When the National Football League and the American Football League began the process of merging in 1966, the NFL was considered to be of far higher quality. Sure enough, the 1st 2 installments of the "AFL-NFL World Championship Game" were easily won by the NFL Champions, the Green Bay Packers -- the game retroactively called "Super Bowl I" 35-10 over the AFL Champion Kansas City Chiefs, and Super Bowl II 33-14 over the Oakland Raiders. The 3rd one was officially renamed the Super Bowl, although the Roman numerals didn't start until Super Bowl V.
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The NFL Champions for Super Bowl III were the Baltimore Colts. They were coached by Don Shula, who had made his name as the defensive coordinator for the Detroit Lions. Despite losing Johnny Unitas, possibly the greatest quarterback the game had yet seen, to a torn muscle in his throwing arm in the last preseason exhibition game, the Colts steamrolled through the NFL, going 13-1 behind backup quarterback Earl Morrall, with such stars as running back Tom Matte, receiver Jimmy Orr, tight end John Mackey, defensive end Bubba Smith, and linebacker and Mike Curtis.
They hung 44 points on the Atlanta Falcons on at home, 42 on the 49ers in San Francisco, and 41 on the Steelers in Pittsburgh. Their only loss of the regular season was 30-20 to the Cleveland Browns at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore.
They beat the Minnesota Vikings in the Divisional Playoff. Then, in the NFL Championship Game -- in Cleveland because the NFL then alternated hosting duties between the Division Champions -- they avenged their defeat, beating the Browns 34-0 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. They looked unstoppable -- even without Johnny U.
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The AFL Champions were the New York Jets. They were coached by Wilbur "Weeb" Ewbank, who had been an assistant to Paul Brown on the early 1950s Cleveland Browns, and then coached the Colts to their 1958 and 1959 NFL Championships, with Unitas as their quarterback. By this point, Unitas was just about the only one left, so his familiarity with the Colts wouldn't have helped.
The Jets had a marquee quarterback, too, the long-haired, white-shoed, big-mouthed Joe Namath. They had a running attack with Emerson Boozer and Matt Snell, receivers Don Maynard and George Sauer, and a defense with ends Verlon Biggs and Gerry Philbin, linebacker Larry Grantham, and defensive backs Bill Baird and Johnny Sample.
The Jets went 11-3. Their losses were to the Denver Broncos at home at Shea Stadium, the Bills in Buffalo, and the Raiders at the Oakland Coliseum, in the game whose NBC coverage screwup got it nicknamed the Heidi Bowl. But they won the AFL Eastern Division, and on December 29, 1968, they hosted the AFL West winners, the Raiders, and won a thriller, 27-23. It was Shea's 1st title, 10 months before the baseball team that called it home.
Still, most football observers thought that the Colts were by far the better team. Mainly because the NFL was by far the better league. By the morning of the game, the Colts were 18-point favorites.
To put that in perspective: Only one other Super Bowl has had a higher point spread, and that one, just barely: Super Bowl XXIX in 1995, the San Francisco 49ers were 18 1/2-point favorites over the San Diego Chargers. (The Niners covered.) No other Super Bowl has had a spread of more than 14 points.
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January 9, 1969: There's a banquet at the Miami Touchdown Club. Namath was one of the speakers. As he took the podium, someone in the audience yelled out, "Hey, Namath! We're gonna kick your butts!"
Broadway Joe was tired of hearing that, and yelled back, "Let me tell you something: We've got a good team. We're gonna win the game. I guarantee it!"
In an interview for NFL Films years later, Ewbank said, "I could have shot him." The comment hit the papers the next day, and Ewbank asked Namath what he was thinking. Namath said, "Coach, you think we're going to win, don't you?" Ewbank had to admit that he did.
I wonder if Namath understood the meaning of the term "guarantee." The paid attendance at the game was 75,389. The price of a ticket was $20 -- $141 in today's money, which would be a decent price by that standard of today's regular-season NFL games. 75,389 times 20 is $1,507,780. So, if the Jets lost, Namath would have owed the paying customers a million and a half. His famous bonus for signing with the Jets in 1965 was $427,000, less than 1/3rd of that gate.
But that guarantee did 2 things: It boosted the Jets' confidence, and it got into the Colts heads. It allowed the Colts to think, hey, maybe we can lose this game after all. Maybe that's all the Colts needed to actually lose it.
Years later, Namath said, "I just honest to God felt good about our team, and got tired of being told how we were going to lose the game."
At the time, Namath also said, "There are 4 or 5 quarterbacks in the AFL that are better than Morrall," he wasn't kidding. There was himself, Len Dawson of Kansas City, Daryle Lamonica of Oakland, John Hadl of San Diego, and Jack Kemp of Buffalo.
