaying for rookies and stealing each other's players. The merger was a financial necessity, but the animosity was very real.
Vince Lombardi was notoriously stressed. He told his players that they weren't just playing for Green Bay; they were playing for the reputation of the entire National Football League. If they lost to the "upstart" Chiefs, it would be a humiliation the NFL might never recover from.
The Unlikely Hero: Max McGee
You can't talk about who won the first Super Bowl without mentioning Max McGee. This is one of those sports stories that sounds like it’s made up. McGee was a veteran wide receiver who barely played during the regular season. He had caught exactly four passes all year.
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Since he didn't expect to play, he broke curfew the night before the game and stayed out until the sun came up. He was supposedly nursing a massive hangover on the sidelines, figuring he'd just watch from the bench. Then, early in the first quarter, starter Boyd Dowler went down with a shoulder injury.
Lombardi looked at McGee and told him to get in there.
McGee didn't even have his helmet with him—he had to borrow one from a teammate. And then? He went out and played the game of his life. He caught seven passes for 138 yards and two touchdowns. His first touchdown was a spectacular one-handed grab that essentially set the tone for the Packers' dominance.
Bart Starr’s Precision
While McGee provided the fireworks, Bart Starr provided the surgical precision. Starr was the epitome of the Lombardi era—cool, collected, and remarkably efficient. He completed 16 of 23 passes for 250 yards.
In an era where passing was often a "chuck it and pray" affair, Starr was different. He earned the game's first-ever MVP award. People often forget that the game was actually close at halftime. The Chiefs were only down 14-10. Kansas City quarterback Len Dawson was moving the ball, and for a few minutes, it looked like the AFL might actually pull off the upset.
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Then came the third quarter.
The Turning Point in the Coliseum
The momentum shifted permanently when Green Bay’s Willie Wood intercepted a pass from Dawson and returned it 50 yards to the Chiefs' 5-yard line. That one play broke the spirit of the Kansas City squad. The Packers scored a few plays later, and the rout was on.
The physical toll of that game was something else. The NFL played a much more "smash-mouth" style compared to the AFL’s more wide-open, pass-heavy approach. By the fourth quarter, the Chiefs' offensive line was basically a sieve. Green Bay’s defense, led by legends like Ray Nitschke and Willie Davis, just took over.
Why the "Super Bowl" Name Stuck
The term "Super Bowl" came from Lamar Hunt, the owner of the Chiefs. He saw his daughter playing with a toy called a "Super Ball" and the name just sort of popped into his head. Pete Rozelle, the NFL commissioner at the time, actually hated it. He thought it lacked "stature." He wanted to call it something like the "Pro Bowl Championship," but the media loved Hunt’s version.
By the time the third edition of the game rolled around, the "Super Bowl" branding was official.
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Key Stats from the 1st Super Bowl
- Final Score: Green Bay Packers 35, Kansas City Chiefs 10.
- MVP: Bart Starr (QB, Green Bay).
- Attendance: 61,946 (The only Super Bowl to never sell out).
- Ticket Price: $12 (adjusted for inflation, that’s about $110 today).
- Broadcasting: It’s the only game in history to be broadcast on two networks (CBS and NBC) simultaneously.
The Legacy of the Packers' Victory
Lombardi’s win solidified the NFL’s dominance, at least for a few more years. After the game, he famously said the Chiefs were a good team but "didn't compare with a National Football League team." It was a parting shot that fueled the AFL’s fire.
Two years later, Joe Namath and the Jets would finally win one for the AFL, proving that the gap between the leagues had closed. But that first win by Green Bay established the standard. It created the "Packer Mystique" and turned the Super Bowl into the cultural behemoth it is today.
If you want to truly understand NFL history, you have to look at those grainy films of the 1967 game. You see a sport that was still figuring out its identity. The goalposts were still at the front of the end zone. The players didn't have specialized diets or multi-million dollar contracts. They were just guys playing for a $15,000 winner's check—which was a huge amount of money back then.
To appreciate where the league is now, take a second to look up the original broadcast footage. It’s a trip. You'll see two different sets of announcers and a halftime show that consisted of marching bands and two guys with jetpacks.
If you're a fan of the history, your next step should be checking out the Pro Football Hall of Fame's digital archives or watching the "NFL Films" documentary on Super Bowl I. It’s the best way to see how the Green Bay Packers turned a "meaningless exhibition" into the start of the biggest sporting event on the planet.