the editor talks with you

Do you remember the 1st Super Bowl? Many die hard football fans don’t. They are either too young or, like me, were college football fans. We had no pro teams in the Southeast as we do today. And it wasn’t called the Super Bowl until 2 years later. It was just a match up between the National and American Football League champions. The National champs, Vince Lombardi’s Green Bay Packers, were a heavy favorite. The bookies favored the Packers by 2 touchdowns. They thought the American champ Kansas City Chiefs were in an inferior conference. At the time, they were right. The newer American League had to compete for top college athletes against an established National League which had the experience, stars and money.

That 1st bowl game was played 52 years ago on Jan. 15, 1967 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Before the game, the teams representing the two rival leagues felt intense pressure to win. The Chiefs had beaten the Buffalo Bills 31–7 to win AFL title. The Packers beat the Dallas Cowboys 34–27 for the NFL title. In the 1st half, the Chiefs surprised every one, out gaining the Packers in total yards 181–164. It was 14–10 at halftime. Some times the outcome of a game turns on one big play. In the 3rd quarter, Green Bay safety Willie Wood intercepted a pass and ran it 50 yards to the 5-yard line. The Packers scored 3 touchdowns, held the Chiefs scoreless and won 35-10. The next year, the Packers beat the AFL champion Oakland Raiders 33–14.

The AFL was forced to recruit players from small colleges and predominantly black colleges, a source the NFL mainly ignored. But the AFL had to show that their teams could beat NFL teams to force their rival into a merger. A brash young quarterback, Joe Namath, helped do that. Namath had played for legendary Bear Bryant at Alabama and was, in his coach’s words, the best natural athlete he ever had. As the New York Jets quarterback, Namath guaranteed they would beat the Baltimore Colts. The Colts were considered invincible and no one took Namath seriously. His team backed him up by controlling most of the game, building a 16–0 lead with a touchdown and 3 field goals. Namath was named the Super Bowl’s most valuable player and the AFL merged with the NFL the next year.

We were living in New York at the time and had become Jets fans. We watched as the Jets signed Namath as quarterback for the unheard of sum of $427,000, the highest rookie contract in pro football history. Today, the Carolina Panthers pay quarterback Cam Newton $20.7 million. Due to surgery, he may not play much next season. Sunday’s game will be the 53rd in the pro football championship series. As long-suffering Philadelphia Eagles fans, we were delighted when a trick play in the closing seconds last year won the game against the Patriots. Expect this year’s game to be a close one.

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