In contrast, That season, with Unitas injured, how many of the NFL's 16 starting quarterbacks were as good as Namath was that year? Possibly Bart Starr of Green Bay, and maybe Sonny Jurgensen of Washington, and maybe John Brodie of San Francisco, and maybe Fran Tarkenton, then with the Giants. But not Morrall, not Joe Kapp of Minnesota, not Roman Gabriel of Los Angeles, or anybody else.
And Ewbank's coaching staff included defensive coaches Walt Michaels and Buddy Ryan. Those names should be familiar to any New York Tri-State Area football fan of the last 40 years. Michaels coached the Jets to the 1982 AFC Championship Game, the 1st time they'd gotten that far since Super Bowl III.
Ryan became the defensive coordinator for the Chicago Bears, designing the "46 Defense" that won Super Bowl XX, then coached the Philadelphia Eagles into the Playoffs. His son Rex Ryan became the only Jets coach to date to get them to 2 AFC Championship Games, although he lost them both.
Joe Falls, the legendary columnist for the Detroit Free Press, said this of Namath: "he'd better grow that mustache again and that goatee and those sideburns because they're going to rearrange his face in Miami on Jan. 12."
Namath would end up being sacked a grand total of one time in that game.
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January 12, 1969. Lyndon Johnson was 8 days away from handing the Presidency over to Richard Nixon. Nelson Rockefeller was Governor of the State of New York, and John Lindsay was Mayor of the City of New York.
The Number 1 song in America was Marvin Gaye's version of "I Heard It Through the Grapevine." Elvis Presley was recording From Elvis In Memphis. The Beatles were recording Let It Be. Bob Dylan was about to record Nashville Skyline. The Jackson 5 were about to debut. Frank Sinatra had just recorded "My Way."
Star Trek had just aired the episode "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield," with Frank Gorshin playing an interstellar cop who is black on one side of his body and white on the other -- actual black and actual white, not "Negro" and "Caucasian" -- chasing a dissident who's also half-black and half-white, but the reverse, and seeking sanctuary on the starship Enterprise. It had been 9 months since the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Inflation has been such that what $1.00 would buy then, $6.19 would buy now. A stamp was 6 cents. The Subway fare in New York was 20 cents. The average price of a gallon of gas was 34 cents, a cup of coffee 42 cents, a McDonald's meal 79 cents (49 cents of that being the newly-introduced Big Mac), a movie ticket $1.20, a new car around $2,300, a new house $27,600. The preceding Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 925.53.
The game, as with that episode of Star Trek, was broadcast on NBC. There was a key difference: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, Gorshin, et al. stuck to the script in their drama; Namath, in his, knew that the conventional wisdom was no script, and could be discarded. At any rate, less than half of American households had color television sets on which to watch this game.
At the Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida, the temperature at kickoff was 66 degrees, with a mostly overcast sky, and a wind of 12 miles per hour -- noticeable, but not enough to wreak havoc with either team's passing game.
Apollo 8 astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and William Anders, 18 days after returning to Earth from the Moon, led the crowd in the Pledge of Allegiance. Lloyd Geisler, the first trumpeter of the Washington National Symphony Orchestra, played "The Star-Spangled Banner."
The coin toss ceremony was actually a fraud: The toss had already been conducted by referee Tom Bell, with the Jets winning, and electing to receive. It was staged, with Unitas, Lenny Lyles and Preston Pearson representing the Colts; and Namath and Johnny Sample representing the Jets.
Curt Gowdy, NBC's lead football announcer, handled the play-by-play. The color commentators were Al DeRogatis and Kyle Rote -- perhaps a little unfair toward the Jets and the AFL, as both men were not only former NFL players, but former Giants.
Nevertheless, with his evenhanded broadcasts on the Peacock Network, Gowdy may have been the best friend the AFL ever had. And, of all the events in various sports in a career that lasted from 1943 to 1988, he called this the most memorable game he ever called.
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At 3:05 PM, Lou Michaels of the Colts kicked off, and Earl Christy of the Jets returned it. The Jets could not get into Baltimore territory, and punted. The Colts drove to the Jets' 19-yard line, but Morrall's 2 passes fell incomplete and his run went for no gain. Michaels came on to attempt a 27-yard field goal --the goalposts were on the goal line, until the 1974 season, when they were moved 10 yards deeper to the end line -- but missed.
Again, Namath could not get the Colts across midfield, and the Jets had to punt. But they held the Colts to 3 and out. On the next possession, Namath threw a pass to George Sauer, completed, but Sauer fumbled, and the ball was recovered by Ron Porter. The Colts were on the Jet 13.
