The first "Super Bowl" aired on both CBS and NBC January 16th, 1967, this week in Television History.
The National Football League had been in business since the 1920's and had been on television since the 1950's. The American Football League, established in 1960 and generally considered to be the lesser of the two in talent and television appeal, decided to merge with the NFL in the mid 1960's. Pete Rozelle, commissioner of the NFL, conceived of a championship game that would put the two leagues on a par with each other and thereby establish a broader league with two divisions, the NFC and the AFC. At that time, the teams were contracted to play their games on their respective networks; the Green Bay Packers on CBS and the Kansas City Chiefs on NBC. For that reason, the first "Super Bowl" aired on two networks with CBS winning the ratings battle by a 24 share to NBC's 17 share. The game was advertised as the NFL-AFL World Championship Game. Its more common name came about after a chance remark by the Kansas City Chief's owner Lamar Hunt where he referred to the game as the "Super Bowl". The name caught on after a period of time and by the third year, the game was forever known by that name.
The first two NFL-AFL Championship games were won by the Green Bay Packers, prompting the game trophy to be named in honor of Vince Lombardi, their legendary coach. The double Green Bay win, however, nearly ended the championship series and also threatened the NFL-AFL Merger set to take place that year. The 1969 win by the New York Jets (led by media darling Joe Namath) over the Baltimore Colts demonstrated that the two leagues were competitive and that country would turn out in huge numbers to watch the contest on TV.
Over the years, many traditions have been established from the SuperBowl. The games have been numbered with Roman Numerals since 1969 "The phrase "I'm going to Disney World" began in Super Bowl XXI with Phil Simms and is heard by the winning quarterback most years. The half-time show in later years has turned into a mini rock concert featuring major rock talent such as Tom Petty, Justin Timberlake, Janet Jackson (revealing her breast) and this year Bruce Springsteen to keep the non-football fans watching and to ensure an audience even if the game itself is not a great match-up. Television networks now use the Super Bowl to introduce new series for the Spring, and major advertisers kick off their campaigns with creative spots which are, in effect, competing with their rivals for product sales and prestige.
