Angel
01-14-2007, 07:34 AM
40-year flashback | The first Super Bowl
A long way from Super
Chiefs vs. Packers was not the spectacle the game has turned into.
By RANDY COVITZ
The Kansas City Star
As he has done for the last 10 years or so, former Chiefs tight end Fred Arbanas will watch the Super Bowl while vacationing in Cancun, Mexico.
Invariably, word will get around that this visitor was part of Super Bowl history, and even fans south of the border become awestruck.
“People know the Chiefs played in the Super Bowl,” Arbanas said, “and they ask, ‘You played in the first Super Bowl? Oh my gosh …’ ”
That first Super Bowl was played 40 years ago Monday at the half-empty Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Who would have thought it would turn into the national holiday it is today?
“No one knew what to expect,” said Chiefs Hall of Fame quarterback Len Dawson.
“Lamar knew how big this would be,” former linebacker Walt Corey said of Chiefs founder Lamar Hunt. “We all had visions of grandeur; you always thought about games like this. Regardless of what it is, it’s always nice to be first.
“Being first to play in what became the first Super Bowl … I like to display my ring, even though they didn’t call it the Super Bowl. On the ring, it says ‘Super Bowl.’ ”
Though Hunt coined the name Super Bowl during the 1966 season, the title game was officially the AFL-NFL World Championship Game. It wouldn’t be until 1969 that the title Super Bowl was recognized by the NFL and Roman numerals were attached to the name.
The inaugural Super Bowl, won by Green Bay 35-10 in the first NFL-AFL meeting since the leagues merged the previous summer, was anything but a mega-event.
•Tickets went for $6, $10 and $12, and the crowd, generously estimated at 61,946, appeared even smaller in the then-100,000-seat Coliseum. This year, the face value for tickets in Miami for a sold-out Super Bowl XLI is $600 and $700.
•The ad rate for a 30-second television spot was $42,000 for Super Bowl I. Super Bowl XL commanded $2.4 million. An estimated 70 million watched the first game on two networks — NBC carried AFL games, and CBS carried the NFL. More than 141 million watched Super Bowl XL.
•The NFL issued 338 media credentials to Super Bowl I. It issued 13,567 for Super Bowl XXXIX.
“It wasn’t set up like they have it now, with each team available to the media for an hour at a certain place every day,” Dawson recalled. “They’d come knocking on your door, grab you in the coffee shop, do an interview. There was no organization to it like today.
“This is an extravaganza now.”
About 6,000 fans from the Kansas City area, many arriving on hastily arranged charter flights, attended the first game, along with Missouri Sens. Edward Long and Stuart Symington, Missouri Gov. Warren Hearnes and Lt. Gov. Thomas Eagleton, and Kansas Gov. Robert Docking.
Ten NASA astronauts also were on hand, five sitting behind the Chiefs’ bench, five behind Green Bay’s.
Before the game, two Rocketmen — space fliers with jet packs on their backs — flew onto the field, and Dawson recalled thinking: “I hope that thing doesn’t fail or it’s all over for those guys.”
Bands from Grambling State and the University of Arizona performed the national anthem.
And instead of a mass of humanity and microphones and cameras crowding midfield for the coin toss, referee Norm Schachter stood between four figures — Chiefs captains Jerry Mays and Jon Gilliam and the Packers’ Willie Davis and Bob Skoronski.
•••
All the pressure was on the Green Bay Packers, the NFL’s dynasty of the 1960s. Vince Lombardi’s Packers had beaten Dallas for its second straight NFL title and fourth in six years, and commissioner Pete Rozelle and owners such as Chicago’s George Halas were adamant that the Packers squash the upstarts from the 7-year-old AFL, referred to as “The Mickey Mouse League” by the established NFL.
“They had everything to lose,” said Chiefs vice chairman Jack Steadman, then the club’s general manager. “Had we beat the NFL team, Lombardi would not have been king. The owners were letting him know, ‘You’ve got to win this game.’ For us, it was get out there and play and try to win the game.”
The Packers didn’t take the Chiefs lightly.
“Everybody expected us to win, and sometimes when people expect you to win, you don’t necessarily do that,” recalled Forrest Gregg, the Packers’ Hall of Fame offensive tackle. “We were concerned. A lot of people were saying ‘Mickey Mouse League,’ but all you had to do was see those players and what kind of athletes they were to tell you right away this was a good football team with good talent and was well-coached.
“You remembered a lot of those players when they were in college, and they were drafted. Most of those players were drafted in the NFL and would have been playing for a team in the NFL if they weren’t in the other league.”
Dawson, who spent five seasons as an NFL backup before joining the AFL’s Dallas Texans in 1962, worried about his team’s inexperience.
“We were a young team; I was the oldest guy on the team,” he said. “For a lot of those players, their heroes were on the other side of the ball. At that time, the Packers were getting up in age, and when our players were in high school and college, they watched the Packers on television.
“Lombardi had a name in those days, because this was the dominant team in professional football. A lot of guys were in awe of him, and (coach) Hank Stram said, ‘Let’s not say anything to arouse those people.’ ”
The game featured 15 future Hall of Famers: Dawson, linebacker Bobby Bell, defensive tackle Buck Buchanan and Stram from the Chiefs, and 11 Packers — Gregg, Davis, quarterback Bart Starr, running backs Jim Taylor and Paul Hornung, middle linebacker Ray Nitschke, center Jim Ringo, safety Willie Wood, cornerback Herb Adderley, defensive tackle Henry Jordan and Lombardi.
