The First Super Bowl
March 1, 2016
It was the beginning of a new sport, and a time for new opportunities and successes. This was the beginning of American football. Professional football began in 1892, when William Heffelfinger signed a contract of $500 to play in one game. It took another 28 years for the American Professional Football Association to fully nationalize their new sport. The first official Super Bowl did not occur until 1967.
In football, each team would play sixteen regular season games and then participate in a playoff. If that team won the playoffs, they would make it to the final game: the Super Bowl. The Super Bowl consisted of the winner between the American Football Conference and the National Football Conference.
The first Super Bowl took place on January 15, 1967 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The final two teams that made it were the Green Bay Packers and the Kansas City Chiefs. The Packers were coached by future Hall of Famer Vince Lombardi. He coached Green Bay from 1959–1967. The Chiefs were coached by another future Hall of Famer, Hank Stram. He coached Kansas City from 1960–1974.
The game began with a touchdown pass from Bart Starr to Max McGee to put Green Bay in the lead, 7-0. No one else scored in the first quarter.
The next quarter was more interesting. Curtis McClinton received a pass from Len Dawson to score a touchdown for the Chiefs. After that, Jim Taylor, the Packers’ fullback, ran a fourteen yard touchdown to gain the lead again. The last scoring play was a field goal by the Chiefs. The half ended with Green Bay up, 14-10.
In the beginning of the second half, running back Pitts scored a rush touchdown. Later in that quarter, Bart Starr threw another touchdown to Max McGee.
The final quarter started with a score of 28-10, the Packers in the lead. The only score that happened that quarter occurred when Green Bay extended their lead by getting another rushing touchdown from Pitts.
The game ended 35-10 and the Packers went on to be Super Bowl I winners. Green Bay had the MVP, Bart Starr, who ended up in the Hall of Fame. Bart Starr said, “If you work harder than somebody else, chances are you’ll beat him [even] though he has more talent than you.”