Lombardi would have rather have been at home in Wisconsin
Vince Lombardi wanted absolutely nothing to do with the first American Football League-National Football League World’s Championship Game. It is very ironic since the league’s championship trophy is named after him. Lombardi thought the NFL title game was the be-all, end-all NFL event. He would have rather been in Wisconsin in the middle of January, 1967 but he had a football game to coach.
Back in 1967, it was just called the “World Championship Game, AFL vs. NFL.” The game was held in the 94,000 seat Los Angeles Coliseum. The ticket prices were $12, $10 and $6 (about $116, $97 and $58 today). There were 33,000 empty seats. It was the last time a Super Bowl or the World Championship Game was not a sellout.
The first game was played on January 15th, 1967 just 26 days after the final approval of the merger between the National Football League and the American Football League. CBS and NBC televised it using the same television feed but with different announcers. The networks charged $42,000 (about $408,000 today) for a 30 second commercial. The two leagues had to put together a game in a hurry.
The two networks paid $9.5 million ($92 million today) to televise the game.
The leagues couldn’t even agree on which ball to use, so they compromised. When Green Bay was on offense, they used the Wilson “Duke” football. When Kansas City had the ball, they used the AFL sanctioned Spalding J5-V.
In 1967, the American Football League and the Kansas City Chiefs were considered to be part of a “Mickey Mouse league” by Lombardi and the NFL. Lombardi was among those thinkers who felt that “Mickey Mouse” was a putdown.
Mickey Mouse launched the Disney empire and the trademark is worth billions globally. There is some irony in that the Walt Disney Company’s ABC- TV division had the rights to broadcast the Super Bowl along with NBC, FOX and CBS under one of the past NFL-network television agreements.
Adding injury to insult, Lombardi and his Packers team practiced in Southern California before the 1967 championship game not far from Disneyland because the NFL felt that was the best way to sell tickets to the contest The AFL was the Mickey Mouse league and not worthy of being on the same field as the NFL..
“He got a lot of pressure put on him by the other owners of the National Football League. That was a bitter relationship with the AFL and NFL,” Jerry Kramer, one of the 1967 Lombardi’s Packers offensive linemen recalled in the 1980s. “I’m not sure there still aren’t still some rivalries in that situation.
“Lombardi got calls from virtually everyone in the NFL saying we were representing the NFL and the pride of the NFL and we couldn’t be beaten.”
Lombardi even had to deal with CBS Television Network Chairman and founder and NFL partner. Lombardi was playing for the pride of CBS including Walter Cronkite, Ed Sullivan, Lucy and Red Skelton.
“I was talking to Frank Gifford years ago and he mentioned that he announced that first Super Bowl,” Kramer continued. “Gifford said he was fairly cool, fairly calm and relaxed and we went over to put his arm on Vince’s shoulder and Lombardi was shaking like a leaf.
“Gifford said that really made me nervous.”
Gifford, of course, was the CBS announcer who played under Lombardi when Lombardi was the New York Giants offensive coach (in 2026 parlance, an offensive coordinator) in the 1950s and represented the NFL. Gifford was Lombardi favorite player.
Neither CBS nor NBC bothered to keep a video of the game. Green Bay won the matchup and Lombardi was able to exhale. He did what was necessary.
Lombardi’s teams won the 1967 and 1968 contests but Lombardi didn’t get to touch the Vince Lombardi Trophy given to the Super Bowl winner. The Super Bowl became the Super Bowl in 1969 and the championship trophy was named for Lombardi following his death in 1970.
In the decades following his Lombardi’s passing, the Super Bowl became a uniquely American quasi-celebration/holiday. The Fourth of July is America’s Birthday Party but the Super Bowl is American’s excuse for a party. Supermarkets have Super sales for countless Super parties, but it wasn’t always like this.
Today there is still that one TV feed, but the game is internationally televised. Cities bid for Super Bowls years in advance. Networks put up big money for regular season games so they could get the Super Bowl once every three years.
It’s no longer NFL vs. AFL, NFL advertisers vs. AFL advertisers. CBS vs. NBC.
There were no parties, no weeklong football orgies. In fact, it wasn’t until January 1973 when Super Bowl parties took on a different life. The Commissioner’s Party was held on the Queen Mary in Long Beach, California. In 1967, no one could imagine how big the Super Bowl would become and that included Lombardi who would have rather have been relaxing in Wisconsin then coaching a game.
An excerpt from the ebook: America’s Passion: How a Coal Miner’s Game Became the NFL in the 20th Century
Evan Weiner’s books are available at iTunes – https://books.apple.com/us/author/evan-weiner/id595575191
Evan can be reached at evan_weiner@hotmail.com
Vince Lombardi
