How did NFL determine Home FIeld in Playoffs Before Mid-70's?

Factual Questions
1

Today, of course, and for almost 30 years, when two NFL teams are going to meet in the playoffs, the team with the better record in the regular season gets to play on its own home field. But that wasn’t always true. Just in my lifetime, I remember that…

  1. The 1967 Rams had a MUCH better record that the Packers (who barely played over .500), but had to travel to Green Bay for the playoffs, where the weather gave the Pack a huge advantage, and helped them get into Super Bowl 2.

  2. In 1968, the Raiders had a much better record than the JEts, but the AFL finals were held at Shea Stadium (where, due to the blackout rules, we New Yorkers couldn’t see the game on TV), which helped get the Jets into Super Bowl 3.

  3. Even the undefeated Miami Dolphins had to travel to Pittsburgh to play in the AFC finals, before beating the Redskins in Super Bowl 7.

So… back in those days, how did they decide home field? A coin toss? Alternating divisional winners? Anyone know?

2

To the best of my recollection, they took turns. One year the western division champ would host the league finale, the next year the eastern conference champ would.

From 1966-69 the NFL had 4 divisions (with screwy names like "Century Division) and two conferences, the east and the west. The division champs would play each other in the first round, hosting on an alternate basis, then the winners would play in the league championship.

3

The rotation of homefield advantage persisted into the early 1970s.

The 1972 Dolphins, who were undefeated, had a playoff game AT Pittsburgh.

I think soon after that the rotation policy was dropped.