Honestly, if you took a time machine back to January 15, 1967, and asked a random person in Los Angeles where the "Super Bowl" was, they might’ve just stared at you.
The term wasn't even official yet. Back then, it was clunkily titled the AFL-NFL World Championship Game. It sounds more like a corporate merger meeting than the biggest spectacle in American culture. And in many ways, that's exactly what it was.
People think the first game was this instant, glittering success that shut down the country. It wasn't. There were empty seats. Thousands of them. Imagine the Super Bowl today having 30,000 empty chairs at the 50-yard line. You can't. But in 1967, at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, it was just... a game. A game between the "snobby" established NFL and the "upstart" AFL that many experts thought didn't even belong on the same field.
Why the First NFL Super Bowl Almost Didn't Feel Like One
The atmosphere was bizarrely tense. You've got the Green Bay Packers, led by the legendary Vince Lombardi, representing the old-guard NFL. Then you had the Kansas City Chiefs, coached by Hank Stram, representing the American Football League.
Lombardi was under an unbelievable amount of pressure. He wasn't just playing for a trophy; he was playing for the reputation of the entire NFL. He famously told his players that they weren't just representing Green Bay—they were representing the "superior" league. If they lost to the "AFL junk," it would be a national embarrassment.
The Ticket Price Shock
Get this: tickets for the first game topped out at $12. Even adjusted for inflation, that’s about $110 in 2026 money. Today, you can barely get a stadium hot dog and a beer for that, let alone a seat at the Super Bowl where "nosebleeds" go for five figures. Despite the low price, the game didn't sell out. It remains the only Super Bowl in history that wasn't a total sellout.
The Battle of Two Networks
Here is a weird fact: it’s the only time two different networks broadcast the same Super Bowl. CBS held the rights to the NFL, and NBC held the rights to the AFL. Because both leagues were still technically separate entities during the transition toward a full merger, both networks got to air the game.
- CBS used their own cameras and announcers.
- NBC did the same.
- They even used different footballs! The Packers used the "The Duke" by Wilson (NFL standard), and the Chiefs used a slightly narrower Spalding ball (AFL standard).
It was a total mess of logistics. At the start of the second half, the kickoff actually had to be redone because NBC was still in a commercial break. The refs literally blew the whistle and told the players to do it over. Can you imagine that happening today? The internet would melt.
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What Happened on the Field (The Actual Game)
For the first half, it was actually a dogfight. The Chiefs weren't the pushovers everyone expected. At halftime, the score was only 14-10 in favor of the Packers.
The turning point came in the third quarter. Willie Wood, a Packers safety, intercepted a pass from Chiefs quarterback Len Dawson and ran it back 50 yards to the Kansas City 5-yard line. That one play basically broke the Chiefs' spirit. Green Bay went on a tear, scoring three touchdowns in the second half.
The final score was 35-10.
The MVP Nobody Expected
Quarterback Bart Starr took home the MVP honors, but the real story was Max McGee. McGee was a backup receiver who didn't expect to play. Legend has it he spent the night before the game out on the town and was nursing a world-class hangover. When starter Boyd Dowler went down with a shoulder injury on the second series, McGee had to check in. He didn't even have his helmet! He had to borrow one from a teammate. He ended up catching seven passes for 138 yards and two touchdowns.
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The "Lost" Tapes Mystery
One of the most frustrating things for sports historians is that for decades, there was no full recording of the game broadcast. Because videotape was expensive, both CBS and NBC did something unthinkable by today's standards: they wiped the tapes. They recorded over them for soap operas and game shows.
For years, only bits and pieces existed. It wasn't until a man named Troy Haupt found a recording his father had made in the 60s that a nearly complete version of the CBS broadcast surfaced. Even then, the legal battles between the NFL and the tape owner kept it out of the public eye for a long time.
The Legacy of a "Boring" Blowout
While the score wasn't close, the impact was massive. It proved that the AFL could at least compete for a half, and it set the stage for the Jets' huge upset in Super Bowl III, which finally proved the two leagues were equal.
Vince Lombardi, ever the perfectionist, was still salty after the win. He told reporters afterward that the Chiefs were a good team, but they didn't compare to the teams in the "NFL." He was a company man to the end.
Actionable Insights for Football History Buffs
If you want to truly appreciate how far the game has come since that January afternoon in 1967, you should do a few things:
- Check out the Los Angeles Coliseum: It’s one of the few stadiums from that era still standing and hosting major events. Standing in those tunnels gives you a sense of the scale that was actually quite massive for the time.
- Watch "The Lost Game" on NFL Network: They eventually reconstructed the game using NFL Films footage. It doesn't have the original broadcast commercials, but it shows every single play in color.
- Look at the rosters: Notice how many Hall of Famers were on the field at once. We're talking about names like Ray Nitschke, Herb Adderley, Buck Buchanan, and Bobby Bell.
The first Super Bowl wasn't the polished, multi-billion dollar "Ad-Fest" we see now. It was a gritty, slightly disorganized, and incredibly tense experiment. It was two leagues trying to figure out if they could coexist. Without that $12 ticket and a hungover receiver making the catches of his life, the NFL wouldn't be the titan it is today.
To get the most out of your Super Bowl history knowledge, compare the stats of Bart Starr in 1967 to a modern quarterback. You’ll see just how much the "passing game" has evolved from a secondary tactic to the primary engine of the sport.