Biggest Events in Sports The Super Bowl Part 2

About the Super Bowl, history, facts and figures about the major sporting event and the biggest game in football.

THE SUPER BOWL

HIGHLIGHTS IN ITS HISTORY

Super Bowl III, 1969. "We'll win. I guarantee it." Thus spoke Joe Willie Namath, quarterback of the New York Jets, even though his AFL team was a 3-touchdown underdog to the NFL-champion Baltimore Colts. People were amused but not convinced by Broadway Joe's brazen pregame remarks. A Kansas insurance salesman was so certain of a Colt victory that he promised publicly to eat a frog if the Jets won.

Earl Morrall started the game for Baltimore over Johnny Unitas, who missed most of the season with an elbow injury. Perhaps unnerved by Namath's pregame rap of his abilities, Morrall was intercepted three times in the first half after leading the Colts into Jet territory. The Jets' surprisingly conservative offense struck with a 4-yd. run by Matt Snell in the second quarter, and the Jets emerged at the half with a 7-0 lead. They added three Jim Turner field goals in the second half for a 16-0 lead before Baltimore finally got on the scoreboard. Unitas came off the bench midway in the last quarter and drove the Colts downfield to set up a 1-yd. touchdown plunge by Jerry Hill. But this effort was in vain, and the Jets recorded the first Super Bowl victory for an AFL team, 16--7. In that upset win, Namath completed 16 of 28 passes for 206 yd., and Snell led all rushers with 121 yd.

In the week following the game, the Kansas insurance salesman received 30 frogs, some live, some toy. Said he, "I think I'll invite some of my Kansas City friends for a frogleg dinner."

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