When It Was Just a Game: Remembering the First Super Bowl [Hardcover]

One of the main points of this. . . .oral history is that the Super Bowl has become such a spectacle and de facto American holiday that its easy to forget it began as a simple football game just 50 years ago and didnt even sell out the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. That inaugural event was organized to determine the 1966 professional football champion between two warring leagues that ultimately agreed to merge. The Green Bay Packers, coached by the legendary Vince Lombardi, represented the older league. The American Football League representative was fortuitous as well, in that the larger and younger Kansas City Chiefs, coached by Hank Stram, were emblematic of the upstart leagues strategic originality. After a competitive first half, the savvy Packers blazed ahead. Frommer (Five OClock Lightning) notes that both teams were in the forefront of employing African American players. This is a well-executed retelling of the game and its surroundings from all points of view: officials, coaches, players, the media, and even fans. Among the narratives best parts are the late Strams detailed recollections from an unpublished manuscript made available to the author from Strams son . . . Consistently fascinating, this book will appeal to all football fans.In this detailed oral and narrative history, author Harvey Frommer dramatically creates a narrative arc that brings back the time.Harvey Frommer is one of the most intelligent and informed observers of sports on the American scene. It is always a pleasure to read his work.Read it from cover to cover. It's a masterpiece.? Vince Lombardi would have loved this book. It's a winner, he would have proclaimed.? You'll love it, too.? Harvey Frommer, through the voices of the participants and significant others, tells a rollicking adventure of the very first Super Bowl.? The material is fresh and fascinating.? I couldn't put it down.As the Super Bowl nears its 50th birthday, Frommer (Five OClockLightning ), a veteran sportslÓ+