Super Bowl IV
Super Bowl IV was an American football game played on January 11, 1970, at Tulane Stadium in New Orleans, Louisiana. It was the fourth and final AFL–NFL World Championship Game in professional football prior to the AFL–NFL merger taking effect the following season. The American Football League champion Kansas City Chiefs defeated the National Football League champion Minnesota Vikings by the score of 23–7. This victory by the AFL squared the Super Bowl series with the NFL at two games apiece as the two leagues merged after the game. This was the first major professional sports championship won by a Kansas City-based team.
Despite the AFL's New York Jets winning the previous season's Super Bowl, many sports writers and fans thought it was a fluke and continued to believe that the NFL was still superior to the AFL, and thus fully expected the Vikings to defeat the Chiefs; the Vikings entered the Super Bowl as 13½ point favorites. The Vikings posted a 12–2 record in, then defeated the Los Angeles Rams 23–20 for the Western Conference title, and the Cleveland Browns 27–7 in the NFL Championship Game. The Chiefs, who previously appeared in the first Super Bowl, finished the regular season at 11–3; they continued with two road wins in the AFL playoffs, dethroning the New York Jets 13–6, and then taking down division rival Oakland Raiders 17–7 in the final AFL title game.
Under wet conditions, the Chiefs defense dominated Super Bowl IV by limiting the Vikings' offense to only 67 rushing yards, forcing three interceptions, and recovering two fumbles. The Chiefs' Len Dawson became the fourth consecutive winning quarterback to be named Super Bowl MVP. He completed 12 of 17 passes for 142 yards and one touchdown, with one interception. Dawson also recorded three rushing attempts for 11 yards.
Super Bowl IV is also notable for NFL Films miking up the Chiefs' Hank Stram during the game, the first time that a head coach had worn a microphone during a Super Bowl.
The Chiefs would not win another Super Bowl until Super Bowl LIV in 2020.
Background
Host selection process
The NFL awarded Super Bowl IV to New Orleans on March 19, 1969, at the owners' meetings held in Palm Springs, California. It marked the first of eleven Super Bowls to be held in New Orleans. Two cites were in consideration for the game, Miami being the other. After two consecutive Super Bowls played at the Miami Orange Bowl, owners by a roughly three-quarters vote, opted out of giving Miami the game for a third straight year. Some owners felt that since an AFL town had hosted the game two years in a row, that an NFL town should get another turn to balance out the hosting duties. New Orleans mayor Victor H. Schiro was joined by George W. Healy Jr. and Al Hirt. They highlighted the superior seating capacity of Tulane Stadium, as well as the local accommodations. Healy and Miami mayor Stephen P. Clark became locked in a debate during a press conference while the deliberation and voting was going on behind closed doors.Minnesota Vikings
The Minnesota Vikings, led by head coach Bud Grant, entered the game with an NFL best 12–2 regular season record, leading the older league in total points scored and fewest points allowed. They had scored 50 or greater points in three different games. They lost their first and last games of the season, but in between had 12 straight victories, the longest single-season winning streak in 35 years. The Vikings broke the previous record of 11 consecutive wins set by the 1964 Colts. Their defense, considered the most intimidating in the NFL, was anchored by a defensive line nicknamed the "Purple People Eaters", consisting of defensive tackles Gary Larsen and Alan Page, and defensive ends Carl Eller and Jim Marshall. The secondary was led by Bobby Bryant, Earsell Mackbee, and Paul Krause. However, Bryant missed the Super Bowl due to injury.On offense, quarterback Joe Kapp was known for his superb leadership and his running ability, both throwing on the run and running for extra yards. And when Kapp did take off and run, instead of sliding when he was about to be tackled like most quarterbacks, he lowered his shoulder and went right at the tackler. This style of play earned him the nickname "Indestructible". In the NFL Championship Game against the Cleveland Browns, he collided with linebacker Jim Houston while running for a first down, and Houston had to be helped off the field after the play ended. Also, Kapp was known for being an extremely unselfish leader: when he was voted the Vikings Most Valuable Player, he turned the award down and said that every player on the team was equally valuable: "There is no one most valuable Viking. There are 40 most valuable Vikings."
Running back Dave Osborn was the team's top rusher with 643 yards and seven touchdowns. He also caught 22 passes for 236 yards and another touchdown. In the passing game, Pro Bowl wide receiver Gene Washington averaged 21.1 yards per catch by recording 821 yards and nine touchdowns from 39 receptions. Wide receiver John Henderson caught 34 passes for 553 yards and 5 touchdowns. The Vikings' offensive line was anchored by Pro Bowlers Grady Alderman and Mick Tingelhoff.
