When Super Bowls Were Truly "Super"

Fans like me and my twelve year old son will sit for hours watching the just completed NFL draft, just to see which large men get phone calls.

We predict who will go next in a round and who our favorite teams will likely pick.

But who knew that my sports prognostication prowess would peak at age 11 on January 11, 1970, when I announced to the Yankton (S.D.) Swim Team the early afternoon of Super Bowl Sunday that my Kansas City Chiefs would defeat the heavily favored Minnesota Vikings?

Read: KansasCityChiefs - Chiefs vs Vikings - SuperBowl IV (K.C. Chiefs)

We were approaching the end of our workout. Just before diving in for one last sprint, our coach asked, "Ok, who's going to win the Super Bowl this afternoon? A show of hands for the Vikings."

About 19 young, wet hands went into the air. Yankton, SD was even more Minnesota Vikings territory than it is today.

"Ok," the coach asked, "How about the Chiefs?"

My lone, wet hand went into the air.

A chorus of giggles echoed in the tiled indoor pool at the Benedictine Center at Mount Marty College.

"Epp, you're all alone!" my coach laughed.

True then and true now.

"The Chiefs will win, you'll see!" I exclaimed. "Len Dawson, Otis Taylor, and Buck Buchanan are better than any of those Vikings!"

I was sort of trying to convince myself. But I knew my heroes in red and gold would win. Coach Hank Stram was a freakin' offensive genius. Len Dawson was Mr. Cool under pressure. No one could cover Otis Taylor. And big defensive lineman Buck Buchanan ate offensive lineman for lunch.

The 1969 Kansas City Chiefs were the last AFL team to win a Super Bowl, as the AFL and NFL merged in the 1970 season..

There was and is no logical reason for me being a Chiefs fan other than my favorite aunt and uncle, Mary and E.W., lived in Gladstone, MO. I had been to Kansas City a time or two to see them as a youngster and to me, everything was up to date in Kansas City. It was, to me, The Big City.

And those Chiefs I mentioned-and others of that era-were my heroes.

In fact, still are.

A few years ago, I paid a tidy sum to get Len Dawson's autograph on his 8 x 10 color glossy from his playing days.

Oh, the score 37 years ago? Chiefs 23 Vikings 7. I sat in front of the old Motorola color TV-our family's first-and watched every minute of the game.

It is still the sweetest sports victory in my life that I didn't personally play in or coach.