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

by Harvey Frommer, Frank Gifford (Foreword)

Written by acclaimed sports author and oral historian Harvey Frommer and with an introduction by pro football Hall of Famer Frank Gifford, When It Was Just a Game tells the fascinating story of the ground-breaking AFL–NFL World Championship Football game played on January 15, 1967: Packers vs. Chiefs. Filled with new insights, containing commentary from the recently discovered unpublished memoir of Kansas City Chiefs coach Hank Stram, and featuring oral history from many who were at the game—media, players, coaches, fans—the book presents back story and front story in the words of those who lived it and saw it go on to become the Super Bowl, the greatest sports attraction the world has ever known. Archival photographs and drawings help bring the event to life.

Genres: Sports, Football, Nonfiction, History

492 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 9, 2015

Reviews

[Morris · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a diehard Packers fan (I bleed green and gold), I’m not entirely sure I can be completely unbiased in reviewing “When It Was Just A Game”. What can ever be better than a comprehensive history of the first Super Bowl?

The book is an excellent resource that covers almost every facet of what went into the epic 1967 game between the Packers and the Chiefs. It’s packed with facts and direct quotes from people ranging from the players to the fans and everyone in between. Not the least of it is from the recently deceased legend Frank Gifford. Reading how it was at the beginning of what has become such a large event is a good reminder of what the game is meant to be at the start of this new NFL season.

“When It Was Just A Game” is the perfect gift for any football fan you may have on your holiday list. It’s a must-have for any Packers fans out there. GO PACK GO!

This review is based upon a complimentary copy provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

[Rob Slaven · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this book free for review from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Despite the privilege of receiving a free book, I’m absolutely candid about it below because I believe authors and readers will benefit most from honest reviews rather than vacuous 5-star reviews.

This book covers, in epic detail and from the view of the person’s involved, the first Super Bowl, though it wasn’t strictly speaking called that at the time. About 80% of the text is quotation from the people involved with the events described (or their children) including but not limited to Howard Cosell, Frank Gifford, Lamar Hunt Jr, Hank Stram, Susan Lombardi, Len Dawson and Bart Starr.

On the positive side, the book’s level of detail is dizzying. This single event in sports history is covered at a depth which is unprecedented. The story takes you from the childhoods of the two battling coaches and winds its way to the fallout after the game and a ‘where are they now’ of the players on both sides of the ball. The coverage of the game composes only about 20-25% of the book but you get keen psychological insight on both the winners and the losers.

To the negative side, the book is primarily quotation and most of those seem to be verbatim transcripts of video conversations about the game. As such they can tend to be a bit rambling and not as concise or on-point as they could be. Also, while the detail is wonderful it can at times be overwhelming with so many names and places whizzing by it’s hard to keep a firm grip on all of them at one time.

In summary, this book smells like someone’s doctoral dissertation on the game. It is extremely well researched and masterfully detailed and sometimes almost TOO detailed. This is a great reference tool and good for the expert in football history but as a casual fan I was at times overwhelmed by the enormity of it all. A great book but you’ve got to be committed to take it pretty seriously and give it your utmost attention.

PS: I hope my review was helpful. If it was not, then please let me know what I left out that you’d want to know. I always aim to improve.

[Allen Adams · Rating 4 out of 5]

http://www.themaineedge.com/sports/be...

With the NFL season about to kick off, 32 football teams are dreaming of their chance to achieve the pinnacle of their sport. Over the next few months, these squads will battle it out for a chance to play in the biggest game of them all – the Super Bowl.

However, while the Super Bowl is one of the most iconic and anticipated events not just in the sporting world, but in the culture in general, it hasn’t always been that way.

Sports author and historian Harvey Frommer takes us back to a time before the NFL was king, to a time when two leagues came together for the first time under circumstances where success was far from guaranteed.

“When It Was Just a Game: Remembering the First Super Bowl” brings together research and interviews from across the decades, offering the insights of key players in the massive gamble that was the AFL-NFL World Championship Football Game.

Back in the 1960s, the NFL ruled the football roost. And the owners liked it that way. However, while the league had successfully fended off challengers in the past, a new upstart league was threatening to upend their traditional ways. The American Football League got its start in 1960, and for a while, it was an easy outfit for the NFL to dismiss. The older league scoffed at the high-flying, high-scoring dynamic of the AFL; most felt it was something less than “real” football.

But in just a few short years, the AFL began hitting the NFL where it hurt, able to sign significant talent and land lucrative television contracts. It wasn’t long before the writing on the wall was clear, and so NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle led efforts for the leagues to enact a merger. Said merger led to an agreement to consolidate under the NFL’s umbrella.

But first, there was the little matter of the championship game between the legendary NFL stalwart Green Bay Packers and the high-octane AFL champion Kansas City Chiefs – a game that the NFL was desperate to win, while the AFL had nothing to lose.

The final score was 35-10 in favor of Green Bay, but while some chose to see that as proof of NFL superiority, it wouldn’t be long before the AFL would show that it deserved its place at the table.

Frommer has meticulously assembled the thoughts of dozens of people connected with that first championship game (it should be noted that while people were using the term “Super Bowl” almost from the beginning, that term only became official with Super Bowl III). There’s a lot from the two coaches – football legends Vince Lombardi and Hank Stram – as well as memories from their respective families. Numerous players are included, as are members of the media.

