‘67 Game Matched CBS, NBC; : Final Score: 17-13 or 16-12 : Network Battle of Super Bowl I

Two may usually be better than one, but that wasn’t the case on Jan. 15, 1967, when two television networks covered the first Super Bowl.

It created a little confusion and a whole lot of competition.

Jack Whitaker, who worked the game for CBS, said during an interview this week: “There was tremendous pressure for us to get a higher rating than NBC. I’d never felt that kind of pressure before, and haven’t felt it since.”

NBC’s Charlie Jones, from his home in La Jolla, said: “We had production meetings back at our hotel every night during the week leading up to the game, and so did they. We plotted how to beat CBS, and they plotted how to beat us.”

Pat Summerall of CBS, from his home in Lake City, Fla., said: “It was different than anything I’ve ever done as a broadcaster.”

Actually, the announcers found the rivalry ridiculous, but their bosses didn’t.

Whitaker, now with ABC, said from his Palm Springs home: “We ended up getting the higher rating, but it had nothing to do with us (the CBS announcers) or anything we did.

“CBS got the higher rating simply because CBS was available in more homes and also because viewers tuned in out of habit since CBS had been televising the NFL longer.

“It was a good lesson in humility.”

CBS, in an unusual setup, had Ray Scott doing the play-by-play the first half and Whitaker the second. Frank Gifford was the commentator, and Summerall worked the sideline and the winners’ locker room.

Curt Gowdy did the play-by-play for NBC, with Paul Christman, who has since died, doing the commentary. Jones was assigned to the sideline and the losers’ locker room, and George Ratterman, who worked the game as a commentator for radio, was assigned to the winners’ locker room for television.

The shared television feed was a first for sports. “They’d done it before for some space shots, but not for sports,” Jones said.

CBS, which had been doing NFL football since the ‘50s, didn’t think NBC, which had started doing the American Football League in 1965, should be involved.

But NBC argued that it had put a lot of money into the AFL and deserved to be there.

So it was agreed that CBS would provide the pictures and each network would use its own announcers for the game at the Los Angeles Coliseum between the Green Bay Packers of the NFL and the Kansas City Chiefs of the upstart AFL.

One of the first arguments was over camera position. NBC wasn’t happy with where CBS wanted its 11 cameras.

The arguments among the network brass and the technical staff continued through the game.

“There was more animosity among the technical people, who belonged to different unions, than there was between the two teams,” Summerall said. “They had to put up a chain link fence at the Coliseum to separate those guys.”

There was more of a cooperative spirit among the announcers.

Said Jones: “Summerall and I, as the sideline reporters, were set up at card tables on the Green Bay side. He was at one 20-yard line, and I was at the other, but we secretly agreed to work together. We figured the people at home would be watching one telecast or the other and not both.

“We had both gone to Arkansas at the same time and knew each other.”

Vince Lombardi, Green Bay’s coach, had been an assistant coach with the New York Giants when Summerall played for them.

“Pat had an ‘in’ there,” Jones said, “and I had an ‘in’ with the Chiefs since Hank Stram (then the Chiefs’ coach) was a good friend.

“The first big thing to happen was (Packer receiver) Boyd Dowler got injured and came over to the sidelines, where they took off his jersey and wrapped his shoulder.

“I looked down at Pat, and he was just sitting there. So I walked down and told him, ‘Go find out what’s wrong with Dowler.’ ”

Recalled Summerall: “I knew Lombardi wouldn’t let anyone connected with the telecast near his bench. That was his office, and it was off-limits.”

Said Jones: “I finally talked Pat into asking the trainer about Dowler. He learned that Dowler had a separated shoulder and was out for the game.”

Later, the Chiefs’ Fred (the Hammer) Williamson, who had made some derogatory remarks about the Packers before the game, was hurt and carried off. This time, Jones got the information and fed it to Summerall.

Problem was, NBC never went down to Jones for either injury report, so only CBS benefited from the sharing.

Jones had his problems after the game, as well. He was in the Kansas City locker room with running back Mike Garrett, quarterback Len Dawson and owner Lamar Hunt.

But the CBS director working the game, Bob Dailey, never cut to Jones. “At the time he said it was a time problem, but years later he said he didn’t cut to me because it wouldn’t have been good television,” Jones said.

“Here we had someone in the losers’ locker room, something that wasn’t done in those days, but nobody knew it.”

Summerall had problems of a different sort in the winners’ locker room.

He was getting ready to go on the air with Packer fullback Jim Taylor when Dailey shouted into Summerall’s headset. “Tell him to get rid of that Coke can,” was the order.

“Well,” Summerall said, “I wasn’t at that moment going to tell Jim Taylor to put down his Coke, or I guess I should say Coca-Cola.

“I had on a blazer and was sweating like a hog. So he offered me a swig and I took him up on it.

