Super Bowl I

When was the first Super Bowl played? The first ever Super Bowl I, a contest between the AFL and NFL for the World Championship, was played on January 15, 1967 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles, California. The championship team of the NFL was the Green Bay Packers while the AFL championship team was the Kansas City Chiefs. What team won the first Super Bowl? The final score saw the Packets defeat the Chiefs in a 35-10 win. The Super Bowl I game was also the first appearance of the MVP of Super Bowl 1 title, which was awarded to quarterback Bart Starr for an excellent game performance.

The Beginning Of Super Bowl I

Super Bowl I began before the the AFL and NFL were officially merged, as part of the merger agreement to come. For a time the AFL was the NFL's most prominent competitor. A merger seemed to be a good compromise for the benefit of football in general. However, coming into Super Bowl I there was a high level of animosity between the leagues and the pressure was heavy – not only to win, but to trounce the other team to show which league dominated professional football. Sports fans and media writers believed that the NFL (started back in 1920) was superior in talent and business in comparison to the upstart AFL league. Though the Kansas City Chiefs impressed many and actually looked promising to win at half time, the Packers' defense proved to be too strong for the rest of the game and the first Super Bowl win was handed to the NFL and the Green Bay Packers, who won the first Super Bowl.

Television Coverage Of The First Super Bowl

Super Bowl 1 was the only game to be broadcast in the United States by two television networks at the same time. CBS already had the rights to televise all NFL games while NBC had acquired the rights to broadcast games for the competing AFL league. It was only fair to have both networks benefit from the guaranteed ratings the first Superbowl would bring. NBC fumbled a bit, by not returning from halftime in time for the second half of the game. The first kickoff had to be stopped by game officials and redone once NBC coverage returned. NBC also had to broadcast the game using a CBS feed and cameras, meaning they were at the mercy of CBS as far as vantage point goes.

How did Superbowl 1 do? Obviously well or else Super Bowl XLI would never have happened. Anxious to buy Superbowl I on video or DVD? Too bad, because the 1st Superbowl is not available on tape. Though the games were recorded the footage was taped over by both networks. (Now you know why Letterman always calls NBC and CBS executives pinheads) Some small samples still exist of the first Super Bowl played and the clips have been distributed online.

The first Superbowl was not officially called Super Bowl until later. But the 1st Super Bowl certainly made its mark on American history.