Super Bowl LVIII is Sunday at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. Vegas will host the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers. Teams will once again compete for the championship title and Vince Lombardi trophy.
The Super Bowl has evolved into one of the most televised programs in history. Thousands of fans shell out an excessive amount of money to travel and attend Super Bowl games for a sold-out game each year. Some fans have even attended every Super Bowl game in history thus far.
The multimillion dollar game has been a widely anticipated event for decades. However, this wasn’t always the case.
The very first Super Bowl, Super Bowl I, was originally known as the AFL-NFL World Championship Game, and it occurred in 1967. The crowd was less-than-sold-out and some tickets were sold for a measly $12. Nevertheless, it was the start to a lengthy history of nail-biting games, monumental sporting moments and legendary halftime performances.
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The first Super Bowl was not as crowded as you may think.
The game was not sold out, with over 32,000 of the stadium’s 94,000 seats left empty, according to History.com.
A $12 ticket seems unimaginably low now, where people dish out thousands to catch the championship game, but in the 60s, many complained about the high ticket prices.
There was also not as much excitement for the Super Bowl in its early years as there is today.
The first-ever Super Bowl game was played by the Green Bay Packers, the National Football League champion, and the Kansas City Chiefs, the American Football League champion.
This game was played before the name “Super Bowl” was adopted at the suggestion of Kansas City Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt.
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The Green Bay Packers came out victorious in Super Bowl I against the Kansas City Chiefs, 35-10.
The Packers were led by legendary head coach Vince Lombardi. The Super Bowl trophy was later named after the coach.
The Green Bay Packers also reached Super Bowl II, playing the Oakland Raiders and winning by a score of 33-14.
Super Bowl I was played Jan. 15, 1967, at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
Super Bowl I remains the only Super Bowl broadcast by two different networks. NBC, the official broadcaster of the AFL, and CBS, which broadcast NFL games, both televised the event.
The score was tight at halftime of the first Super Bowl with the Packers holding a 14-10 lead over the Chiefs.
The Chiefs were able to score one touchdown that game, and it came in the second quarter on a pass to Curtis McClinton.
After halftime, Green Bay built its lead and won 35-10.
The quarterback for the Kansas City Chiefs during Super Bowl I was Len Dawson. A legendary photograph of Dawson during halftime of that first Super Bowl shows him smoking a cigarette in the Kansas City Chiefs’ locker room.
Although Dawson lost the first Super Bowl, he did have a Super Bowl win with the Chiefs for Super Bowl IV, when they defeated the Minnesota Vikings 23-7.
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Dawson’s many awards during his time in the NFL included the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1987. Dawson died on Aug. 24, 2022 at the age of 87.
The University of Arizona Marching Band and the Grambling State University Marching Band were among the performers at the Super Bowl Halftime Show. The Anaheim High School Ana-Hi-Steppers Drill Team and flag girls also performed.
Since that first game, the Super Bowl Halftime Show has become an enormous production where many legendary performances have taken place. Past performers have included Madonna, Beyoncé, Bruno Mars, Coldplay, Justin Timberlake, Maroon 5 and Shakira.
