CHAPTER 1
The First Super Bowl
The first Super Bowl was played in Los Angeles on January 15, 1967. The game was called the AFL-NFL World Championship, later known as Super Bowl I.
At halftime, Coach Vince Lombardi was nervous. The score was 14–10. His team, the Green Bay Packers, was four points ahead. But Lombardi knew that four points didn’t mean much.
Everyone had been so sure the Packers would destroy the Kansas City Chiefs. Lombardi’s Packers were the National Football League champions. Their quarterback was Bart Starr. He was one of the best players in the league.
The NFL had been around since 1920. They had the experience. NFL teams had the skills. They were stronger and tougher. But Lombardi wondered if this AFL team was better than everybody thought.
The Chiefs were the American Football League champions. They were newcomers. The AFL had started in 1960, forty years after the NFL. The press called them “beginners” and “upstarts.”
No one thought the Chiefs had a chance. The nine AFL teams were brash, untamed, messy. Okay, maybe they were good at passing. They might even be faster. But this new league just didn’t seem ready.
Top tickets at the Los Angeles Coliseum were selling for twelve dollars. In 1967, that price seemed crazy to most people. Who could afford that much for a ticket to a football game? There were empty seats. The game would turn out to be the only Super Bowl in history that wasn’t sold out.
Hank Stram was the coach of the Kansas City Chiefs. He was worried, too. The Chiefs had an excellent defense. But they would have to work harder than ever to stop Bart Starr. This wasn’t just a game to determine the best football team in America. This was a game to prove the AFL could compete against the big guys.
As Lombardi gave his team a halftime pep talk, jazz musician Al Hirt played his trumpet on the field. Two marching bands performed.
When the second half began, it looked like the Chiefs had a chance. A four-point lead wasn’t enough to guarantee a win.
Len Dawson, the Chiefs’ quarterback, tried to throw a pass. The Packers defense went to work. They rushed him. Willie Wood intercepted the pass and ran fifty yards to the Kansas City five-yard line. Elijah Pitts scored the touchdown. Suddenly the score was Packers 21, Chiefs 10. Vince Lombardi began to breathe easier.
The Packers stepped it up even more. Starr threw one successful pass after another. The game ended. Final score: Packers 35, Chiefs 10.
Green Bay took home the trophy and the winning-team rings. Bart Starr was named the game’s Most Valuable Player.
The press reported that the AFL team had been crushed, just as expected. But at least it wasn’t a shutout. The AFL needed more time, more experience. Maybe they’d win one . . . someday.
On January 14, 1968, Vince Lombardi’s NFL Green Bay Packers traveled to Miami to defend their title. This was the second AFL-NFL World Championship game. It would later be known as Super Bowl II.
Once again, no one thought the AFL team had a chance. The Oakland Raiders needed practice. People called them another upstart team from an upstart league.
Super Bowl II ended with a final score of Green Bay 33, Oakland 14. The American Football League was dismissed as the little league that couldn’t. No AFL team would ever be able to compete against the mighty NFL.
Or would they?
