January 14, 1968: Vince Lombardi Hangs Up His Whistle

Vince Lombardi, carried off the field

by Forrest Gregg & Jerry Kramer

January 14, 1968: The 2nd AFL-NFL World Championship Game is played at the Orange Bowl in Miami. It will be retroactively named Super Bowl II.

For the 5th time in the last 7 years, the Green Bay Packers were the NFL Champions. Vince Lombardi had been their head coach, and their general manager. Two weeks earlier, he won his 3rd straight NFL title by guiding the Packers to victory over the Dallas Cowboys in a game known as the Ice Bowl. Now, he was going to coach in America's most famous warm-weather city. And there was a rumor going around that he was going to retire after the game.

The AFL Champions, for the 1st time, were the Oakland Raiders. John Rauch was their coach, with Al Davis as their owner and GM. Davis had wanted the AFL to beat the NFL, not merge with them. But the merger had happened. Now, Davis wanted to beat the NFL's signature team and signature coach.

It was no contest. In the 1st quarter, Don Chandler kicked a 39-yard field goal to put the Packers on the board. In the 2nd quarter, he added 2 more, while Bart Starr threw a 62-yard touchdown pass to Boyd Dowler. The Raiders' only score of the 1st half was a 23-yard touchdown pass from Daryle Lamonica, known as "The Mad Bomber," to Bill Miller. It was 16-7 Packers.

In the 3rd quarter, Donny Anderson ran the ball in from the 2-yard line, and Chandler kicked a 31-yard field goal. In the 4th quarter, Herb Adderley intercepted a Lamonica pass, and returned it 60-yard touchdown. Lamonica threw another touchdown pass to Miller, but it was too little, too late. The Packers won, 33-14.

Lombardi did retire. But he came out of retirement in 1969, to become the head coach and general manager of the Washington Redskins. He got them to improve from 5-9 to 7-5-2 in his 1st season, but it would be his only season: He fell victim to colon cancer, and died shortly before the start of the 1970 season, only 57 years old.

The Raiders would suffer some agonizing postseason losses, before the 1976 season, winning Super Bowl XI.

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January 14, 1968 was a Sunday. James Todd Smith, the rapper and actor known as LL Cool J, was born.

Baseball was out of season. There was 1 game played in the NBA: The St. Louis Hawks beat the Chicago Bulls, 99-92 at the Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis. There were 3 games in the American Basketball Association, which was in its 1st season:

* The Minnesota Muskies beat the Oakland Oaks, 128-107 at the Metropolitan Sports Center in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.

* The Houston Mavericks beat the Indiana Pacers, 92-87 at Sam Houston Coliseum in Houston.

* And the Dallas Chaparrals beat the Anaheim Amigos, 130-123 at the Anaheim Convention Center.

And there were 3 games in the NHL:

* The Boston Bruins beat the Minnesota North Stars, 9-2 at the Boston Garden.

* The Chicago Black Hawks and the St. Louis Blues played to a tie, 2-2 at the Chicago Stadium.

* And the Philadelphia Flyers beat the Oakland Seals, 6-3 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena.