Super Bowl I

January 15, 1967 • Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum • Los Angeles, California • CBS and NBC • 1:15 p.m. PST Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl I Green Bay Packers 10 Team 1 2 3 4 Totals Chiefs 0 10 0 0 10 Packers 7 7 14 7 35 35

Super Bowl I
Kansas City Chiefs Green Bay Packers (AFL) (NFL) (11–2–1) (12–2) 10 35 1 2 3 4 Total KC 0 10 0 0 10 GB 7 7 14 7 35
Date	January 15, 1967
Stadium	Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
City	Los Angeles, California
MVP	Bart Starr, Quarterback
Favorite	Packers by 14
National anthem	University of Arizona and University of Michigan Bands
Coin toss	Norm Schachter
Referee	Norm Schachter
Halftime show	University of Arizona and University of Michigan Bands
Attendance	61,946
TV in the United States
Network	CBS and NBC
Announcers	CBS: Ray Scott, Jack Whitaker and Frank Gifford NBC: Curt Gowdy and Paul Christman
Nielsen Ratings	CBS: 22.6 (est. 26.75 million viewers) NBC: 18.5 (est. 24.43 million viewers) (Total: 51.18 million viewers)
Market share	CBS: 43 NBC: 36
Cost of 30-second commercial	$42,000 (Both CBS and NBC)
Super Bowl II >

The first AFL-NFL World Championship Game in professional American football (known retroactively as Super Bowl I and referred to in contemporaneous reports, including the game's radio broadcast, as the Super Bowl), was played on January 15, 1967 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles, California.

The National Football League (NFL) champion Green Bay Packers (12-2) scored 3 second-half touchdowns en route to a 35–10 win over the American Football League (AFL) champion Kansas City Chiefs (11-2-1).

Coming into the game, considerable animosity existed between the AFL and NFL, thus the teams representing the two rival leagues (Kansas City and Green Bay, respectively) felt additional pressure to win. The Chiefs posted an 11–2–1 record during the regular season, and defeated the Buffalo Bills 31–7 in the AFL Championship Game. The Packers finished the regular season at 12–2 and defeated the Dallas Cowboys 34–27 in the NFL Championship Game. Many sportswriters and fans believed any team in the older NFL was vastly superior to any club in the upstart AFL, and so expected Green Bay would blow out Kansas City.

The first half of Super Bowl I was competitive, as the Chiefs outgained the Packers in total yards, 181–164, and kept pace with Green Bay by posting a 14–10 score at halftime. Early in the third quarter, Green Bay safety Willie Wood intercepted a pass and returned it 50 yards to the 5-yard line. The turnover sparked the Packers to score 21 unanswered points in the second half. Green Bay quarterback Bart Starr earned the first Super Bowl MVP in NFL history by throwing 16 of 23 for 250 yards and two touchdowns, with 1 interception.

The game remains the only Super Bowl to have been simulcast in the United States by two networks. NBC had the rights to nationally televise AFL games, while CBS held the rights to broadcast NFL games; both were allowed to televise the game.

Summary

The Green Bay Packers opened the Super Bowl series by defeating the AFL champion Chiefs behind the passing of Bart Starr, the receiving of Max McGee, and a key interception by all-pro safety Willie Wood.

All-Pro QB Bart Starr leads to Packers to a offensive barrage on the Chiefs defense in the 3rd quarter

Green Bay broke open the game with three second-half touchdowns, the first of which was set up by Wood's 50-yard return of an interception. McGee, filling in for ailing Boyd Dowler after having caught only four passes all season, caught seven from Starr for 138 yards and two touchdowns. Elijah Pitts ran for two other scores. The Chiefs' 10 points came in the second quarter, the only touchdown on a 7-yard pass from Len Dawson to Curtis McClinton. Starr completed 16 of 23 passes for 250 yards and two touchdowns and was chosen the most valuable player. The Packers collected $15,000 per man and the Chiefs $7,500-at the time, the largest single-game shares in the history of team sports.

The making of the Super Bowl

One day Lamar Hunt, architect of the AFL and owner of the Kansas City Chiefs, came across his daughter's Super Ball and was given the inspiration for the name of the championship game between the upstart American Football League and the old-guard National Football League.

"Why not," he wondered, "call our championship game the Super Bowl?"

The name caught on quickly and thus, an American tradition was born.

The first of these "Super" contests pitted Vince Lombardi's Green Bay Packers (13-2) against Hank Stram's Chiefs (12-2-1) and was played before 61,946 fans in Los Angeles' 93,000-seat Memorial Coliseum. The television audience for this game is estimated to have been approximately 60 million viewers.

The game itself featured an unlikely hero in Green Bay wide receiver Max McGee. McGee was strictly a backup and did not receive much playing time. In fact, in 14 games during the 1966 season he had caught only four passes for 91 yards.

Legend has it that Max had spent most of the previous night out on the town and was in no shape to play football, especially in a championship game. But he felt safe in knowing the only way he would get into the game was if Boyd Dowler got hurt.

McGee was later quoted as saying, "I waddled in about 7:30 in the morning and I could barely stand up for the kickoff. On the bench Paul (Hornung) kept needling me, 'What would you do if you had to play?' And I said, 'No way, there's no way I could make it.'"

But Dowler did get hurt early in the game and McGee was suddenly thrust into a game he had no business being in.

Just moments after entering the game though, he caught a 37-yard touchdown pass from Bart Starr to cap off an 80-yard drive that gave the Packers an early lead. On the day, McGee caught seven passes for 138 yards and two touchdowns as the Packers went on to win the first Super Bowl, 35-10.

Each player on the Packers received a $15,000 bonus for winning the game, while members of the Chiefs earned $7,500. A one-minute television commercial sold for $75,000 to $85,000; pocket change compared to the millions spent on air time now. The national anthem was played by the marching bands of the universities of Arizona and Michigan.