“He didn’t tell me he had laced it with Old Taylor (the whiskey). I was gagging and coughing when I heard, ‘Ten seconds to air.’ When they came to me, I couldn’t talk.”

Ratterman, the former Notre Dame quarterback who now lives in Denver and teaches real estate courses and law classes, was in the Packer locker room for NBC. “The battle in there was more exciting than the game,” he said.

Said Summerall: “We were up there with Taylor and Elijah Pitts, and I was asking questions when Dailey said I had to let Ratterman ask a question.

“So I handed the mike to George. The next thing I heard was my boss, Bill MacPhail, screaming at me from the truck: ‘We didn’t say give him the mike. We said let him ask a question. Now get that freaking mike back.’ ”

Gifford, like Summerall, had played for the Giants when Lombardi was with them. “I had gotten Lombardi to agree to let me interview him during the pregame show,” Gifford said from New York. “That was going to be our big scoop.

“What I remember more than anything else about that Super Bowl was how up-tight Lombardi was during the week. I spent quite a bit of time with him and knew there was a tremendous amount of pressure on him from the NFL owners. They expected the Packers to win by 30 or 40 points.

“Anyway, when I motioned to Lombardi to come over for our interview, he waved me off. I dropped my mike and ran over and got him. He was scared to death. He was trembling, literally. But he did agree to a short interview.

“Meanwhile, Paul Christman saw me with Lombardi, and he came running across the field. He stuck his mike up there, too, and there went our little exclusive.”

The NFL wanted the Packers to work out in the L.A. area, but Lombardi set up camp in Santa Barbara.

Said NBC’s Jones: “The only thing we did with Lombardi was on the Monday before the game, I drove up to Santa Barbara for a five-minute interview. Everyone was scared to death of him, including me. And you can’t do an interview when you’re scared. My questions were very tentative and soft. When he got tired of me, he just got up and left.”

Scott, who now lives in Tucson and is the radio voice of the University of Arizona, said: “What I remember best is that I almost didn’t do the game at all.

“Bill MacPhail pulled me aside before the Green Bay-Dallas championship game and said because CBS had to beat NBC in the ratings war, it appeared Jack Whitaker was going to be the play-by-play announcer for the Super Bowl.

“Jack Buck was the Cowboy announcer, and I was the Packer announcer. MacPhail said Buck was out no matter what, but if Green Bay won, I might be used in some capacity.

“Well, being the obstinate person that I am and so hard to get along with, I told MacPhail what he could do with my CBS contract.

“After the Packers had beaten the Cowboys to qualify for the Super Bowl, I got a call from one of MacPhail’s underlings. He said: ‘I’ve got good news and I’ve got bad news. You’re doing play by play, but only for a half.’

“I’ll always remember what Jack Whitaker said to me when I first saw him in Los Angeles. He said, ‘With the Packers in the Super Bowl, it wouldn’t have been right for you not to be here.’

“That’s why Whitaker has been a good friend of mine ever since.”

Scott also remembers a conversation he had with Max McGee at the Sheraton Town House the night before the game.

“Max pulled me over at the hotel--we looked like a couple of conspirators--and told me Dowler had hurt his shoulder in the Dallas game.

“Max said, ‘I don’t know if I’ll get in the game, but if I do, they’ll never get me out.’

“He told me he’d been studying the game films, which in itself was hard to believe. ‘Ray,’ he said. ‘I’ve found me a cornerback I’ll have for breakfast, lunch and dinner.’ And that’s an exact quote.”

McGee got into the game and caught 7 passes for 138 yards and 2 touchdowns.

Gowdy, who has business ventures in New England, Florida and Wyoming, was reached at his office in the Boston area.

“I have a vivid memory of Paul Christman and I at dinner the night before the game and having a toast,” he said. “We clicked our glasses together, and I said, ‘Let’s not do this game any different than any other. Just do it nice and easy.’

“Paul Christman, to this day, is the best football commentator who ever lived, as far as I’m concerned.”

Christman died in 1970.

“We could have been doing the game in Billings, Mont., as easily as Los Angeles,” Gowdy said. “We had no control over the pictures.

“But I must say, the director, Bob Dailey, a good man, was very fair. We had no complaints about him.

“They beat us in the ratings--I can’t remember exactly, like 17 to 13, or 16 to 12. But we considered that a victory because the NFL had teams in all the major markets, CBS was in more homes and CBS had been televising the NFL for so long.

“One thing that might have helped was NBC promoted us like crazy. We were on the ‘Today’ show and the Carson show and all of those.”

The NBC publicists working that game were the late Ed Weisman of the New York office, the father of Michael Weisman, the executive producer of NBC Sports, and Bud Tenerani of the West Coast office.

“They put out all this stuff about how Paul and I were the greatest,” Gowdy said. “I’ll tell you, it was embarrassing.”