The Super Bowl’s Civil Rights Roots

The cancellation of the 1965 New Orleans All Star Game played a role in creating the Super Bowl.

The Super Bowl is an American celebration and it took an act of Congress to create the Big Game. The event’s roots can be traced back to a game that was never played, the January 1965 American Football League All Star Game in New Orleans. African-American players boycotted that game and it set off a series of events that concluded in the first championship game between the AFL and the National Football League on January 15^th, 1967.

Despite the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964, African American players who were selected to play in New Orleans encountered problems. The players were denied cab rides into New Orleans, threatened physically and were called names. Cookie Gilchrist led the boycott and the game was moved to Houston. New Orleans never got an AFL team and the NFL became leery of the market but when the two leagues announced a merger on June 8^th, 1966, New Orleans became a political football. The merger needed Congressional approval first and there were two roadblocks, Louisiana Senator Russell Long and Louisiana Congressman Hale Boggs, two powerful players in both chambers. NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle lobbied both and both said they did not see how a merger would benefit New Orleans. Eventually Rozelle got a deal together, a 1967 NFL expansion team for New Orleans in exchange for Long and Boggs’ support. There was some political maneuvering that kept the 15 NFL teams and nine AFL teams in their cities. The legislation passed and was sent to President Lyndon Johnson who signed the measure on November 8^th, 1966. The first game did not sell out in Los Angeles. The Super Bowl took a few years to become an unofficial national holiday. The Big Game’s parents are Jim Crow and members of the 1966 U.S. Congress.

Hale Boggs