10 Legendary Moments That Defined Super Bowl History

Story by Yinzer Crazy Contributor Charlotte Hopkins

2)    The first halftime show, in Super Bowl I featured trumpeter and band leader, Al Hirt, and performances by the University of Arizona Symphonic Marching Band and the Grambling State University Marching Band. There was also a choir of 200 people, 10,000 balloons, and 300 pigeons.

3)    Frank Gifford getting ready to broadcast live from Super Bowl I. The game was shown on two TV stations, ABC and NBC. At the start of the second half, NBC was still airing commercials and they missed the Packers kicking off the start of the second half. The referees asked the Packers to kick off again. Such excitement would grow through the years to come that the game would go from being aired on two stations to 170 countries.

4)    Lamar Hunt suggested changing the name of the AFL-NFL World Championship Game to the Super Bowl. In 1969, he was meeting with fellow executives to discuss the upcoming game when his daughter interrupted to show him her new toy “a super ball.” He thought the name was catchy and put a spin on it to create the name - Super Bowl.

5)    Since football season starts in one year and ends in the following year, they started putting a Roman numeral to indicate which Super Bowl was being played. They thought it would make it less confusing. This tradition started in 1971, with Super Bowl V. The only year that Roman numerals were not used was Super Bowl 50. It was thought the Roman numerals would look bad and be “unmarketable.”

6)    Footballs used in Super Bowl games are inspected carefully and every single football used in every single Super Bowl has these words on it: Wilson, Commissioner, and Made in the USA. Footballs have been made by the Wilson Sporting Goods Company in Ada, Ohio since the NFL started in 1922. They make approximately 2 million footballs a year.

7)    The trophy awarded to the winning team was the World Championship Game Trophy. In 1970, the AFL merged with the NFL to become one league. One of the changes with the merger was to rename the trophy to the Vince Lombardi Trophy. Lombardi was the coach of the Packers and led the team to the first two Super Bowl wins. He went on to coach the Washington Redskins where they earned their first winning season.

8)    In 2008, David Tyree performed an "improbable catch," where he pinned the football against his helmet, helping the New York Giants defeat the previously undefeated New England Patriots.

9)    In 2009, during Super Bowl XLIII, the Pittsburgh Steelers defeated the Arizona Cardinals with much of the credit going to James Harrison and Santonio Holmes. Harrison intercepted a pass just before halftime and returned it 100 yards for a touchdown, one of the longest plays in Super Bowl history. Nearing the end of the game, with 35 seconds left on the clock, wide receiver Santonio Holmes made a remarkable toe-tap catch in the corner of the end zone to secure a touchdown and victory over the Cardinals.

10) On February 4, 2018, Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Nick Foles caught a touchdown pass on a trick play known as the "Philly Special," helping the Eagles secure their first Super Bowl victory.



11) BONUS FACT: More pizza is sold on Super Bowl Sunday than any day of the year. Pizza and chicken wings are the most popular snacks eaten on Super Bowl Sunday. Along with that, Americans consume over 1 billion chicken wings, 8 million pounds of guacamole, 11 million pounds of potato chips, 4 million pounds of pretzels, and 2.5 million pounds of nuts. They also drink 50 million cases of beer. (Sales for antacids rise by 20% the day after the Super Bowl.)