Even the most optimistic of prognosticators could not have predicted 40 years ago that the Super Bowl would become what it is today - an American institution with a worldwide following.

The origins of the Super Bowl can be traced to the AFL-NFL merger agreement signed in June of 1966. Under terms of the agreement, the leagues agreed to maintain separate schedules through the 1969 season before forming one league with two conferences in 1970 but would begin playing an annual NFL-AFL World Championship Game, pitting the champion of each league, immediately following the 1966 campaign.

It was Kansas City Chiefs owner and AFL founder Lamar Hunt who coined the term Super Bowl, after seeing his daughter play with a toy called a "Super Ball." Even though the official title remained the NFL-AFL World Championship Game for the first two contests, the media and public took a liking to the unofficial title which was formally adopted in time for the 1969 game between the Baltimore Colts and New York Jets.

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To minimize potential confusion about what year a team won a championship it was decided that the Super Bowl would be referred to using Roman numerals because the NFL season stretches from one year to the next.

It turned out to be more than appropriate that Super Bowl III was the first to be officially known as the Super Bowl because this is the game that legitimized the contest as a true championship game professional football. The first two games in Super Bowl history saw the Green Bay Packers of the NFL win in convincing fashion, leaving many to wonder whether the upstart AFL could actually compete with the NFL as the leagues prepared to merge.

Joe Namath and the New York Jets, 17-point underdogs to the stories Colts, put to rest any doubts with a 16-7 upset of Baltimore. Hunt's own Chiefs evened the series at two apiece with a convincing 23-7 victory in Super Bowl IV.

The AFC went on to win nine of the next 11 games, though five of those games were won by teams that moved from the NFL to the AFC in 1970. They were the Steelers on four occasions and the Colts.

Beginning with Super Bowl V in 1971, the trophy awarded to the winning team became known as the Vince Lombardi Trophy, named after the famed Green Bay coach who died of cancer in 1970 after leading the Packers to the first two Super Bowl victories.

While the success big game is undeniable, the first game in Super Bowl history, which saw Lombardi's Packers defeat the Chiefs 35-10, was not much more than a curiosity among football fans. Although tickets for the game were priced as low as $6, attendance for the game was 61,946, leaving more than 30 percent of seats at the Los Angeles Coliseum empty.

Since that first game, however, the Super Bowl has evolved into a de facto national Holiday. On average, the game is viewed in 60 percent of all American homes with 90 million viewers tuned in at any given moment. In fact, Super Bowl games appear as 20 of the top 50 most watched television broadcasts.

Here are some Super Bowl history facts that show how the game has evolved over the past 40 years.

--A 30-second spot for Super Bowl XL will fetch a record $2.4 million. Compare that to the $80,000 it cost to run a 60-minute advertisement during Super Bowl I.

--Face value of tickets for Super Bowl XL is between $600 and $700 compared to $6 and $12 back in 1967 but brokers and scalpers will get five and ten times as much for the hard to come by ducats.

--Each Packer received $15,000 for winning the inaugural contest and the losing share for the Chiefs was $7,500. Each winner of Super Bowl XL will get about $70,000 and the loser nearly $40,000.

--The only teams that have not been to a Super Bowl are Arizona, Cleveland, Detroit, Jacksonville, New Orleans and Seattle.

--More than $80 million was wagered on last year's Super Bowl and it is estimated that more than $400 million in action will be taken by online sites for Super Bowl XL.

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If you enjoyed this article on Super Bowl history, check out Doc's Super Bowl 2006 page.

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