On January 11, 1967 Gene Ward writing in the New York Daily News had declared:
“In fact, and to be brutally frank, this could wind up being labeled the ‘Stupor Bowl.’”
The New York Times sports section headline on January 15, 1967 read:
“The Super Bowl: Football’s Day of Decision Stirs Nation.”
The Los Angeles Times headline read:
“Super Sunday – Here At Last!”
The United States of America at that time of the first Super Bowl was involved in a bloody and unpopular war in Vietnam. During the game an ad would feature President Lyndon B. encouraging the purchase of war bonds. On the home front there was protest against the war and a surging civil rights movement. It was a time when the Louisville draft board turned back Cassius Clay’s appeal for exemption from the service on his plea that he was a Black Muslim minister.
That year of 1967 the Beatles, the Grateful Dead, the Jefferson Airplane, all made music. “Hair” had opened on Broadway. The first issue of Rolling Stone was published priced at 25 cents. The last “Milton Berle Show” aired on TV. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) was created. Seat belts were to finally become a staple in automobiles.
