By Charles Jay

FANS JUST WEREN’T BUYING

Tickets for the first Super Bowl went for $12, $10, and $6 - “Broadway prices” according to Bill Becker of The New York Times. And Rozelle was intent on making local fans pay those prices, blacking out the game in the Los Angeles area, an action that was upheld by a Federal judge when challenged, but which left a bad taste in the mouths of a lot of fans.

Nonetheless, NFL officials expected a sellout - due in part to the presence of ex-USC Heisman Trophy winner Mike Garrett, a local favorite, in the Kansas City lineup.

But sales were not swift, and as the days wound down, it became readily apparent that the game would not sell out. Rozelle was finally moved to admit, “If we had to do it all over again, we probably would scale the tickets lower.” The stadium’s awkward layout was also partially to blame. “I just feel sorry for the people in the $6 seats,” said Chiefs’ owner Lamar Hunt. “Those seats are so far away that they might even be outside the blackout area.”

L.A. fans scrambled, not for tickets, but for ways to beat the blackout. Some made hotel reservations closer to San Diego, which was out of blackout range, and had Super Bowl parties. Some sought out special antennas, so they could pick up the San Diego TV stations. One radio stations actually gave away instructions for building a homemade antenna designed to pick up the signal, and got 22,000 requests. A man in Texas offered similar instructions, and sold thousands of them at $2 a pop out of his Dallas post office box.
NO ACTION IN VEGAS?

Betting action was also slow. According to a January 14 wire story, “Reports from legal bookmaking establishments in Las Vegas have revealed that the Super Bowl contest here (L.A.) tomorrow has not been an especially attractive betting proposition. Professional gamblers who bet heavily with the Las Vegas books apparently have too little information on the Green Bay Packers and the Kansas City Chiefs. The contest is described as an attractive one for head-to-head bets between friends for small sums. This does not interest bookmakers.”
GEARING UP FOR THE GAME

Packer coach Vince Lombardi was being as polite as possible in addressing the AFL’s brand of football: “I don’t think there is too much difference between the top teams in the two leagues. If there is any difference, I think it’s with the lower teams.”

The bulletin board material for this game was provided by Kansas City cornerback Fred “The Hammer” Williamson, who took a few shots at some of the Green Bay players, namely Jim Taylor - “I don’t think Taylor is so hot. Jim Nance of Boston runs harder.” He also compared Boyd Dowler and Carroll Dale of the Packers to middle-of-the-road AFL receivers Art Graham and Glenn Bass.

Meanwhile, both CBS and NBC took out full-page ads in newspapers. Both made prominent mention that the telecast was “in color” and both were going to carry the same half-hour pre-game show. CBS’ Saturday ad contained the headline “Tomorrow is Super Sunday on CBS”, certainly one of the first instances that particular term was used. It promoted a Harlem Globetrotter special as a lead-in to its Super Bowl coverage, which was to include announcers Ray Scott, Jack Whitaker, Frank Gifford, and Pat Summerall. NBC countered by promoting its announcing team of Curt Gowdy and Paul Christman, extolling their virtues as “a team whose ability to analyze and interpret such action is unrivaled in football broadcasting”. The ad also included plugs from various writers, including the famed Shirley Povich of the Washington Post, who was quoted, “Solid favorite to win this one (Super Bowl) is NBC’s Paul Christman-Curt Gowdy duo”.

“SOLID FAVORITE TO WIN THIS ONE.” I mean, this was a COMPETITIVE atmosphere. According to one CBS executive, “The money is great, but we’re concerned with pride, not money. We don’t take them (NBC) lightly. But remember this - we didn’t come here to lose.” Sounds like a football coach.
THEY PLAY THE GAME

What happened during the game is well-known - Green Bay, which closed as a 14-point favorite, was held to a 14-10 halftime lead, then exploded for 21 unanswered second-half points to win 35-10. Max McGee proved an unlikely hero by puling in two touchdown passes. Bart Starr was 15 for 23 and won the game’s MVP. Fred Williamson was knocked cold by the knee of Green Bay running back Donny Anderson on an end sweep and had to leave the game, much to the glee of the Packer players.

After the game, Lombardi couldn’t hold back his opinion any more. “Kansas City is a good football team. But their team doesn’t compare with the top NFL teams. Dallas is a better football team.” That quote must have been music to the ears of Cowboy fans who had lost their AFL franchise to Kansas City just a few years earlier.
THE EPILOGUE

In the end, the first Super Bowl game drew an attendance of 63,036 fans, meaning there were about 30,000 empty seats at the L.A. Coliseum. The gate was in the range of $775,000.

In all, 1049 press credentials were issued, a record for a football game - with 780 of those passes going to actual working media.

The Packers took home the impressive winner’s share of $15,000 per man, while the Chiefs settled for the not-too-shabby runner-up share of $7500 per man. These figures were considerable by 1967 standards, and had been promoted heavily in the pre-game buildup.

In the end, CBS won the war between the networks, though it did carry a larger core audience into the game due to its association with the NFL. CBS drew a 24.8 rating, and sold its 18 minutes of advertising at a rate of $85,000 a minute, representing an increase of 21% over its rate for regular season games. NBC drew a 17.4 rating, and sold its 18 minutes for $70,000 per minute, which was double their regular season rate. With expenses taken into account, the game was a loss leader for the two networks, but well worth it, considering what was to come in the future.

Several venues bid for the second Super Bowl game, including Los Angeles, Houston, and New Orleans, but on May 25 the NFL designated the game for Miami’s Orange Bowl. CBS, by virtue of the pre-arranged agreement, had exclusive rights to the telecast, for which they coughed up $2.5 million.

A harbinger of criticisms to come - one New York columnist, on the day after the game, commented that “the afternoon did carry one immense blessing. With the game finally over, there will be no more of those Super Bowl commercials. The campaign of ballyhoo and promotional material was woefully overdone.”
As it turns out, he didn’t know the half of it.