The First Super Bowl

The first Super Bowl took place at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, owned by the University of Southern California. It was played on January 15, 1967, as the championship game between the NFL (National Football League) and the upstart AFL (American Football League) and marked the first time that the two leagues had come together to play for a single championship.

The two leagues would merge in 1970 and would codify the "Super Bowl" name, making the previous championship games that would pick a winner of the league only a semifinal match to determine who plays in the Super Bowl.

Image: Los Angeles Coliseum, 1967.

The stadium broke ground on December 21, 1921, opening two years later. Throughout its lifetime, it has been home to the USC Trojans, the NFL’s LA Rams (1946-1979; 2016-2020), LA Chargers (1960, 2018-2020), and LA Raiders (1982-1994), the XFL’s LA Extreme (2001), the MLB’s LA Dodgers (1958-1961), and several other professional sports teams.

The first Super Bowl was a meeting between the NFL Champion Green Bay Packers, and the AFL Champion Kansas City Chiefs, played on 1/15/1967. Tickets were $12. Originally called the “AFL-NFL World Championship Game”, Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt proposed the term “Super Bowl” to market the game similar to NCAA Bowl games. This coining wouldn’t become official until Super Bowl III in 1969.

The first Super Bowl, then known as the AFC-NFC Championship Game. Water Iooss photo, SF Gate.

Unfortunately, the Packers beat the Chiefs 35-10, and even worse, they would win the next Super Bowl as well. 2021 could have seen a rematch between the two clubs who played in the first game, however the Packers would lose to a team headed by a 43 year old, 6th round draft pick. 

In 2024, the Chiefs will once again look to take home the Lombardi Trophy, having last won the game twice in the last four years. In their way is 2022's Mr. Irrelevant, Brock Purdy.

In 1970, the NFL and AFL would merge into the modern NFL, and the two leagues would become the National Football Conference (NFC) and the American Football Conference (AFC), respectively.

Thanks as always for reading!

Location: 3911 Figueroa St, Los Angeles, CA 90037, USA

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Underwater Water Slide: Fly Over at Durinrell TikiBad

Image
Have you ever wished to experience being transferred from one pool of liquid to another via a pipe? Had you visited the Dutch water park known as Durinrell , also known as Tikibad before 2010, you would have had the chance. Half water slide, half war crime, this was a unique water slide that was filled to the brim with water, leaving riders completely submerged throughout the journey. Image:  XtremeRidesNL Known as the Fly Over was an underwater water slide, which is exactly how it sounds, and transported riders from one pool to another using the water as propulsion. Built in 1994, riders dove underwater to access the slide, using gravity to transport them upwards via the Communicating Vessels Principle . Riders would be completely underwater for about 15-20 seconds. This is how I imagine those 15-20 seconds felt like while riding the slide. The slide was built to drain water in five seconds or less in case a rider got stuck in the slide or had a medical emergency, but the threat tha
Read more

Railroad Vocabulary: A List of Words and Phrases Used in the Industry - Updated February 2024

Image
As somebody who enjoyed watching trains, but was not an employee of the railroad industry ( at least growing up ), when I would interact with railfans and historians, there was often a lot of technical jargon that applied only to the railroad industry thrown back and forth that made it difficult for a newcomer to understand what they were talking about. For example, what is a dinky? It's actually a passenger train. This non-inclusive language seems to keep the loop closed to members of the community, and to uncouple (no pun intended) that technical jargon and help make it easier for people to communicate with people in the industry, I am creating a list of railroad vocabulary that I'm hoping will make the industry more transparent.  BNSF 2361 . Image: Matt Flores While I ultimately believe that such technical jargon has no place outside of perhaps technical communications between employees, I know quite well that I alone am not going to stop people from communicating in a non-i
Read more

The Abandoned Route 66 in McCook, IL

Image
Route 66, the iconic "Main Street of America," weaves through the heart of the United States, connecting communities and embodying the spirit of adventure. However, not all sections of this historic highway have stood the test of time. While much of the former US 66 is drivable in one way or another, especially in Illinois, there are some parts are not.  One of the first such roadblocks for would-be travelers heading from Chicago to Los Angeles via the Mother Road, now known as Joliet Road, comes just outside of Chicago in McCook, IL, where the former highway is closed between 55th St and East Ave, and has been for over two decades. (Link to the location on our Ghost Towns Map ) Image: Google Maps at 55th and Joliet Rd in McCook, IL The land that the quarry would eventually take over was part of Stinson Airport in the early days of Route 66, dating back to before 1930. ( Abandoned Airports map ). 1938 USGS Aerial Imagery The quarrying on the south side of the road would
Read more