Super Bowl III was the third Super Bowl, the championship of American football, but the first to officially bear the name Super Bowl. (The two previous AFL-NFL Championship Games would retroactively be called "Super Bowls" as well.) The game was played on January 12, 1969 at the Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida.

The final result was New York Jets 16, Baltimore Colts 7.

The game was broadcast on NBC in the United States with Curt Gowdy, Al DeRogatis and Kyle Rote .

Playoffs

In the 1968 AFL Championship game, Joe Namath and the New York Jets rallied to defeat the Oakland Raiders, 27-23, at Shea Stadium to advance to the Super Bowl.

In the NFL, the Cleveland Browns defeated the Dallas Cowboys, 31-20 and the Baltimore Colts defeated the Minnesota Vikings, 23-14 in the NFL Conference Championships. The Colts went on to shut out the Browns in the NFL Championship game, 34-0.

Before the game

The Colts, the champions of the NFL, were heavily favored (In some books, by over 20 points) to defeat the AFL champion Jets. Although the upstart AFL had successfully forced the long-established NFL into a merger agreement three years earlier, the previous AFL champions had lost the first two Super Bowls and the league was not generally respected as having the same calibre of talent as the NFL.

However, at the Touchdown Club in Miami, Jets quarterback Joe Namath predicted a Jets victory. "I guarantee it," he said.

The game

Matt Snell rushed for 121 yards, including the Jets' touchdown, and George Sauer caught eight passes for 133 yards. Don Maynard played injured, but his 112-yard, two touchdown performance against the Oakland Raiders in the AFL championship game made the Colts so wary of him that Namath took advantage of single coverage on other receivers, while the Jets defense shut down a Colts offense that had carried them to a 13-1 record during the regular season. Although the Colts had been touted by the NFL as "the greatest team of all time", Namath and the American Football League's Jets silenced the arrogant older league and struck a blow for underdogs everywhere. Jets cornerback Randy Beverly intercepted passes by Earl Morrall and Johnny Unitas in the end zone, ending two of Baltimore's scoring opportunities. Baltimore's only points came late in the fourth quarter after the game was out of reach.

Scoring Summary

New York Jets -- Snell, 4 yard run (J. Turner kick for the extra point) [7--0]   (05:57, 2nd)
                       ----+++ HALFTIME +++----
New York Jets -- J. Turner, 32 yard field goal      [10--0]  (04:52, 3rd)
New York Jets -- J. Turner, 30 yard field goal      [13--0]  (11:02, 3rd)
New York Jets -- J. Turner, 9 yard field goal       [16--0]  (01:34, 4th)
Baltimore Colts -- Hill, 1 yard run (Michaels kick for the extra point)  [16--7]f (11:41, 4th)

External link

• SuperBowl.com: Super Bowl III Recap