Frommer’s forte is oral history and he has assembled a great one here, filled with smaller stories from behind the scenes to go along the big stories of the Big Game. It’s an engaging time capsule, a portrait of another era in which, far from being the centerpiece of the sports calendar, what would become the Super Bowl was more or less just another football game. Hearing these stories from the men who were there in their own words will be a real treat for any fan of football and its long and storied history.

It’s remarkable to think that an event watched by hundreds of millions of people annually couldn’t even sell out that inaugural contest. Over the years, the game has changed – and the league with it – but “When It Was Just a Game” offers a look back to a time before the sport was a billion-dollar business.

Back to a time when it was just a game.

[victor harris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not really a narrative, more a collection of quotes from those associated with the game at the time. Some interesting facts such as the comparative pay between the winners then - January, 1967, and now. Also interesting that the first Super Bowl in the LA Colosseum didn't even sell out, there were 30,000 empty seats and the game was blacked out in the area. If you can tolerate the avalanche of quotes it is worth browsing but little to commend it beyond that.

[James Smejkal · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Superbowl is one of football’s biggest days of the year. It’s the biggest day that unites Americans for the greatest sport of all time. Two teams battle to win the Lombardy trophy and to become the champion of the NFL, but how did the National Football League come to be?
The book “When it was just a game: remembering the first Super Bowl” was written by Harvey Frommer. This book tells the time of the Championship Football game played on January 15, 1967 with the Green Bay Packers heading up against the Kansas City Chiefs. This book tells stories about what happened during that time by the people who lived it to see how it became what is now known as the Super Bowl, the greatest sports attraction the world has ever known. It wasn’t always the greatest, in 1923, baseball is what anyone was talking about. Babe Ruth was having his best batting season and practically couldn’t miss. Football was left in the dust by baseball.
The NFL/AFL had some struggles along the way to success in the beginning of the so-called rivalry. Each league had alarming concerns for the minimal and unpredictable attendance for a few NFL teams, and for the television exposure that wasn’t prime time. When the owners took part in agreeing who to be commissioner, Pete Rozelle’s name was mentioned who at the time was the general manager for the L.A. Rams. At just the age of 33, the youngest person in history to be appointed the position of commissioner.
I learned so much from this book and I hope that you will too. This author was one of the most informed and intelligent observers of sports. He creates a narrative bridge that brings back time so that we can be there in the moment to enjoy what it might have been like to be there. The information he inputs into this is very fascinating to me and to all the other die-hard football fans.

[Tom Gase · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book on the first Super Bowl (although it wasn't called that yet) that was played in 1967 between the longtime NFL champions Green Bay Packers and the upstart Kansas City Chiefs that had won the AFL Championship. There are great stories from the coaches and players about the game and week leading up to it. The author, Harvey Frommer, does a good job of putting the reader into one of 20,000 seats that weren't sold for the big game as it wasn't what it now now, basically a national holiday. 10 years before I was born, my Dad could have gone to the game, but decided to go golfing with his buddies instead. The one thing about this book that holds it back is that it's told by people involved, which means a lot of the stories are told over and over and over again. This book would have been better if edited a tad better down from its 268 pages to about 220 or so. But a good informative book about that first Super Bowl.

[patrick Lorelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting book in that it was mostly taken from interviews and though it was good being a fan of football and of the Packers, I really only found out a few things from this book that I did not know from reading other books. One that on an average the Chief players were bigger than most of the Packers and of course much younger. This was an advantage but also a problem for them in that the much more experience Packers were able to take advantage of mistakes that were made by the Chiefs and the Packers as the Chief players mention played flawless and were mechanically sound. Some of the Packers players mentioned that they noticed watching film that because of their size the Chiefs made fundamental mistakes and were able to get away with it because they could over power their opponents, not with the Packers who took advantage of those and found their weakness and was able to win the game. There is also a small back story in how the two leagues formed and for me that was a good part. Also that the Chiefs were just as happy as the Jets when they won Super Bowl III and the Chiefs would be back and win Super Bowl IV. Overall not a bad book especially the stories from the players, wives, children, and announcers. Overall a good book.I got this book from net galley.

[Lance · Rating 5 out of 5]

I felt that this was an outstanding book because it covered all aspects of the game, had many different people provide stories and it was presented in a manner that included both these stories and some narrative by the author as well. It was a topic that I did not know much about aside from the teams and the final score and I learned much about that historic game. My full review is posted here:

http://sportsbookguy.blogspot.com/201...

[Kevin · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you don't know much about the early years of the AFL and how the Super Bowl came to fruition than this is a good choice. However, if you're familiar with that era of the AFL/NFL then not much new ground is covered.

[Iowa City Public Library]

From Mimi:

"After a brief overview of the beginning of professional football, it moves quickly into how this annual tradition came to pass. Instead of footnotes, quotes from people who were there are interspersed within the usual text."

[John Mahoney · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this b/c I was a kid, living in KC when the Chiefs played in the Superbowl.

I remember feeling so bad when the Chiefs could not stop Green Bay's sweep....

[Chuck Ledger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very informative. Great read. Brought back many memories.

[Chris Dean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful oral history of a forgotten game and forgotten time in the context of Super Bowl history. Glad that this book was done