Super Bowl Anniversaries – 3: Jets vs. Colts

By Dave “Large” Larzelere
When: January 12, 1969, 39 years ago today
Where: It was the second of five Super Bowls played at the Orange Bowl, and also the second in a row. This is the only time the Super Bowl has been held in the same stadium in consecutive years.
Why: The Colts were hands down the best team in the NFL in 1968, losing only once in the regular season to Cleveland, a loss they emphatically made up for in the NFL Championship Game, destroying the Browns 34-0. As for the Jets, they were 11-3, and also avenged a loss (the Heidi Game, no less) in the AFL Championship Game, edging the Raiders, 27-23.
Who: Well, many of the old-time Baltimore cigar-chompers would say the main “who†of this game boiled down to an absence rather than a presence – that of the great Colts QB, John Unitas. He had missed most of the season with an elbow injury, and his replacement Earl Morrall filled in magnificently, winning himself the NFL MVP and taking the Colts to the Super Bowl. There, however, Morrall floundered, throwing three picks. Unitas came on in relief and led the team to their only TD in the fourth quarter, and there’s still many an old-timer out there would tell you that if only Johnny U had started the game, the greatest upset in league history never would have happened. On the Jets side of the ball, the laurels belonged to old Mr. I Guarantee It himself, Joe Willie (who won the MVP), RB Matt Snell, WR George Sauer, and an all-around heroic performance on D.
National Anthem: Anita Bryant, who is borderline famous for two highly dubious reasons – she was the runner-up in the 1959 Miss America pageant, and she is a virulently anti-gay political crusader who once uttered these words: “If gays are granted rights, next we’ll have to give rights to prostitutes and to people who sleep with St. Bernards and to nail biters.â€
Notable Entertainment: Bob Hope. It’s hard for us to imagine now, but the fact that Hope graced the game with his presence was then considered a sure sign that the Super Bowl had hit the big time.
Nuggets: This was undoubtedly the biggest upset in Super Bowl history and is still considered one of the biggest upsets in all of sports period. The Jets were 18-point underdogs to start and the line crept up to 20 by kickoff. This is also the first Super Bowl that was actually called the “Super Bowl.†The first two games were called AFL-NFL Championship Games. Legendary Chiefs exec Lamar Hunt coined the term, and evidently got the idea from the “Super Ball.†In conclusion, the game immediately transformed Broadway Joe Namath into such an unbelievably huge icon that he could get away with making an ad for panty-hose and still seem like a stone-cold stud. Observe:

Final Score: Jets 16, Colts 7↵