The origin of the ‘Super Bowl’ name

The Super Bowl is a huge brand and the biggest sporting event in America. It also brings with it high-stakes football and million-dollar commercials. But did you know that the Super Bowl name was actually an accident? 

The name was jokingly proposed and didn't become a thing until the third championship game was played in 1969. The first two title games between the American Football League and the National Football League were renamed retroactively.

The use of the word "bowl" has been around for a while, even before the AFL-NFL championship. It first began with the Rose Bowl, first played in 1902, and has become a regular occurrence since 1916. The location of that bowl game was Pasadena, California, at the Tournament of Roses Stadium.

The next bowl games that started were the Orange Bowl, Sugar Bowl, and Cotton Bowl. By the 1960s, the term was well-used in American sports, with everyone recognizing it meant a huge season-ending battle.

In the mid-1960s, a rivalry began between the NFL and the new AFL. Both leagues were competing for players, fans, and overall media attention. In 1966, the two sides came to a merger agreement. A big part of the deal was that the champions of each league would play each other at the end of the season and be crowned the world champions.

However, this new championship still needed a name. The first game took place on Jan. 15, 1967, and was called the AFL-NFL World Championship Game. The name was okay and very basic. It lacked creativity compared to the college football bowl games. The football community didn't like the name, and the league knew they needed something better.

Lamar Hunt, who was the owner of the AFL's Kansas City Chiefs, played a huge part in the merger discussion. Hunt didn't like the name for the AFL-NFL championship game and wanted to make a change. In July 1966, he sent a letter to NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle. Hunt needed to have some names written down for the meeting before a name decision could be reached.

At the time, Hunt remembered a toy that his children were playing with called the Super Ball. The popular 1960s toy was a bouncy rubber ball. The term super was on a lot of people's minds. So, Hunt wrote down Super Bowl as a funny response to the title game name idea. It was a temporary thought until he could come up with some other good ideas.

Even though Hunt planned the Super Bowl name to be a temporary thing, the media and public loved it. Sports writers were hooked on the exciting name and used it a lot in their articles that led up to the first championship game. 

Commissioner Rozelle was OK with the Super Bowl name but still preferred the more traditional championship name. However, as the second title game approached in 1968, the new name was trending up and couldn't be ignored. The second championship game was called the Second AFL-NFL World Championship Game, but fans were still calling it Super Bowl II.

The turning point for the name came when the third championship came around. In January 1969, the playoff game between the New York Jets and Baltimore Colts was officially called Super Bowl III. In that game, Jets quarterback Joe Namath famously said that he guaranteed an upset victory.

Following the success of the new brand name, the NFL even went back to the first two championship games and renamed them Super Bowl I and Super Bowl II. It's wild that a popular toy created the name of one of the most-watched sporting events in the world. It shows that even a simple and catchy phrase can turn into a lasting legacy. The name is powerful and has become iconic in American culture, bringing in over 100 million viewers annually.