NFL Countdown: Packers steamroll Chiefs to claim first ever Super Bowl win in '66
The Green Bay Packers were the most decorated football team of the 1960s. They secured three World Championships over a five-year period prior to the NFL merging with the upstart AFL.
Nineteen-sixty-six would witness the introduction of the first-ever Super Bowl game between the champions of each conference, though the game would technically not be referred to as the Super Bowl until 1968, when Namath's New York Jets shocked the Baltimore Colts.
The Packers were the overwhelming favorites heading into the inaugural season. They had won the NFL title the previous year. Many viewed them as football royalty because of their previous achievements under the guidance of legendary coach Vince Lombardi.
: #NFL100 Greatest Teams on @NFLNetworkNo. 13: 1966 @packers, @SuperBowl I Champions #GoPackGo
📺: #NFL100 Greatest Teams on @NFLNetwork https://t.co/cFDf0t48iW
Lombardi not only commanded total respect from his players, but he was also regarded as one of the highest profile public figures in the country. Speaking prior to the 1966 season, Packers quarterback Bart Starr had this to say:
"I am sure I speak for every player in our club and every person that has been in our club through the years and was exposed to Coach Lombardi when I tell you that we are better people for having been exposed to him."
The Green Bay Packers 1966 season
As expected from a team that featured ten future Hall of Famers, Green Bay finished the regular season with a 12-2 record, the best in the NFL, securing them an NFL Championship game against the Dallas Cowboys.
Heading into the Cowboys game, the Packers offense deliberately switched up their play calling to confuse a Dallas defense that was well-known for studying play calling signals.
Lombardi disregarded many of his favorite plays during the game to keep the Cowboys second-guessing. The plan initially seemed to be working, as Green Bay jumped out to a 14-0 lead barely six minutes in.
It was a lead Green Bay would hold until the final five minutes of the game, thanks to a 300-yard, four-touchdown performance from quarterback Bart Starr. At 34-20, late in the fourth, the result seemed secure, before a dramatic late rally from Dallas.
With 45 seconds remaining, the score was 34-27, and the Cowboys had first and goal on the Packers' two-yard line. Dallas' head coach Tom Landry provided Pete Carroll with some future inspiration by calling a pass play, only to see it intercepted in the end zone by safety Tom Brown.
Green Bay advanced to face the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFL-NFL World Championship Game, later known as Super Bowl I, to be held at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Despite taking a 12-2-1 record into the game, the Chiefs were thirteen-point underdogs, and the pressure was on the Packers to deliver victory for the NFL.
S/o to my dad for pointing out that the Chiefs, in 1966, beat the Bills in the AFL title game, before losing to the Packers in Super Bowl I. S/o to me for pointing out the Bucs didn't exist then.
And while I'm tweeting irrelevant things, the '66 QBs: Dawson, Kemp, Starr. https://t.co/v3GZy4Q15V
Lombardi made it abudantly clear that defeat was not an option for his team and that the honor of the NFL was resting on their shoulders. Lombardi's efforts to inspire his team appeared to have backfired as Green Bay came under early pressure from the Chiefs.
As the game reached half-time, the result was still very much up in the air, as the Packers led by just one score, at 14-10.
The second half, however, would be a different story. Sparked by some fierce defense, the Chiefs would fail to register another score, and the rampant Packers ran out 35-10 winners and claimed victory for the NFL.
Salute to Bart Starr ⭐️
The Packers legend passed away at 85.
• 5 time NFL Champion
• Winner of the first 2 Super Bowls
• 1966 MVP
Green Bay Packers #15.
Retired Forever, Remembered Forever. https://t.co/OwTpg4wctF
Bart Starr would be the first-ever Super Bowl MVP for 250 yards with two touchdowns and one interception. Unfortunately, replacement wide receiver Max McGee was not lucky enough to walk away with the MVP award, after his game-changing seven receptions for 138 yards and two touchdowns.
Lombardi would tragically die in 1970, at just 57, after he was diagnosed with an aggressive form of colon cancer. President Nixon would call Lombardi to inform him that the whole of America was behind him days before his death. For his achievements, both on and off the field, the Super Bowl trophy was renamed in his honor.