It was January of 1969 and I was spending a weekend with a dozen friends at a hunting camp located near County Bridge State Park, midway between Canton and Blossburg. The membership of “ Camp It” was comprised mostly of downstate York County men. Several were eager to break camp early that Sunday morning to start their three hour trip downstate to watch Superbowl III, to be televised later that afternoon.
Like most National Football League fans I was arrogantly confident the Baltimore Colts would have no trouble mauling the New York Jets representing the recently formed American Football League. The previous two Super Bowls had resulted in convincing wins for NFL teams but the two year old words of Vince Lombardi, legendary coach of the Green Bay Packers for whom the Bowl's trophy is named, still hung in the air that Sunday morning as we prepared to break camp.
Lombardi had chastised his team for their lethargic behavior during the practice sessions leading up to the first NFL/AFL showdown. He warned that any NFL team that didn't give 100% effort could find themselves on the short end of the Super Bowl scoreboard and becoming the league goat for letting “those pass happy kids” win.