When It Was Just a Game

Harvey Frommer is a noted sports author and oral historian. He has written more than forty-two sports books including Remembering Yankee Stadium, Remembering Fenway Park, and the autobiographies of Red Holzman, Nolan Ryan, and Tony Dorsett. Cited in the Congressional Record and by the New York State Legislature as a sports historian and journalist, Dr. Frommer is a professor in the Master of Arts in Liberal Studies Program at Dartmouth College. He lives in Lyme, New Hampshire with his wife, Myrna.

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 it’s easy to forget it began as a simple football game just 50 years ago and didn’t 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 league’s strategic originality. After a competitive first half, the savvy Packers blazed ahead. Frommer (Five O’Clock 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 Among the narrative’s best parts are the late Stram’s detailed recollections from an unpublished manuscript made available to the author from Stram’s son . . . Consistently fascinating, this book will appeal to all football fans.