Flashback to January 17, 1970 – the last time the Kansas City Chiefs won the Super Bowl.
Safe to say quite a lot has changed since that game at Tulane Stadium in New Orleans when Lamar Hunt, the man who coined the term “Super Bowl”, saw his team claim its first (and only) NFL title.
We’ve gone into the archives and found out just what the world was like around the time of that game.
1 – The Super Bowl Wasn’t the Must-Watch Event it is Now
We can all thank Kansas City Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt for saving us from being stuck with something like the NFL World Championship Game, ‘The Merger’ or something equally stupid.
Based off a kids toy, Hunt pitched the name Super Bowl to the NFL saying it could probably be improved on, but here we are 50 years later and that’s what we’ve got.
Of course, things were different back in January 1970 – the Super Bowl concept was still finding its footing, relying on a whole lot of public support to get up.
Hunt’s contributions to the game saw the AFC Championship trophy named after him and there’s a whole lot of people in the Midwest hoping that his son will be raising the Lombardi Trophy next Monday.
2 – There were 26 Teams Competing for the Super Bowl
Now we have 32 teams split across two conferences competing for the Lombardi trophy but back in the 1969 season, there were 26 teams in two different leagues.
Originating as a competitor to the NFL in 1960, the fledgling AFL used the New York Jets victory the year before and the Chiefs win here as a statement that they would be competitive when the two leagues merged the following season.
In the 1969 season, the 16-team NFL (now NFC) looked just a bit different, with two conferences and four divisions.
The AFL had two five-team divisions with the Eastern Division featuring the current AFC East and Houston Oilers (now Tennessee Titans) and the AFC West plus the Cincinnati Bengals.
Quite a few teams have changed names and locations since then with the aforementioned Oilers-Titans transformation, New England was known as the Boston Patriots and the Baltimore Colts moved to Indianapolis.
Baltimore gained a “new” team in 1996 when Art Modell’s Browns franchise left Cleveland with nothing (not even the names and colours) becoming the Ravens, before the Browns were reborn in 1999.
St Louis has lost the Cardinals to Arizona in 1988, almost had the Patriots (aka St Louis Stallions) in the early ’90s before gaining the Rams in 1995, and then losing them again in 2016.
We’ve also seen five other teams added to the league since then with the Seattle Seahawks, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Carolina Panthers, Jacksonville Jaguars and Houston Texans all joining the league.
3 – The Australian Open was held at White City Stadium in Sydney
Let’s go local here, on the day of Super Bowl IV, the 1970 Australian Open began at White City in Sydney.
Arthur Ashe won the men’s tournament taking home $3400 in prize money while Margaret Court won $700 for defeating Kerry Melville in the women’s singles.
Compare that to now, where the winner of the men’s and women’s singles takes home $4.12million each, it’s safe to say things are a little more lucrative.
4 – Richmond was the VFL Champion
It was the middle of a golden era for the Tigers as they won their seventh flag and second in three years.
Kevin Murray won the Brownlow Medal and Carlton was the vanquished opponent in the VFL Grand Final, which finished 85-60.
5 – Balmain Won the NSWRFL Competition for the 12th Time
While the Balmain Tigers exist in a different form in 2019, they were the defending NSWRFL champions 50 years ago.
Having finished the season in second place behind Souths, the Tigers won the Grand Final between the two clubs 11-2.
6 – Rain Lover won the Melbourne Cup
One of the great rides in Melbourne Cup history, Rain Lover, won his second straight Melbourne Cup with Jim Johnson in the saddle.
It was a tight finish with Rain Lover beating Alsop by a neck, becoming the first back-to-back Cup winner in over a century.
His time of 3:19.10 was the fastest time under the old imperial system with the race going for 3218m (or two miles), a record that was not beaten until 1977 when Gold and Black would finish in 3:18.9.
Adjusted for the current metric system, his time would have been 3:17.9, which has been beaten just four times, most recently by Protectionist in 2014.
7 – Australia Had Held the Ashes Since February 1959
If we wanted to go full sports fan yahoo we’d make a lot of jokes about how the Aussies are still dominating the cricket, but we’ll refrain.
They had won two series and drawn three in the 11 years since they had claimed the urn, but little did they know the English would reclaim it in the 1970 series.
8 – New Zealand Held the Bledisloe Cup
Some things never change. New Zealand was in year 18 of a long run of Bledisloe Cup dominance.
Of course, series weren’t played every year back then, but it would be 1979 before the Wallabies would reclaim the Cup, only holding it until 1982.
9 – Diana Ross & The Supremes had their final performance together
Diana Ross sang the national anthem at Super Bowl XVI 12 years after the Chiefs and Vikings faced off.
In 1970 though, she had just left the Supremes to start her solo career, playing her final show with the band in Vegas where Jean Terrell was announced as her replacement.
10 – All My Children Was in its First Season
All My Children ran for 41 years on ABC but had aired just 10 of its 10,712 episodes before Super Bowl IV with the show premiering on January 5.
11 – John Gorton Was Australian PM & Richard Nixon Was US President
John Gorton was 12 months into his time as Australian Prime Minister having been sworn into office and won an election in that time.
It would be a short stay for him, however, as he lost a leadership challenge in March 1971.
Over in the USA, Richard Nixon was beginning his second year as President, having defeated Hubert Humphrey in the 1968 election. Humphrey would have the Minnesota Vikings old stadium named after him and we all know how Nixon’s time in office ended.