Super Bowl I — 1966 Season

Result

Super Bowl MVP

Bart Starr, QB, Green Bay Packers

Starting lineups

Starting offense

Starting defense

Note: Backup Max McGee replaced an early-injured Boyd Dowler (the actual starter at flanker) and became the game's leading receiver (7 catches, 138 yards, 2 TDs) - Dowler is listed above as the starter per the lineup, with McGee's production recorded separately as a genuine starter/production mismatch, not a data error.

Box score

Passing

Rushing

Receiving

Game context

The first-ever AFL-NFL World Championship Game (retroactively branded Super Bowl I) matched the established NFL's Green Bay Packers, winners of four titles under Vince Lombardi, against the upstart AFL champion Kansas City Chiefs, in front of a Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum crowd of only 61,946 -- roughly a third of the 94,000-seat venue left empty, since the game was not yet the cultural monolith it would become. The contest was carried simultaneously by both CBS and NBC, the only Super Bowl ever double-broadcast, reflecting each league's separate television contracts. Green Bay opened the scoring on a 37-yard touchdown pass from Bart Starr to backup receiver Max McGee, who had caught only four passes all regular season but hauled in seven for 138 yards and two scores in relief of an injured Boyd Dowler. Kansas City answered to make it 7-7, and the Packers led only 14-10 at halftime after a Jim Taylor touchdown run set up by four consecutive third-down conversions from Starr. The game turned in the third quarter when Green Bay safety Willie Wood intercepted a Len Dawson pass and returned it 50 yards to the Chiefs' 5-yard line, setting up an Elijah Pitts touchdown run. From there Green Bay's defense clamped down entirely, holding Kansas City to just 12 total yards in the third quarter and shutting the Chiefs out over the final 30 minutes while the Packers piled on 21 unanswered second-half points for a 35-10 final. Starr, who completed 16 of 23 passes for 250 yards, two touchdowns and one interception, was named the game's MVP -- an honor that, along with a Chevrolet Corvette, would go on to become the signature individual prize of professional football's biggest stage. Dawson, by contrast, was limited to 5-of-12 passing for 59 yards after the break as Kansas City's offense stalled against Green Bay's superior talent and playoff experience. Beyond the final score, the game carried enormous stakes for professional football's credibility. Most sportswriters expected an NFL blowout and treated the game as a referendum on whether the seven-year-old AFL belonged on the same field as the far more established NFL; Lombardi himself, according to broadcaster Frank Gifford, was visibly nervous beforehand, gripping Gifford's arm and "shaking like a leaf" under the pressure of upholding the older league's reputation. Chiefs cornerback Fred Williamson had boasted before the game about his "hammer" forearm tackle that would punish Green Bay's receivers; he instead was knocked unconscious with a broken arm during the contest, a detail that became emblematic of how thoroughly Kansas City was outclassed. Green Bay's win reinforced, at least for one more year, the perception of NFL superiority -- a narrative Kansas City's AFL counterparts would begin to overturn within a few seasons. Winning players each received $15,000, losing players $7,500, modest sums by the standards of what the game would soon become.

Sources

• Wikipedia: Super Bowl I
• Pro-Football-Reference: Super Bowl Game Summaries