THE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP NAMED AFTER A TOY

In the 1950s, Lamar Hunt attempted to obtain a license from the NFL to start a professional Dallas football team. He was turned down, so he went home with his ball and formed the American Football League, which proved quite successful after it first took to the field in 1960. Several years later, the two leagues decided to join together. Prior to the consummation of the union, the two leagues planned, as a transition event, to hold a few annual championship games between the leagues which, like the World Series in baseball, would bring the best team from each league together.

The first such game was scheduled for January 15, 1967 and was officially called the "First AFL-NFL World Championship Game." Hunt and other football kingpins were sitting around in the summer of 1966 trying to come up with a catchier nickname. Finally, Hunt, inspired by his children's obsession with their Wham-O Super Ball, (which had garnered intense popularity with the toy crowd when introduced in 1965), blurted out the phrase "Super Bowl." The football barons started using it, and the media followed.

The football tsars did not intend "Super Bowl" to have any staying power; the name was supposed to be only a placeholder until they came up with something better. They held a contest in 1969 for a new designation, but the judges were not impressed with any of the entries, including the "Ultimate Bowl" or the "Premier Bowl."

For more information on the naming of the Super Bowl, go to the History Channel website. If you would rather instead see a commercial which may be dropped from the Super Bowl because some folks claim it uses subliminal sex to market the product, go here.

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