The 1st quarter ended, with the game still scoreless, but the Colts knocking on the door. They got to the Jet 6 with 14:35 left in the half.
But that would be the closest the Colts came to taking a lead in this game. Morrall looked for Tom Mitchell, but his pass was intercepted on the 6 by Randy Beverly.
And that's when the Jets took over. Four straight runs by Matt Snell gained 26 yards. Namath completed 4 of 5 passes, got the Jets to the Colt 4, and Snell ran to the left and into the end zone. Touchdown. Jim Turner kicked the extra point. Jets 7, Colts 0, 9:34 left in the half.
The football world was stunned. But most people thought that this was a fluke, and that it would wake the Colts up, and they would still win the game relatively easily.
They thought wrong. The Colts drove to the Jet 42, but the Jets held them to 4 yards. Michaels attempted another field goal, this time from 46 yards, and missed. Still 7-0 Jets. Namath was able to get the Jets into Colt territory, but not to score, and Turner missed a 41-yard attempt. Still 7-0 Jets.
With 3:40 left in the half, Matte ran for 58 yards. This would turn out to be the longest rushing gain of the contest. It was 2nd and 9 on the Jet 15, and Morrall handed off to Matte. A former Ohio State quarterback who had filled in at quarterback for the Colts in 1965 when both Unitas and Gary Cuozzo had been injured, Matte ran to his right, and threw backwards to Morrall -- a legal play, one which has often been incorrectly described as a flea-flicker.
(A flea-flicker is when a quarterback underhands the ball to a player, then gets open, and the player underhands the ball back to him, so he can pass.)
Morrall looked to pass. Jimmy Orr was wide open. But the Sun had broken through the clouds, and Morrall didn't see Orr. Instead, he saw Willie Richardson, and his pass was intercepted at the 2 by Jim Hudson. Just like that, a great chance for the Colts was gone.
There was some irony in this. The 1965 Orange Bowl game had been played at that same stadium, with Namath making his last collegiate appearance, for the University of Alabama. They lost, to the University of Texas. Texas' quarterback that day was Hudson.
The Jets couldn't get a 1st down, and punted. Morrall threw 2 passes, and couldn't get anywhere, and the half ended. New York Jets 7, Baltimore Colts 0. Football fans from coast to coast, from border to border, were buzzing as the halftime show was played by the legendary marching band of Florida A&M University, a historically black school.
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The Jets kicked off for the 2nd half. On the 1st play from scrimmage, Matte ran for 8 yards... and fumbled. The Jets recovered on the Colt 25, and Turner went on to kick a 32-yard field goal. Jets 10, Colts 0. There were still 25 minutes and 41 seconds to play. Still plenty of time for Baltimore to get back into it, and win it -- in theory.
The Jets again held the Colts to a 3-and-out. Namath drove the Jets to the Colt 23. Turner kicked a 30-yard field goal. Jets 13, Colts 0.
At this point, Shula rolled the dice. He needed 2 touchdowns in 19 minutes and 24 seconds. He decided a Johnny Unitas who hadn't played a down for the entire regular season gave him a better chance than an Earl Morrall at full strength. Shula would later say he should have brought Unitas on after halftime.
It's become part of the legend that the Jets got scared when they saw the already-legendary Unitas come in. This is unlikely: 13 points means 2 touchdowns, they knew he wasn't at full strength, and they knew that the rest of the Colts were still in disarray.
Unitas would end up with more passing yards in 19 minutes (119) than Morrall had in 41 minutes (71). But his 1st drive led to no 1st downs, and the Colts had to punt. When the 3rd quarter ended, it was still 13-0 Jets, and the Jets were threatening to score again. They got to the Colt 2, and Ewbank called for a field goal. No reason to get cocky and go for the touchdown: If successful, the field goal attempt would make it a 3-score lead with less than 14 minutes to play; otherwise, it's a 2-score lead with an eternity for a passing master like Unitas.
The Jets kicked off, and with 13:10 left, Johnny U went to work. He got to the Jet 25, and, unlike Morrall, saw Jimmy Orr open. Except Randy Beverly saw Orr open, too, and ran in and intercepted the pass.
With 11:06 left, Namath could afford to eat the clock. He got the Jets to the Colt 35, setting up a 42-yard field goal attempt by Turner, but he missed.
