Thursday, January 15, 2009

Super Bowl I

Forty-two years ago, on this date, January 15, 1967, the first Super Bowl was played in Los Angeles. And I was there.

It wasn’t known as the “Super Bowl” that year, or for a few years after that. Instead, it was called the “AFL-NFL World Championship Game” and featured the NFL champion Green Bay Packers and the AFL champion Kansas City Chiefs. The Packers won 35-10.

We sat in the end-zone bleacher seats and paid a hefty $25 for the privilege. What I remember most about the game was that it was a smoggy day in Los Angeles (is that an oxymoron?) and when the teams got to the other end of the field, you could hardly see what was going on because of the gray haze.

Thankfully (for us, but not for the NFL), attendance wasn’t overwhelming. There were only 64,946 fans in the stands, far below the Memorial Coliseum’s capacity of 100,000. As a result, they let us bleacherites move into seats on the 10-yard line. I’m sure that was for the benefit of the TV cameras.


(Vince Lombardi accepting the championship trophy from NFL commissioner Pete Roselle)

3 comments:

R. said...

That is so cool! I'd like to go to a Super Bowl one day but with the expense and hassle, I'm not sure it'll happen.

casch said...

What a wonderful memory! Lucky you!

Montee said...

You were privileged to see that game! Vince Lombardy was a something else!