Packers 35 Chiefs 10 Super Bowl 1

by Ron Regalado

Title

Packers 35 Chiefs 10 Super Bowl 1

Artist

Ron Regalado

Medium

Digital Art - Digital Art

Description

I thought it would be fun to re-design the first four Super Bowl posters. These early Super Bowls weren't as big as they are now. The first Super Bowl was billed as an AFL vs NFL matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Green Bay Packers. Many people considered it fitting that the Chiefs and the Packers would be the teams to play in the first ever AFL-NFL World Championship Game. Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt had founded the AFL, while Green Bay was widely considered one of the better teams in NFL history (even if they could not claim to be founding members of their own league, as the Packers joined the NFL in 1921, a year after the league's formation). Lombardi was under intense pressure from the entire NFL to make sure the Packers not only won the game, but preferably won big to demonstrate the superiority of the NFL. CBS announcer Frank Gifford, who interviewed Lombardi prior to the game, said Lombardi was so nervous, "he held onto my arm and he was shaking like a leaf. It was incredible." The Chiefs saw this game as an opportunity to show they were good enough to play against any NFL team. One player who was really looking forward to competing in this game was Len Dawson, who had spent three years as a backup in the NFL before joining the Chiefs. However, the Chiefs were also nervous. Linebacker E. J. Holub said, "the Chiefs were scared to death. Guys in the tunnel were throwing up."
In the week prior to the game, Chiefs cornerback Fred "The Hammer" Williamson garnered considerable publicity by boasting he would use his "hammer" – forearm blows to the head – to destroy the Packers' receivers, stating, "Two hammers to (Boyd) Dowler, one to (Carroll) Dale should be enough." His prediction turned out to be partially correct as Dowler was knocked out of the game early in the first quarter (although it was because of an exacerbation of an injury he had previously received during the NFL Championship game in Dallas on January 1). However, Willamson himself was knocked out cold and carried off the field on a stretcher near the end of the game. Because I grew up near the L.A. area, the game was blacked out on TV, so I had to listen to the game on radio. I was a big AFL fan, so I was really pulling for the Chiefs. Three years later, the Chiefs got back into the Super Bowl and defeated the Minnesota Vikings. That win led to the merger of the two leagues.

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September 6th, 2017

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