Here are some Super Bowl-related random facts for you.
1. The first Super Bowl matchup was between the Green Bay Packers and the Kansas City Chiefs in January of 1967, at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
2. The “Super Bowl” name was coined by Lamar Hunt Senior, who founded the American Football League (AFL) in 1959. The Super Bowl was created as a result of the merger between the NFL and the rival AFL.
How did he come up with the name “Super Bowl”? In a letter to NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle, Lamar Hunt said, “I have kiddingly called it the ‘Super Bowl,’ which obviously can be improved upon.”
He added that the name was likely in his head because his children had been playing with a bouncy ‘Super Ball’ toy, which was popular then.
Later, Hunt said, “It is a little corny [and] kinda silly, but it looks like we’re stuck with it, I’m not proud of it. But nobody’s come up with anything better.”
3. It wasn’t officially called the Super Bowl until Super Bowl 3 in 1969. Other proposed names included the “World Series of Football,” the “Ultimate Bowl,” and the “Premier Bowl.”
4. “Bowl” did NOT come from the bouncy Super Ball. The term “bowl” refers to the bowl of seats in a stadium . . . and it had been used in college football dating back to 1902. That was for an “East – West” tournament game in Pasadena, which later became the Rose Bowl.
5. The “superstar” Super Bowl halftime show is a lot more modern than you probably realize. The first major “headliner” was New Kids on the Block in 1991 at Super Bowl 25. Two years later, Michael Jackson became the first to turn it into a spectacle.
Before that, it was mostly marching bands with the occasional special guest, including a few celebrities, like Carol Channing singing “When the Saints Go Marching In” in 1970.
(Wikipedia / People / Wikipedia / Wikipedia / Wikipedia)
