DAILY DIRT: NFL title game in 1963 was shrouded in controversy because it was played so close to the assassination of JFK

Daily Dirt for Saturday, Feb. 8, 2025

That 1940 championship game must have been a hoot … Welcome to today’s three thoughts that make up Vol. 1,196 of The Daily Dirt.

1. Believe it or not, there WAS pro football prior to the Super Bowl era.

That fact often gets lost at this time of the year when we are celebrating the greatest (or at least the most-hyped) athletic event in the history of U.S. sports. No other competition — not even the World Series — commands the kind of attention (media and otherwise) that we now award the Super Bowl.

But there was a time when there was “just” an NFL championship game, and later an AFL championship game. The pro football season normally ended sometime in December, not the first two weeks in February.

So what were the most memorable moments of that bygone era? You might be surprised. In medal-worthy fashion, here are my picks:

Gold medal: 1963 — Chicago 14, New York Giants 10. This particular edition of the championship, the third-last before the Super Bowl era, was played under the backdrop of tragedy and was the first I can remember watching as a wee lad. Less than a month earlier, President John F. Kennedy had been assassinated in Dallas, Texas. It led to one of the more controversial decisions in league history when the commissioner at the time, Pete Rozelle, decided not to postpone games, a decision he admitted that he later regretted.

Silver medal: 1951 — Los Angeles 24, Cleveland 17. This was the first NFL title game ever nationally televised, although residents in the Los Angeles area could not see it. The NFL felt it would hurt attendance. It was a much different era back then.

Bronze medal: 1940 — Chicago 73, Washington 0. Not only does this remain the most embarrassing point spread in a championship game, it remains — 85 years later — the most lopsided shutout in NFL history in ANY sort of game. This was also the first of four NFL titles the Bears won in the 1940s. Yep, times have changed.

2. Did you know (Part 271)

• That according to Sports Illustrated magazine, Super Bowl Sunday is the second-largest food consumption day in the nation, trailing only Thanksgiving.
• That on Super Bowl Sunday, Americans will spend $1.3 billion on beer.
• That the highest-priced first Super Bowl ticket in 1967 cost $12. Some tickets sold as low as $6.
• That Carol Channing, in 1970, was the first singer to perform during a Super Bowl halftime show.
• That there has never been a shutout in the Super Bowl.

3. We have another new award-winning license plate this week with SOLD joining the medal stand behind XQQQME and XCUSEUS.

The Great Plate Debate’s fourth year marches deeper into February, always on the lookout for creative and unusual plates across West-Central Illinois and Northeast Missouri.

Gold medal: XQQQME

Silver medal: XCUSEUS 

Bronze medal: SOLD

This week’s best of the rest:

• BURNER 2
• 4 H FARM
• U ZUMBA 2
• GGOG 7
• SUZEE 12
• STNGRR
• HEAVY 59

Steve Thought O’ The Day – That $12 ticket for the Super Bowl, when adjusted to today’s inflation rate, would cost about $120.

Steve Eighinger writes daily for Muddy River News. He just wants both teams to have fun.