No event in the history of American sports has been able to top the first ever Super Bowl in terms of the intrigue and unknowns in brought to the table. And it is unlikely that no sporting event will ever bring that same sort of bountiful offering to a television audience.
The first Super Bowl, then called the AFL vs. NFL World Championship Game, still cannot be matched for its element of the unknown.
Two Leagues, First Meeting
The Kansas City Chiefs, champions of the American Football League, met the Green Bay Packers, champions of the National Football League in the first Super Bowl at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on January 15, 1967.
The Packers were an established power that had won four NFL championships since 1961 while the Chiefs were champions of a new rival league that was formed in 1960. Kansas City also won the 1962 AFL championship as the then Dallas Texans.
The two leagues had never met on the gridiron. This led to wild speculation about what would happen when the Chiefs and Packers met in the first Super Bowl. Green Bay was a two touchdown favorite. That line was based in large part due to public perception of NFL superiority and the Chiefs newcomer status compared to the Packers being an established name brand power.
Although the two leagues were separate and planning to merge in 1970, they engaged in expensive bidding wars for the same college talent.
Canton Bowl
The first Super Bowl was a matchup of living legends that would end up in Canton’s Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Green Bay boasted head coach Vince Lombardi and players Herb Adderley, Willie Davis, Forrest Gregg, Paul Hornung, Henry Jordan, Ray Nitschke, Dave Robinson, Bart Starr, Jim Taylor, and Willie Wood as future Hall of Famers.
The Chiefs had future Hall of Famers Hank Stram (head coach) and players Bobby Bell, Buck Buchanan, Len Dawson and Emmitt Thomas.
Unfiltered Hate
The NFL despised the AFL for what it did to their business model as the bidding war for players grudgingly brought them to the peace table for a merger plan formulated in 1966. The NFL owners demanded that Lombardi destroy the Chiefs and run up the score.
The AFL, in turn, hated the NFL for its arrogance. Chiefs defensive lineman Buck Buchanan stated he had never felt such powerful hatred as an emotion as he did before the first Super Bowl. Later in the game, in fact, he threw Packers running back Jim Taylor to the ground out of frustration.
A Nervous Lombardi
The stakes could not be higher for the Packers and the NFL. They had everything to lose as the established league and power team. Lombardi was interviewed by Frank Gifford of CBS before the game, and Gifford later remarked that the Green Bay coach was shaking violently during the interview.
Chiefs Impressed in First Half
The Chiefs trailed Green Bay by just 14-10 at the half and outgained the Packers 181-164 in yards. Fans and experts were impressed and a Kansas City upset was looking more than possible.
The Chiefs opened the second half of the game with a drive that took them to midfield where they faced a third down and five. And then, disaster struck. Dawson was blitzed and threw an off-balance desperation pass that was picked off by Green Bay’s Wood, who returned it to the Kansas City five yard line. Elijah Pitts ran the next play for a five yard touchdown and the rout was on. Green Bay won 35-10 and outgained the Chiefs 361-239 at the end.
It is ironic that Lombardi hated the blitz but was forced into it by the Chiefs effective first half play action passes that gave Dawson almost unlimited time to pass.
Max McGee
Green Bay backup wide receiver Max McGee ignored Lombardi’s warnings of a suspension for breaking curfew and spent the night before the Super Bowl partying with flight attendants. He stumbled into the hotel lobby at sunrise on game day. McGee was enjoying a relaxing and sunny day on the bench when Lombardi screamed for him to get into the game for the injured Boyd Dowler. McGee ended up as the first Super Bowl hero with juggling circus catches and a dominant all-around performance. McGee ended up with seven catches good for 138 yards and two touchdowns.
Bart Starr
Starr was the Super Bowl’s Most Valuable Player as he picked the Chiefs apart with precision. The Hall of Famer was particularly deadly on third down conversions. In all, Green Bay converted 11 out of 15 third down plays which was a major factor in the final outcome.
No Substitute for Experience
Kansas City was a talented team, particularly on offense. What they lacked in their matchup was the Packers seasoning as a proven NFL champion. The Chiefs also had defensive flaws that were ruthlessly exposed by Lombardi and Starr. More than anything else, it was Kansas City’s fragile mental makeup that cost them a shot at the upset. They folded like a house of cards after the Dawson interception despite moving the ball well up to that point.
History Treats Chiefs Well
The Chiefs were derided after the game as not ready for prime time. The same Lombardi that was trembling in terror before the game was snide afterwards stating that Kansas City did not compare with the top NFL teams.
Since that first Super Bowl, however, there have been far worse and embarrassing losses. Kansas City went on to retool their defense and win Super Bowl IV. The Chiefs should have made Super Bowl VI were it not for their infamous 1971 Christmas Day loss in the longest game ever played. Packer players such as Starr and center Bill Curry now give the Chiefs their due as a really good football team that remains underappreciated to this very day.
Then Dallas Cowboys executive Tex Schramm went up to Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt after the game and said it best, “Now you know how we have felt in the NFL for all of these years.”
Super Bowl I was not as much about the Chiefs being outmanned as simply the Packers being the team of that decade and one of the all-time great teams in sports history.
