As we approach Super Bowl XLVIII, it’s hard to fathom a world without the Super Bowl. But back in January of 1969, that’s exactly the world everyone was living in. It took a little magic from “Broadway” Joe Namath to put that name on that map.
In the week leading up to an AFL-NFL championship game matchup with the Baltimore Colts, the quarterback of the underdog New York Jets got fed up with everyone assuming the Colts would mop the floor with his team. So Namath did what any fired up quarterback would do: he guaranteed a victory for his AFL champions over big, bad Baltimore.
60 minutes and a 16-7 victory later and Namath had proven his point – and in the process helped coin a new term, as the championship game that year was the first to be referred to as the Super Bowl.