By winning the 1969 NFL Championship, the Vikings became the last possessors of the Ed Thorp Memorial Trophy. The trophy was thought to have been lost by the Vikings following the merger, but it was found at the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame in 2015.
Kansas City Chiefs
Meanwhile, it seemed that the Chiefs, led by head coach Hank Stram, and especially quarterback Len Dawson, were jinxed throughout the year. In the second game of the regular season, Dawson suffered a knee injury that kept him from playing the next six games. Then in the following week, second-string quarterback Jacky Lee went down for the season with a broken ankle in a loss to the Cincinnati Bengals. However, third-string quarterback Mike Livingston engineered five wins of the next six starts, with Dawson coming off the bench in the second half of the sixth to clinch the win. The Chiefs managed to finish in second place behind the Oakland Raiders in the AFL's Western Division, after suffering a tough 10–6 loss to Oakland in the final game of the regular season. After that game, many sports writers and fans heavily criticized the team and Dawson for the poor play calling.After a 34–16 road win over the New York Jets on November 16, the Chiefs clinched a playoff spot at 9–1 with four games remaining. Wanting to set itself up more like the NFL right before the merger, the AFL expanded its 1969 playoffs to four teams, with the second place teams from each division traveling to play the first place teams from the other division. As a result of the new playoff format, many critics thought the Chiefs entered the playoffs through a "back-door" as the runner-up in the Western division. However, Dawson silenced the critics and led Kansas City to a strong finish with two road wins in the playoffs, defeating the defending champion Jets 13–6, and the Raiders 17–7 in the AFL Championship Game. This essentially made the Chiefs the first wild card team to play in the Super Bowl.
Still, many people felt that Dawson's level of play in the AFL was not comparable to the NFL. Dawson himself had spent five seasons in the NFL as a backup before going to the AFL and becoming one of its top quarterbacks. "The AFL saved my career," said Dawson. In his 8 AFL seasons, he had thrown more touchdown passes than any other professional football quarterback during that time. But because many still viewed the AFL as being inferior to the NFL, his records were not considered significant. Dawson's first chance to prove himself against an NFL team ended in failure, with his Chiefs losing 35–10 to the Green Bay Packers in Super Bowl I, reinforcing the notion that his success was only due to playing in the "inferior league".
Offensively, the Chiefs employed innovative formations and strategies designed by Stram to disrupt the timing and positioning of the defense. Besides Dawson, the Chiefs main offensive weapon was running back Mike Garrett, who rushed for 732 yards and 6 touchdowns. He also recorded 43 receptions for 432 yards and another 2 touchdowns. Running back Robert Holmes had 612 rushing yards, 266 receiving yards, and 5 touchdowns. Running back Warren McVea rushed for 500 yards and 7 touchdowns, while adding another 318 yards returning kickoffs. In the passing game, wide receiver Otis Taylor caught 41 passes for 696 yards and 7 touchdowns. The offensive line was anchored by AFL All-Stars Ed Budde and Jim Tyrer. According to Len Dawson, placekicker Jan Stenerud and punter Jerrel Wilson were the best kickers in football. The offensive line was led by tackle Jim Tyrer, who was selected to his 6th AFL pro bowl.
The Chiefs defense led the AFL in fewest points allowed, as all 11 players started all 14 games. Like the Vikings, the Chiefs also had an outstanding defensive line, which was led by defensive tackles Buck Buchanan and Curley Culp, and defensive ends Jerry Mays and Aaron Brown. The Chiefs also had AFL All-Star linebacker Willie Lanier, who recorded 4 interceptions and 1 fumble recovery during the season. The Kansas City secondary was led by defensive backs Emmitt Thomas, Jim Kearney and Johnny Robinson. Six members of the Chiefs' defense have been inducted into the Hall of Fame: Culp, Buchanan, Lanier, Thomas, Bobby Bell, and Johnny Robinson.
Kansas City's defense had shown their talent in the AFL title game when they defeated the Raiders. Raiders quarterback Daryle Lamonica had completed 13 of 17 passes for 276 yards and a record setting 6 touchdowns in a 56–7 divisional rout of the Houston Oilers in their previous game, and had shredded the Chiefs with 347 yards and 5 touchdowns in their 41–6 win in the previous season's playoffs. But in the 1969 AFL Championship Game, the Chiefs defense held him to just 15 of 39 completions and intercepted him 3 times in the fourth quarter.