Jan. 12, 1969: In a landmark accomplishment for merger integration, the New York Jets defeat the Baltimore Colts 16-7 to capture Super Bowl III. The National Football League and the upstart American Football League had agreed to combine three years earlier and began pitting their champions against each other in 1967. But the first two such games were not competitive. The dominant NFL team of the time, the Green Bay Packers, won both encounters by a combined score of 68-24. The Pack first trounced the Kansas City Chiefs 35-10, then dispatched the Oakland Raiders 33-14. Most observers expected the NFL Colts to dish out a similar humiliation and many questioned whether the AFL teams could ever match the strength of their rivals from the more established league. The Jets, led by quarterback Joe Namath, had other ideas. While the outcome demonstrated that the two leagues could function as a single entity every Sunday, an off-the-field culture clash posed a continuing challenge. For example, Super Bowl III is also famous for Namath’s pregame guarantee that he would repeatedly make a fool out of himself. —Jeffrey Kanige
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