The Super Bowl's History

THE SUPER BOWL'S HISTORY The first championship was held in 1967 and began as a way for champions of two leagues of the time, the National Football League (NFL) and the American Football League (AFL), to determine who really was number 1. Super Bowl I took place on January 15, 1967 at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. 62.000 fans watched Vince Lombardi's Green Bay Packers teach the Kansas City Chiefs a lesson about who was boss, with a score of 35 - 10. Million more watched on TV, to the delight of the advertisers. Since that first Super Bowl, it has become the most watched US television broadcast of the year and practically a national holiday. In fact, Super Bowl Sunday is the largest US food consumption day, following Thanksgiving. After the leagues merged in 1970, the Super Bowl became the NFL's championship game, played between the champions of the league's two conferences: the American Football League (AFL) and the National Football League (NFL). Where did the name come from? NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle wanted to call it "The Big One" and AFC founder and Kansas City Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt referred to the proposed championship as the "Super Bowl", after seeing his children playing with a toy called a Super Ball. The name was consistent with postseason college football games, long known as Bowl Game", originating from the Rose Bowl Game, named for the bowl-shaped stadium in which it is played. The name "Super Bowl" struck a chord with the public and became permanent. The game is played on the first Sunday in February. The winning team gets the coveted Vince Lombardi Trophy, whose Green Bay Packers won the first two Super Bowl games. Following his death in 1970, the trophy was named the Vince Lombardy Trophy, and was first awarded as such to Baltimore Colts at Super Bowl V. Mixed sources, Super Bowl XLIII Feb 2, 2009