Now, there was just 6:34 to play. Could Unitas possibly lead the Colts to 2 touchdowns and a field goal in that time? He threw 3 incomplete passes, but on 4th and 10 from his own 20, he found Orr to keep the game alive. He got into Jet territory, throwing to Orr, then to Mackey, then to Richardson, getting to the Jet 1. He handed off to Jerry Hill. Touchdown. Michaels kicked the extra point.
Jets 16, Colts 7. The Colts recovered the onside kick. There were 3 minutes and 14 seconds left. Unitas got the Colts to the Jet 24. 1st down: Pass to Richardson, gains 5 yards. 2nd and 5 on the Jet 19: Pass to Richardson, incomplete. 3rd and 5: Pass to Orr, incomplete. 4th and 5 on the 19. 2:44 left.
A field goal would make it 16-10, and the Colts would need a touchdown. They had all their timeouts, plus the 2-minute warning, and had already recovered an onside kick a moment ago. But Shula decided to go for it. Unitas looked for Orr, and threw, but Orr couldn't catch it. It was, for all intents and purposes, over.
The Jets ate as much of the clock as they could, and there were 15 seconds left when Curley Johnson punted to the Colt 34. Unitas threw 2 passes to Richardson. The 1st was incomplete. The 2nd was caught, and he ran 15 yards, but the clock ran out.
Final score: New York Jets 16, Baltimore Colts 7. The Jets were World Champions. The AFL had proven itself, on the biggest stage, to be not only the NFL's equal, but, for the moment, its superior.
It had gotten dark over the course of the game. And in that darkness, under the Orange Bowl's floodlights, Namath stuck his index finger over his head and waved it to the fans. As far as I can tell, this was the 1st time anybody had done that in order to say, "We're Number 1!"
He was right: Al Davis, owner of the Raiders and the man more responsible for the merger than anyone else, was sitting with his new head coach, John Madden. Madden has spoken many times about how wonderful that game made the AFL guys feel.
Len Dawson, the Hall of Fame quarterback who would lead another upset by the AFL's Kansas City Chiefs over the NFL's Minnesota Vikings the next year in Super Bowl IV, was also there, and he now says he stood up and said, "How does that lousy American Football League look now?" Today, he says, "I just had to stick it in, because I had been holding it in all day."
William Wallace (not the legendary Scottish hero) in The New York Times: "Because of what Joe Namath accomplished in the Super Bowl yesterday, pro football will never quite be the same again."
Bill Mazer, opening the football section of his book The Answer Book of Sports, published later in the year: "For those of you who are younger readers, something should be made clear: Football was not invented by Joe Namath on January 12, 1969 at the Orange Bowl in Miami."
But Namath was elevated to sports idolhood. Along with the Mets' Tom Seaver 9 months later, and the Knicks' Walt "Clyde" Frazier 8 months after that, he became part of New York's holy trinity of sports icons for a generation, as Mickey Mantle and Frank Gifford had been in the generation before, and Reggie Jackson and Lawrence Taylor, and then Derek Jeter and Eli Manning, would later become.
Despite not having thrown a single touchdown pass, Namath was named the game's Most Valuable Player. He joined Ed Danowski (1934 and 1938 Giants) and Charlie Conerly (1956 Giants) as New York quarterbacks to win World Championships. He has since been joined by Phil Simms (1986 Giants), Jeff Hostetler (1990 Giants) and Eli Manning (2007 and 2011 Giants).
Simms was 13 years old, and watching Super Bowl III on television at his parents' house in Louisville, Kentucky. Now an analyst for CBS Sports, the 2nd man to be MVP of a New York Super Bowl win was asked to use his skills in that job to watch the 1st, Namath, and the rest of the game in its entirety again, for the article that Newsday did for the 50th Anniversary.
He had previously believed the win to be a fluke, based on the Colts' mistakes. He believes that no longer: "The Jets whupped them," he said. "I'm really shocked... They beat 'em up."
His comment at the half: "If you and I were watching this game, right now, live, we'd be going, 'Man, Baltimore really looks like the better team.'"
His comment at the end: "The Jets ripped their butt here in the second half. I don't remember it this way. It's amazing."
Bubba Smith, the All-Pro defensive end of the Colts, later an actor, eventually suggested that the game was fixed. Tom Matte disagreed: "It was a team failure as far as I'm concerned. We came up on the short end of the stick, and those guys came out smelling like roses... They won the game, so you have to have a lot of respect for them."
This is what a New York Jets Super Bowl ring looks like.
Shula: "It's just a bad memory. So I had to learn to live with it, and I couldn't do anything about it until we did something about it."
The Colts did do something about it. So did Shula. Just not together.
