The Super Bowl name is such a fixture now that it's difficult to imagine that the NFL was around for about 45 years without it. Even the first two Super Bowls as we know them weren't called Super Bowls when they were played. The first four were also missing those distinctive Roman numerals.
The merger of the American Football League and the National Football League in 1966 brought about the need for an ultimate championship game. During the merger talks, AFL founder and Kansas City Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt asked what this game should be called. Lacking a better term he referred to the game as a "super bowl." That name was inspired by the much loved toy of his children, Lamar Jr. and Sharron. The Wham-O super ball. That crazy little ball that could be bounced over the house. Hunt just tossed the name out there. NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle hated it. He found "super" to be a silly word, like "neat" or "gee-whiz." Most of the owners agreed. They thought that "Super Bowl" was too corny to be the name of their new championship game. Instead, the first championship between the Green Bay Packers and the Kansas City Chiefs was tagged with the AFL-NFL World Championship. While "Super Bowl" didn't stick with Rozelle and the owners the term made it to the media and reporters started using it. By the third championship game between the Baltimore Colts and the New York Jets, the fans and media were calling the game the "Super Bowl." The program even featured "SUPER BOWL" in huge letters across the top. Rozelle, in a press conference two days before the game, reluctantly admitted that the name had stuck.
This might have been the only NFL decision that wasn't made by NFL people. It wasn't until the fifth championship game between Baltimore Colts and Dallas Cowboys that each Super Bowl was distinguished from the rest. That Super Bowl became Super Bowl V. The NFL has been teaching the public to count with Roman numerals ever since.
The Wham-O Super ball. It seems like such a small thing to have inspired such a big thing. When I became aware of the Super Bowl as a child the first thing that came to mind was that crazy little ball. Everything that Pete Rozelle feared about the name was true. It's a very cheesy name. It's also perfect.
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