Another Super Bowl is upon us as the two-time defending champion Kansas City Chiefs take on the Philadelphia Eagles at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans on Sunday night.
It will be the 59th iteration of a game that has become the nation’s most anticipated sporting event. But how did the NFL’s championship game acquire the name “Super Bowl”?
The game itself is much younger than organized professional football. The National Football League was founded in 1920, and for the first four decades of its existence, the postseason format looked quite a bit different than it does today.
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There was no playoff system. Rather, the league’s two champions faced off in what was then called the NFL championship game at the end of the season.
The situation changed in the 1960s when the American Football League, which began operations in 1960, was launched as a competitor. The leagues would ultimately officially merge in 1970 with the AFL becoming the AFC, but prior to the merger fully going into effect, both leagues’ champions would face off in what was called “AFL-NFL World Championship Game.”
That didn’t exactly roll off the tongue, but it was soon supplanted by a much more popular nickname.
Then-Kansas City Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt is credited with being the first to call the game the Super Bowl ahead of the first AFL-NFL World Championship Game — retroactively known as Super Bowl I — in 1967, possibly in reference to a toy called the “Super Ball.” The name quickly caught on in the press with its informal usage circulating.
Beginning with Super Bowl III in 1969, the name of the championship game became official and has remained ever since.