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Despite becoming the most celebrated player in the history of New York football, Namath only appeared in 1 more Playoff game, the next season, against the Kansas City Chiefs, and lost it. He would play 7 more seasons for the Jets, battling injuries to his knees, and play out the 1977 season with the Los Angeles Rams, and retire.
Since the merger was completed in 1970, the Jets have been to the AFC Championship Game 4 times: In the seasons of 1982, 1998, 2009 and 2010, and lost them all. Their moments of glory have been fleeting, and it has been half a century since they reached, let alone won, a Super Bowl.
The Colts would fire Shula after the 1969 season, hire Don McCafferty, and gain a measure of redemption by winning Super Bowl V on January 17, 1971, beating the Dallas Cowboys 16-13 on a last-play field goal by Jim O'Brien. Ironically, in that game, Unitas started, but had to leave at the half with an injury, trailing 13-6, and it was Morrall who led them to victory.
The Colts got old in a hurry after that, and were a very different team when they won 3 straight AFC Eastern Division titles in 1975, 1976 and 1977. They did not reach the Super Bowl. They got broken up, and in 1984, were moved to Indianapolis. They have usually been good in Indianapolis, but their path to Playoff glory has frequently been blocked by the New England Patriots. The Colts have won Super Bowl XLI and lost Super Bowl XLIV. This weekend, they are 2 games away from reaching Super Bowl LIII.
In 1996, Baltimore got a new team, the Ravens. Wearing a replica of his blue Number 19 Colt jersey, Unitas presented the game ball to the officials as the captains of the purple-shirted Ravens and the white-shirted Oakland Raiders looked on. The Ravens won Super Bowls XXXV and XLVII, and reached the Playoffs this season, before losing in the Wild Card round to the Los Angeles Chargers.
Johnny Unitas died in 2002, of a heart attack at age 59. A statue of him now stands outside the Ravens' M&T Bank Stadium at Camden Yards. Earl Morrall died in 2014, of natural causes at 79. An autopsy showed that he had chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), the brain damage that so many football players have sustained. Don Shula just turned 89, and, at least officially, remains a part of the Dolphins' front office.
Tom Bell had refereed the 1959 NCAA Final Four, making him the only man to officiate at both a Final Four and a Super Bowl. He also refereed Super Bowl VII, when Shula's Dolphins, with Morrall as backup, beat the Washington Redskins 14-7 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, to complete a perfect 17-0 season. Bell retired after refereeing the 1976 AFC Championship Game (the Oakland Raiders beat the Pittsburgh Steelers), and died of leukemia in 1986, at age 63. Broadcaster Curt Gowdy also died of leukemia, in 2006, at 86.
Of the 1968 World Champion New York Jets, the following have died: Assistant coach Clive Rush in 1980, of a heart attack, only 49 years old; tight end Verlon Biggs in 1994, assistant coach Joe Spencer in 1996, head coach Weeb Ewbank in 1998, team owner Leon Hess in 1999, offensive tackle Sam Walton in 2002, cornerback Johnny Sample in 2005, defensive tackle John Elliott in 2010, receiver George Sauer and safety Jim Hudson in 2013; assistant coach Buddy Ryan, offensive tackle Winston Hill, and punter John "Curley" Johnson in 2016; backup quarterback Babe Parilli and linebacker Larry Grantham in 2017, and receiver Bill Rademacher in 2018.
Still alive are assistant coach Walt Michaels, 89, and these 31 players, at these ages:
83: Receiver Don Maynard.
80: Guard Bob Talamini and defensive tackle Paul "Rocky" Rochester.
79: Running back Mark Smolinski and safety Bill Baird.
78: Receiver Robert "Bake" Turner and cornerback Cornell Gordon.
77: Running back Matt Snell, kicker Jim Turner (who, between them, scored all 16 Jet points), guard Dave Herman and defensive end Gerry Philbin.
76: Center John Schmitt and linebacker Ralph Baker.
75: Quarterback Joe Namath, running back Emerson Boozer, tight end Pete Lammons, linebacker Al Atkinson, cornerback Earl Christy and safety Mike D'Amato.
74: Center Paul Crane, guard Jeff Richardson, linebacker Carl McAdams, and cornerbacks Randy Beverly and John Dockery.
73: Guard Randy Rasmussen, defensive tackle Steve Thompson, defensive end Karl Henke and linebacker Michael Stromberg.
72: Running back Lee White, linebacker John Neidert and safety Jim Richards.
UPDATE: Walt Michaels died later in 2019. Paul Rochester and Bill Mathis died in 2020. This leaves 29 survivors.
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But it was still a huge moment. And, as they say, "Cometh the hour, cometh the man." The hour was 3:05 PM on January 12, 1969. The man was Joe Namath.
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