Vincent Thomas Lombardi knew how to make a good first impression. One hour into Lombardi's first mini-camp as head coach of the Green Bay Packers, quarterback Bart Starr took a break, ran to the nearest pay phone in the team office, and called his wife. "Honey, we're going to begin to win," Starr said excitedly. That was in 1959. Eight seasons later, Lombardi had transformed the Packers into four-time NFL champions.
Still, in January of 1967, there was one more team to play after the NFL title was won. In front of 61,946 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Green Bay faced the Kansas City Chiefs of the American Football League in what was called the AFL-NFL World Championship Game, later renamed Super BowlI.
There, Lombardi stayed with what had worked throughout his career: Here's the power sweep. Here's the fly pattern. Now try and stop us. The Packer strategy, not surprisingly, worked spectacularly. But what was most unexpected was the player who best executed that game plan. A 34-year-old receiver named Max McGee would become one of the most unlikely heroes ever in Green Bay lore.
So join NFL Films as they retell the story of the '66 Packers, a team that exemplified Lombardi's commitment to excellence. America's Game uses interviews from Starr, Bill Curry and Willie Davis to recount the first Super Bowl winning season in NFL history.
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