50 DAYS TO 50

A DAY-BY-DAY, SUPER BOWL-BY-SUPER BOWL LOOK AT THE IMPACT OF BLACK COLLEGE PLAYERS ON SUPER BOWLS I THRU 49 AS WE COUNT THE 50 DAYS TO

DAY ONE - Monday, December 21 (FIRST WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP GAME, AFL vs. NFL) Green Bay 35, Kansas City 10 January 15, 1967 - Coliseum

12 Black College Players

1966 (3) Willie Davis DE Grambling Robert Brown DT Arkansas-Pine Bluff RB Philander Smith

1966 (9) DT Grambling Solomon Brannan DB Morris Brown Willie Mitchell DB Tennessee State WR Southern DT Texas Southern Fletcher Smith DB Tennessee State Otis Taylor WR Prairie View A&M DB Bishop ICONIC PHOTO: Kansas City’s Buck Buchanan (86, GRAMBLING) crushes Green Bay Bart Eugene Thomas RB Florida A&M Starr.

STORYLINE: Two Grambling future Pro Football Hall of Famers, Green Bay’s Willie Davis and Kansas City’s Junious “Buck” Buchanan, were among the defensive stal- warts when the AFL champion Chiefs met the NFL champion Packers in the first cham- pionship game between the two leagues. Packers Head Coach Vince guided the Packers to the first title behind an efficient passing game led by QB at the head of a ball-control offense.

GREEN BAY PACKERS Elijah Pitts, RB, (Philander Smith) – Pitts rushed for 11 times for 45 yards (4.0 yards per carry) and scored two rushing on runs of 5 and 1 yards in the first Super Bowl win for the Packers. He carried the ball for a five-yard run on the second play of the game. – Pitts also had two receptions for 32 yards in the win. He hauled in a 22-yard reception in the Packers’ second drive that resulted in the game’s first , Max McGhee’s 37-yard, one-handed grab from quarterback Bart Starr. It was the only first quarter touchdown in Super Bowl I. Pitts had a three-yard run to start that drive. – Pitts started the Packers’ fourth drive of the game with a six-yard run. He also had a 2-yard run and a run for no gain in the 13-play drive that resulted in ’s 14- yard TD run that put the Packers up 14-7, 4:37 before halftime. – Pitts scored his first touchdown, on a five-yard run over left tackle, one play after safety got the first Super Bowl , picking off at the Green Bay 45 and returning it 50 yards to the Kansas City 5. It was the first possession of the second half and came with 12:53 left in the third period and put Green Bay up 21-10. – He had a 12-yard run on the first play of the Packer’s second possession of the third quarter that resulted in a punt. He then lost two yards on the first play of the next Pack- ers drive that ended with Max McGhee’s juggling 13-yard scoring pass form Starr that put Green Bay up 28-10 with :51 seconds left in the third quarter. – In the Packers’ final TD drive, Pitts had two carries for seven yards. His covered six yards in his first run, and in the final play of the 8-play, 80-yard drive, he went left for a 1-yard TD run with 6:35 to play giving Green Bay a 35-10 lead. It was the final score of Super Bowl I. Willie Davis, DE, (Grambling) - His only credited tackle of the game came in the fourth quarter when he sacked KC QB Len Dawson for a loss of 10 yards. Robert Brown, DT, (Arkansas-Pine Bluff) – Had two tackles in the game, one a sack of Kansas City back-up quarterback for -11 yards in the fourth quarter after the Packers had gone up 35-10.

KANSAS CITY CHIEFS Otis Taylor, WR, (Prairie View) – Tied for the team lead with four (4) receptions for 57 yards. – His first reception covered 31 yards from quarterback Len Daw- son and carried from the Green Bay 38 to give the Chiefs 1st-and- goal at the Green Bay 7. It came one play before Kansas City tied the score at 7 on Dawson’s 7-yard pass to Curtis McClinton with 10:40 left in the second period. – In the Chiefs’ final drive of the first half, Taylor caught an 11-yard pass from Dawson that helped lead to Mike Mercer’s 31-yard that pulled KC within 14-10, :54 seconds before halftime. – Had an 11-yard reception in the Chiefs’ second possession of the third quarter. Willie Mitchell, DB, (Tennessee State) - Seven (7) tackles but was picked on all day by GB QB Bart Starr and gave up 94 yards during five completions on the day. He covered Max McGhee, a replacement for injured starter , who had two TD receptions in the game. Also had a fourth- quarter interception of Starr. – His interception came on a deep pass intended for McGhee that he picked off at the KC 10 with 13:19 left in the game. – Later in the fourth quarter he tackled Carrol Dale after a 25-yard catch, and brought down McGhee after a 37-yard catch on back-to-back plays. Had another tackle on Dale after a seven-yard gain two plays later. Buck Buchanan, (Grambling) - Had four tackles, one a sack of Bart Starr for a loss of 10 yards in the first series, the first-ever Super Bowl sack on the fifth play of the game. - He tackled Jim Taylor after a 3-yard second quarter gain and tackled Taylor again after a 3-yard third quarter run. - Buchanan got his final tackle in Green Bay’s final possession, tackling back-up QB after a 2-yard gain. Emmit Thomas, KC, (Bishop) - Had a 2-yard punt return after Green Bay’s first possession of the second quarter. He was not credited with a tackle in the game.

MVP: Bart Starr, QB, GB - 16 of 23, 250 yards, 2 TDs, 1 int.

KEY FACTS: KANSAS CITY: The game was a lot closer than the final score indicates. The Chiefs rushed for 72 yards in 19 carries (3.8 ypc.) but were 3-of-13 on third downs. Len Daw- son completed 16 of 27 passes for 211 yards and one TD but had a costly interception that was returned to the KC five setting up the Packers’ second TD. GREEN BAY - The Packers ran 33 times for 133 yards and converted on 11 of 14 third downs. Elijah Pitts’ 45 yards on 11 carries (4.0 ypc.) were more productive that Jim Taylor’s 17 carries for 56 yards (3.2 ypc.). Taylor had a 14-yard second-quarter TD run.

IN THE PITS: Green Bay’s Elijah Pitts (22, PHILANDER SMITH) runs with the ball against the Kansas City Chiefs’ defense during Super Bowl I at Memorial Coliseum on Jan. 15, 1967, in Los Angeles. Pitts rushed for 45 yards and two touchdowns in the 35-10 Green Bay win.

FRUSTRATED: Otis Taylor (89, PRAIRIE VIEW) of the Kansas City Chiefs gets some comforting words from the assistant coach on the during the Super Bowl at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles, Calif., Jan. 15, 1967. Taylor was one of the stars of the Chiefs, but the Green Bay Packers won the game 35-10. (AP Photo)

MAN CRUSH: Kansas City’s Buck Buchanan (86, GRAMBLING) crushes Green Bay quarterback Bart Starr (15) in the first series of Super Bowl I at the Los Angeles Coliseum on Jan 15, 1967. The sack by Buchanan, a future Hall of Famer, was the first in Super Bowl his- tory.