Summer of '68: The Season That Changed Baseball--And America--Forever by Tim Wendel
Authors: Tim Wendel
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sure showed. NFL and AFL owners mixed about as well as oil and water at a pregame cocktail party, with their wives on a verge of a catfight.
When Kansas City Chiefs’ owner Lamar Hunt called the event the Super Bowl (after a popular toy at the time) instead of its official name, the AFL-NFL World Championship Game, the nickname stuck. When CBS, which carried the NFL games, and NBC, which had the AFL contests, each claimed first dibs to the inaugural Super Bowl, Rozelle let both of them broadcast it. Back then a sixty-second commercial for Super Bowl I cost $85,000. (Four decades later, that price tag would balloon to $2.5 million for thirty seconds of airtime.)
Super Bowl I proved to be competitive for almost two quarters. After halftime, Vince Lombardi’s Packers took control and trounced the Kansas City Chiefs, 35–10. No network footage of Super Bowl I exists today. Legend has it that the game, at the network level, was taped over for a soap opera. During that era tape units were as big as refrigerators, and one of the few who owned such a rig was Playboy ’s Hugh Hefner. But even though Hefner said he’s been “hooked on football” since his college days at the University of Illinois, he didn’t bother to tape the early Super Bowls.
The outcome of Super Bowl II, held early in 1968, was remarkably similar—once again demonstrating that Green Bay was the best team in the land. This time the contest was played at Miami’s Orange Bowl, and the Packers opened up an early 13–0 lead. Their AFL opponent, the Oakland Raiders, did trim the lead to 13–7. But in the second half Green Bay took a 26–7 lead and cornerback Herb Adderley sealed the victory with a sixty-yard interception return.
The game drew the first $3 million gate in football history and marked the last time Lombardi would coach the Packers. During his nine-year reign in Green Bay, the legendary coach won six division championships, five NFL championships, and two Super Bowls. Despite the record gate, however, serious questions remained about the Super Bowl’s long-term success in 1968. Sports commentator Haywood Hale Broun dubbed the event “too predictable to be memorable.” Especially when most experts and even fans considered the AFL inferior to the more established NFL.
Through it all, Rozelle was determined to turn his championship into the world’s biggest sports event. “He consciously positioned it as bigger, grander, more concentrated event than baseball’s World Series,” says Michael MacCambridge, author of America’s Game: The Epic Story of How Pro Football Captured a Nation .
But to do so, Rozelle knew he needed a few breaks to come his way. Most notably he needed the AFL teams to show a lot more spunk, to be more competitive in the Super Bowl itself. After Lombardi’s teams handily defeated the AFL teams in the first two championships, serious discussion began about employing tournament bracketing and play-in games. This could result in two teams from the older league, the NFL, playing in the Super Bowl. Early in 1968, many wondered if the AFL, despite its high-powered offenses led by such quarterbacks as the Oakland Raiders’ Daryle Lamonica and the New York Jets’ Joe Namath could compete against the more established league.
In the spring of ’68, the St. Louis Cardinals were favored to repeat as National League champions and return to the World Series. Over in the junior circuit, the Detroit Tigers were determined not to be caught short again in the bullpen as they invited twenty-five pitchers to camp. As the weeks went by and that total was whittled down to the ten-man pitching staff expected to travel north for the regular season, rookie Jon Warden noticed that manager Mayo Smith often informed the next player to be released or sent down to the minors during batting practice. The Tigers’ skipper walked around the outfield, a fungo bat in hand. Acting nonchalant, Smith would sidle up alongside the next poor
When Kansas City Chiefs’ owner Lamar Hunt called the event the Super Bowl (after a popular toy at the time) instead of its official name, the AFL-NFL World Championship Game, the nickname stuck. When CBS, which carried the NFL games, and NBC, which had the AFL contests, each claimed first dibs to the inaugural Super Bowl, Rozelle let both of them broadcast it. Back then a sixty-second commercial for Super Bowl I cost $85,000. (Four decades later, that price tag would balloon to $2.5 million for thirty seconds of airtime.)
Super Bowl I proved to be competitive for almost two quarters. After halftime, Vince Lombardi’s Packers took control and trounced the Kansas City Chiefs, 35–10. No network footage of Super Bowl I exists today. Legend has it that the game, at the network level, was taped over for a soap opera. During that era tape units were as big as refrigerators, and one of the few who owned such a rig was Playboy ’s Hugh Hefner. But even though Hefner said he’s been “hooked on football” since his college days at the University of Illinois, he didn’t bother to tape the early Super Bowls.
The outcome of Super Bowl II, held early in 1968, was remarkably similar—once again demonstrating that Green Bay was the best team in the land. This time the contest was played at Miami’s Orange Bowl, and the Packers opened up an early 13–0 lead. Their AFL opponent, the Oakland Raiders, did trim the lead to 13–7. But in the second half Green Bay took a 26–7 lead and cornerback Herb Adderley sealed the victory with a sixty-yard interception return.
The game drew the first $3 million gate in football history and marked the last time Lombardi would coach the Packers. During his nine-year reign in Green Bay, the legendary coach won six division championships, five NFL championships, and two Super Bowls. Despite the record gate, however, serious questions remained about the Super Bowl’s long-term success in 1968. Sports commentator Haywood Hale Broun dubbed the event “too predictable to be memorable.” Especially when most experts and even fans considered the AFL inferior to the more established NFL.
Through it all, Rozelle was determined to turn his championship into the world’s biggest sports event. “He consciously positioned it as bigger, grander, more concentrated event than baseball’s World Series,” says Michael MacCambridge, author of America’s Game: The Epic Story of How Pro Football Captured a Nation .
But to do so, Rozelle knew he needed a few breaks to come his way. Most notably he needed the AFL teams to show a lot more spunk, to be more competitive in the Super Bowl itself. After Lombardi’s teams handily defeated the AFL teams in the first two championships, serious discussion began about employing tournament bracketing and play-in games. This could result in two teams from the older league, the NFL, playing in the Super Bowl. Early in 1968, many wondered if the AFL, despite its high-powered offenses led by such quarterbacks as the Oakland Raiders’ Daryle Lamonica and the New York Jets’ Joe Namath could compete against the more established league.
In the spring of ’68, the St. Louis Cardinals were favored to repeat as National League champions and return to the World Series. Over in the junior circuit, the Detroit Tigers were determined not to be caught short again in the bullpen as they invited twenty-five pitchers to camp. As the weeks went by and that total was whittled down to the ten-man pitching staff expected to travel north for the regular season, rookie Jon Warden noticed that manager Mayo Smith often informed the next player to be released or sent down to the minors during batting practice. The Tigers’ skipper walked around the outfield, a fungo bat in hand. Acting nonchalant, Smith would sidle up alongside the next poor
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