Continued next post...
A long way from Super
Chiefs vs. Packers was not the spectacle the game has turned into.
By RANDY COVITZ
The Kansas City Star
As he has done for the last 10 years or so, former Chiefs tight end Fred Arbanas will watch the Super Bowl while vacationing in Cancun, Mexico.
Invariably, word will get around that this visitor was part of Super Bowl history, and even fans south of the border become awestruck.
“People know the Chiefs played in the Super Bowl,” Arbanas said, “and they ask, ‘You played in the first Super Bowl? Oh my gosh …’ ”
That first Super Bowl was played 40 years ago Monday at the half-empty Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Who would have thought it would turn into the national holiday it is today?
“No one knew what to expect,” said Chiefs Hall of Fame quarterback Len Dawson.
“Lamar knew how big this would be,” former linebacker Walt Corey said of Chiefs founder Lamar Hunt. “We all had visions of grandeur; you always thought about games like this. Regardless of what it is, it’s always nice to be first.
“Being first to play in what became the first Super Bowl … I like to display my ring, even though they didn’t call it the Super Bowl. On the ring, it says ‘Super Bowl.’ ”
Though Hunt coined the name Super Bowl during the 1966 season, the title game was officially the AFL-NFL World Championship Game. It wouldn’t be until 1969 that the title Super Bowl was recognized by the NFL and Roman numerals were attached to the name.
The inaugural Super Bowl, won by Green Bay 35-10 in the first NFL-AFL meeting since the leagues merged the previous summer, was anything but a mega-event.
•Tickets went for $6, $10 and $12, and the crowd, generously estimated at 61,946, appeared even smaller in the then-100,000-seat Coliseum. This year, the face value for tickets in Miami for a sold-out Super Bowl XLI is $600 and $700.
•The ad rate for a 30-second television spot was $42,000 for Super Bowl I. Super Bowl XL commanded $2.4 million. An estimated 70 million watched the first game on two networks — NBC carried AFL games, and CBS carried the NFL. More than 141 million watched Super Bowl XL.
•The NFL issued 338 media credentials to Super Bowl I. It issued 13,567 for Super Bowl XXXIX.
“It wasn’t set up like they have it now, with each team available to the media for an hour at a certain place every day,” Dawson recalled. “They’d come knocking on your door, grab you in the coffee shop, do an interview. There was no organization to it like today.
“This is an extravaganza now.”
About 6,000 fans from the Kansas City area, many arriving on hastily arranged charter flights, attended the first game, along with Missouri Sens. Edward Long and Stuart Symington, Missouri Gov. Warren Hearnes and Lt. Gov. Thomas Eagleton, and Kansas Gov. Robert Docking.
Ten NASA astronauts also were on hand, five sitting behind the Chiefs’ bench, five behind Green Bay’s.
Before the game, two Rocketmen — space fliers with jet packs on their backs — flew onto the field, and Dawson recalled thinking: “I hope that thing doesn’t fail or it’s all over for those guys.”
Bands from Grambling State and the University of Arizona performed the national anthem.
And instead of a mass of humanity and microphones and cameras crowding midfield for the coin toss, referee Norm Schachter stood between four figures — Chiefs captains Jerry Mays and Jon Gilliam and the Packers’ Willie Davis and Bob Skoronski.
•••
All the pressure was on the Green Bay Packers, the NFL’s dynasty of the 1960s. Vince Lombardi’s Packers had beaten Dallas for its second straight NFL title and fourth in six years, and commissioner Pete Rozelle and owners such as Chicago’s George Halas were adamant that the Packers squash the upstarts from the 7-year-old AFL, referred to as “The Mickey Mouse League” by the established NFL.
“They had everything to lose,” said Chiefs vice chairman Jack Steadman, then the club’s general manager. “Had we beat the NFL team, Lombardi would not have been king. The owners were letting him know, ‘You’ve got to win this game.’ For us, it was get out there and play and try to win the game.”
The Packers didn’t take the Chiefs lightly.
“Everybody expected us to win, and sometimes when people expect you to win, you don’t necessarily do that,” recalled Forrest Gregg, the Packers’ Hall of Fame offensive tackle. “We were concerned. A lot of people were saying ‘Mickey Mouse League,’ but all you had to do was see those players and what kind of athletes they were to tell you right away this was a good football team with good talent and was well-coached.
“You remembered a lot of those players when they were in college, and they were drafted. Most of those players were drafted in the NFL and would have been playing for a team in the NFL if they weren’t in the other league.”
Dawson, who spent five seasons as an NFL backup before joining the AFL’s Dallas Texans in 1962, worried about his team’s inexperience.
“We were a young team; I was the oldest guy on the team,” he said. “For a lot of those players, their heroes were on the other side of the ball. At that time, the Packers were getting up in age, and when our players were in high school and college, they watched the Packers on television.
“Lombardi had a name in those days, because this was the dominant team in professional football. A lot of guys were in awe of him, and (coach) Hank Stram said, ‘Let’s not say anything to arouse those people.’ ”
The game featured 15 future Hall of Famers: Dawson, linebacker Bobby Bell, defensive tackle Buck Buchanan and Stram from the Chiefs, and 11 Packers — Gregg, Davis, quarterback Bart Starr, running backs Jim Taylor and Paul Hornung, middle linebacker Ray Nitschke, center Jim Ringo, safety Willie Wood, cornerback Herb Adderley, defensive tackle Henry Jordan and Lombardi.
Continued next post...