California Super Bowls on the front page

By Matt Wilhalme

Feb. 4, 2016 4 AM PT

Sunday will mark the 12th time California has hosted the Super Bowl dating to the the first AFL-NFL championship game in 1967.

The game has changed since that first meeting at the Coliseum, but it has always been a front-page story. So we dug a bit into the archives and retrieved the Super Bowl covers from the 11 previous games.

It was in Super Bowl VII at the Coliseum that the Don Shula-led Miami Dolphins put the finishing touches on their perfect 1972 season. In Pasadena, the Los Angeles Rams played essentially a home game in 1980, but couldn't keep Terry Bradshaw and the Pittsburgh Steelers from winning their fourth Super Bowl in six years.

The San Francisco 49ers made good on the home-field advantage at Stanford Stadium in Super Bowl XIX, defeating the Dolphins, 38-16. Quarterback Dan Marino, the NFL's most valuable player, was out-dueled by veteran Joe Montana, who won the second of his three Super Bowl MVP awards.

Which brings us to Sunday's game at Santa Clara, where quarterback Cam Newton, the presumptive NFL MVP, and the Carolina Panthers will face Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos. The game will feature a dropback passer, Manning, against a mobile quarterback -- less than 15 miles from where Montana beat Marino in 1985.

Each game has its place in history, and so will this one. For now, click on each image below to see a larger PDF view and take a trip back in time.