It’s certainly possible that someone, somewhere may have a home movie of portions of the game. Wasn’t it just a few years ago that footage of Babe Ruth’s “called shot” from 1932 appeared? That was 65+ years after the game it showed.
Zev Steinhardt
There is obviously film of the game. NFL Films shot it. And it’s not unlikely that somebody there brought a camera and shot some of it themselves, but I doubt it would be the whole game.
But what’s missing is EITHER the CBS or NBC broadcast (they pooled the feed) with either of the set of announcers: Curt Gowdy and Paul Christman for NBC, Ray Scott, Jack Whitaker, and Frank Gifford for CBS.
I don’t think the absence of a copy of this telecast is the result of a lack of looking. This broadcast has been on the top of the Museum of Television and Radio’s Most Wanted list for a long time.
And here is the “Most Wanted List” from the Museum of Television and Radio
From
http://www.afi.com/about/preservation/collection/wanted.aspx
Probably all of the plays exist as NFL films. There were no doubt numerous 16mm cameramen in the stands and on the field. So that isn’t the problem. But we lack a video record of the game as a whole (i.e., when the clock was running between plays), not to mention of the entire broadcast (the time outs, the pre-game, half-time event, post-game).
Very real. But there are a couple of things to consider. First, are you sure the tapes you had were 20 years old? the VHS format is less than 25 years old, so those would be some pretty early tapes.
But even if they were in fact 20 years old, that’s still fairly modern in terms of magnetic tape, and the development of Beta and VHS required some significant advances in tape technology, both in data density and durability. Tape from the 1960s was not as high-tech.
Also, I suspect that cassettes offer much greater physical and environmental protection to the tape itself than most open reel tapes get. Open reel tapes were usually stored in cardboard boxes, sometimes in a plastic bag within the box. (More durable and protective plastic cases were used for storage of active tapes or important archival materials, but being expensive, they were rarely used for long-term storage of ordinary tapes.) The cardboard boxes absorbed moisture and could promote the growth of mold. The reels have openings in them through which water, mold, and other goop can directly attack the tape.
I have personally handled old reel-to-reel tapes that have grown mold, become melted or warped, or which visibly shed chunks of oxide when you fast wound them. Magnetic tape is not a permanent medium.
Interestingly, NPR’s On The Media did a story this week about the death of magnetic tape, because the last manufacturing plant for tape has just closed. See also this story.
The U-Matic videocassette format went on the market in the U.S. in 1972; Betamax in 1975, and VHS in 1977.
It wasn’t until 1973 that the Super Bowl was shown live in its host city. And it took some major arm twisting to get Pete Rozelle to let up on his insistence that all NFL games be blacked out in their home city.
Super Bowl I was not shown in Los Angeles and only 61,000 showed up for the game at the Coliseum.
I know. I was using them as soon as they came out.
I was only mentioning cassettes because Little Nemo seemed to be expressing skepticism about my earlier statements on the longevity of videotape, and based his view on his personal experience with some old VHS tapes.
I presented reasons why that personal experience wouldn’t necessarily apply to the 2-inch open reel tapes that might have the first Super Bowl on them.
Or did I misunderstand the point of your post?
More like 15 years ago that turned up. And the footage proved nothing either way.
Err…more like 13 years ago.
is footage of SB1 “definately” forever gone…
I think i can safely answer: No.
There is always a remote posibilty of a copy existing somewhere .
(I feel intelligent now 
)
Yes, I bought a VCR as one of my first purchases after starting my job in 1982. These copies date from 1983 or maybe 1984 at the latest.
Hope I didn’t come off as argumentative. Having personal experience of magnetic tapes lasting far beyond its supposed shelf life (in addition to the aforementioned VHS tapes, I also once played some 25 year old audiotapes that worked fine) I was just wondering if deterioration was as big a factor as I’d heard claimed.
I thought the NFL only blacked out home city games when the stadium doesn’t sell out? Other than the first Superbowl, has there been any other non-sellouts?
You wrote that the VHS format was less than 25 years old. It’s actually approaching 28 years. And Little Nemo didn’t necessarily say that his old tapes were VHS, which is why I listed the alternate possibilities of U-Matic or Betamax tapes.
It all depends on how well the tape was stored. While it is possible some financially well off person did a home recording, odds are against it. The networks could have easily preserved the tapes had they wanted to. The problem is it looks like they didn’t. Likely because they saw this broadcast as not that important. Note it has been mentioned SB I didn’t even sell out in the city it was played in. It just wasn’t that important of a football game at the time it was played.
From February 1961:
That’s the rule now, but back in those days the local blackout rule used to extend to all home games, out of fear that people would stay home rather than buy tickets to see the game. As TV revenues became a bigger part of the NFL pie vs. ticket sales, the NFL eventually adapted the rule to its current state. Super Bowl I was the only time the game didn’t sell out.
Ah, yes, I see. I was recalling the introduction of VHS in relation to certain landmarks in my life, and was a little off. Thanks for setting me straight.
I was assuming that the only VCR that Little Nemo was likely to still have handy and working was a VHS. Yes, it could have been a U-matic or Beta, but those were unlikely. (And, as it happens, I was right in that assumption.)
This reminds me of the battle between Beta and VHS back then. IIRC, Beta was introduced with a one-hour recording capability, that was later extended to two hours. VHS started with four-hour capabilty, which Beta eventually matched, and then VHS introduced six-hour recording. In those early days, the longer recording time gave a slight advantage to VHS (despite the much-trumpeted technical superiority of Beta), and more people bought VHS machines. So video rental stores stocked slightly more VHS tapes, which led more people to buy VHS, and it snowballed from there.
Beta/VHS became the archetype for battles between incompatible technical systems, and despite the lesson that is usually take from it, i.e. that the “best” system won’t necessarily win such a fight, makers of electronics insist on continuing to launch mutually incompatible systems and letting us poor consumers risk investing in a system that could ultimately become obsolete. Anyone out there with DAT tapes? LaserDiscs?
True, it was inconclusive as to whether or not Ruth called his shot. But that’s immaterial to the discussion at hand. Whether or not Ruth called his shot, the point is that there was footage of the game that showed up over fifty years after the event.
Zev Steinhardt
Before each of the first six Super Bowls, someone tried to get a court order to lift the blackout, but none were successful.
Facing Congressional opposition, Rozelle gave in for Super Bowl VII in Los Angeles. He said that if the game sold out TEN days before kickoff, then the local blackout would be lifted. Rozelle claimed that the NFL would have a hard time selling tickets to a game in a neutral city.
So Super Bowl VII did indeed sell out, and, as a little kid living in L.A., I was amazed that I could actually see a sporting event being played at the Coliseum. I had never seen one before.
Although all the tickets were sold, there were over 8,000 no shows.
Rozelle insisted that the Super Bowl be a sellout to be televised locally, but eventually this became a non issue as demand for the tickets grew incredibly.
If you see the NFL Films highlight film for Super Bowl V (Colts-Cowboys), the film opens with people walking up to the ticket booth at the Orange Bowl asking if there were any tickets available for the game.
There weren’t.
Jack Schofield debunks an urban myth: Why VHS was better than Betamax.