The Daily News' Stan Hochman at Super Bowl I - Introduction
Super Bowl 50 will be Sunday in San Francisco. The late Daily News columnist Stan Hochman covered the first Super Bowl in 1967. Hochman's stories in the days before the game and the morning after are on philly.com.
The NFL is celebrating its 50th Super Bowl on Sunday, with the Carolina Panthers playing the Denver Broncos. The late Philadelphia Daily News sportswriter Stan Hochman covered the first Super Bowl, which was played Jan. 15, 1967 at the Los Angeles Coliseum. Links to Hochman's stories appear below.
Coached by Vince Lombardi, for whom the Super Bowl trophy was later named, the Green Bay Packers defeated the Kansas City Chiefs, 35-10, in the 1967 game.
That game was the first title contest between the champions of the rival leagues, the National Football League and the American Football League. Only months earlier, the two leagues announced they would merge, though it would take until 1970 to integrate their schedules and operations. At the time of the merger announcement, Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt had kiddingly suggested calling the game the Super Bowl, but was sure a better name could be found. None was. A link to the Chiefs' media guide page on this topic is here.
Hochman's stories from the days before the game and the morning after give today's readers a vivid picture of how some things have changed enormously in the NFL and others remain very much the same.
The coaches were still publicly cautious, heaping praise on their opponent. But the interest hardly compared to the spectacle it has become. Tickets cost $6, $10 and $12, and there were thousands of empty seats.
Both NBC and CBS broadcasted the game, with CBS charging a higher rate for commercials - $8,500 a minute. Advertising Age reported Thursday that CBS will get between $4.5 million and $5 million for a 30-second commercial for Sunday's game.
The first game was such a hit that both NBC and CBS erased or lost the tapes, though NFL Films was able to piece together footage of the 145 plays to create a 90-minute documentary that first aired on the NFL Network on Jan. 15. And, no, the NFL did not have a network in 1967.
Hochman passed away April 9, 2015, at the age of 86. A link to his obituary is here.
As part of his BoopStats blog, Bob Vetrone Jr. of the Daily News pulled together Hochman's stories, added rosters, statistics and a post-game agate summary. If you prefer to read the whole package in PDF form, a link is here.
Links to Hochman's advance columns, stories are below:
Links to Hochman's game column, stories are below:
A photo gallery can be found near the top left of this web page or via link here.
