Source: si.com / The first Super Bowl was contested in mid-January 1967 from sunny Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The NFL's Green Bay Packers met the AFL's Kansas City Chiefs. An unlikely hero emerged in the game, and his story one is an epic one- from long-ago pro football lore.

The Epic Tale of Max McGee, Super Bowl I, and One Heck of a Night Out on the Town

As we all look forward to the big game tomorrow, Super Bowl Eve is the perfect time to tell one of the great stories of Super Bowl history, long-lost to another era in time. Our story takes place on the eve of the very first Super Bowl and it is one of the all-time greats. It seems more like a story that your one friend likes to tell while sitting around the bar, you know that one friend that always embellishes everything and tells the tallest tales. This one ranks right up there with the very best.

"Super Bowl I" was contested at Los Angeles' Memorial Coliseum between the NFL Champion Green Bay Packers and the AFL Champion Kansas City Chiefs. The 1966 season brought with it a sea of change in professional football. The upstart AFL had started to gain serious traction and grown in popularity since first forming in 1960. By 1965, the two leagues were locked in a bitter bidding-war for the most talented players. The AFL's New York Jets made a big splash by signing Alabama's Joe Namath in 1965 to a large contract, as Namath became the first overall draft pick to spur the long-established NFL for the AFL. It was decided that for the first time following the 1966 season that the two professional leagues' champions would meet each other in a final contest to determine who had the superior team in all the land.

Source: si.com / The aging McGee came off the bench to turn in a legendary performance.

The perception at the time was that the NFL was the superior league, with better teams, better talent, and therefore was a better overall product. The AFL meanwhile, was viewed more as a secondary league than as the NFL's equal. The league was eager to shake this moniker, and the Kansas City Chiefs' players were ready to show the world just how good the AFL really was. Meanwhile, the Green Bay Packers and head coach Vince Lombardi were under immense pressure to win "The First NFL-AFL Championship Game" (as it was referred to at the time). New York Giants owner Wellington Mara sent Lombardi telegrams in the week leading up to the game saying that he represented the honor and integrity of the league and not to let them down. The importance of the game weighed heavily on Lombardi in the days leading up to the contest. He was increasingly on-edge and anxiety-ridden. He raised fines to an exorbitant amount for breaking curfew once the team arrived in Los Angeles, and on the eve of the Super Bowl warned every player that if anyone dared to break curfew he would not only fine them, but release them from the team and see to it that they never played another down in the league again.

Source: pinterest.com / Lombardi's wrath was well-known, but it didn't stop Max McGee from disobeying the legendary coach and breaking curfew on the eve of the big game.

Even the stern warnings of the fired-up Lombardi, did not detour one of the teams' most notorious late-night perusers in end Max McGee. McGee had longed roomed with Paul Hornung when the team was on the road. Hornung was known as "the Golden Boy", he had won a Heisman at Notre Dame, and he could literally do-it-all on the field - throw, run, pass, block, and kick. Hornung was like a son to Lombardi, tended to bend the rules more than anyone and was just as notorious as McGee for his late-night accolades. McGee was an aging veteran at the time, 34 years old and in his 11th season. He had given way to Boyd Dowler, who had a solid season catching the ball. Dowler had suffered a fairly significant shoulder injury in the NFL championship game in Dallas after getting upended by a Cowboys' defender after a scoring a late TD. He was healthy for the game however, and McGee figured he wouldn't be seeing the field. (He only caught 4 passes during the 1966 regular season.)

Source: si.com / Lombardi knew he had to keep an eye on the notorious McGee at all times.

So, he decided to ignore the harsh warnings of Lombardi, and snuck-out to enjoy the LA, and in-particular, Hollywood nightlife. As legend has it, he hit the town with a pair of starlet stewardesses, and made the most of the opportunity to party on the town and take-in the city's vibrant night-scene.

Packers QB Bart Starr was down in the team's hotel lobby early the next morning at about 6:30 am (the morning of the Super Bowl) to grab a newspaper and noticed a disheveled McGee sneaking-in after pulling an all-nighter out on the town. Starr thought to himself, my gosh, here it was the night before the biggest game of our lives, and he had spent the entire night out-partying.

Source: nytimes.com / McGee's incredible one-handed catch was the first touchdown scored in Super Bowl history.

Flash-forward to later in the day, and Super Bowl I kicked off from the sunny Los Angeles Coliseum in mid-January. As fortune would have it, Dowler re-injured his shoulder early in the game, and McGee was thrust into action right-away in the first quarter. On the Packers' second possession of the game, it was McGee that finished off the drive with a spectacular one-handed catch where he reached behind himself with his right-arm completely extended and hauled-in a Bart Starr pass right in front of a Chiefs' defender and raced into the end zone, for the first touchdown in Super Bowl history. The 37-yard catch was just the start for McGee as he went on to add a 13-yard 3rd quarter touchdown reception and torch Kansas City for 138 yards total on 7 catches with the two scores for the game.

Source: sportsthenandnow.com / McGee added another acrobatic touchdown catch in the 3rd quarter.

It was an epic performance from a seasoned-veteran. Bart Starr had himself a fine game as well, and was awarded the game's MVP, but honestly, they probably should have split-it and gave McGee a share of it. As for the game itself, the Packers came-out tight and a bit nervous (as to be expected), and as Willie Davis once said, Kansas City was actually a really good football team, all leading to a much-closer than expected first half. The Packers led 14-10 at the break, but went on to outscore the Chiefs 21-0 in the second half, as they coasted to the victory.

McGee's epic accolades the night before the Super Bowl, and then what he went on to accomplish on the field during the game will forever be a part of NFL lore. It's a story from another time, and really the ultimate regular-guy tall tale. Aging, once-starting, heavily-called upon receiver, now the seldom-used backup, disobeys the most-legendary coach's sternest warnings, spends the night before the game, out partying literally all night long with a pair of bombshells, and then goes on to score the first touchdown in Super Bowl history, while turning in the performance of a lifetime. What a story, and a what a reminder that you never know who can make the difference in the Super Bowl. Will an aging, seldom-used anymore veteran make the big play come tomorrow? We shall see - but what we do know is that many, many years ago, on the eve of the biggest game ever played, Max McGee had an epic night out on the town, and followed it up by an even more epic performance the following day on the field…