The Super Parties of the Super Bowl

Can I get an invite to your Super Bowl party? Please, pleassseeee, please!

Hello, dear reader, I am excited to tell you about a major achievement I had in being American: I went to my first Super Bowl Party (SBP) this Super Bowl Sunday! The experience--while pretty tame since I was amongst many academics--made me want to throw my own SBP. But, I want my SBP to be authentic. The thing is when you are entering a new culture, it’s very important to understand the history, the context, the certain je ne sais quoi behind said culture or event or whatever you are cosplaying as. Ergo, I needed to get educated in Super Bowl parties ASAP.

(Photo: C.J. Gardner-Johnson #8 and Jalyx Hunt #58 celebrating their win. Yasss. HOW DID THEY PRINT THOSE POSTERS SO FAST. Wow Industrialization. Credit: Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)

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61,946 people watched the first Super Bowl happen on January 15, 1967 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum between the Green Bay Packers and the Kansas City Chiefs, with the Packers winning (35-10).

Like many things, the Super Bowl was born out of a confusing legal battle. The National Football League (NFL) was created following a football conference aimed to “raise the standard of professional football in every way possible, to eliminate bidding for players between rival clubs and to secure cooperation in the formation of schedules.” While the NFL has always been the biggest football league, over the years a few rival leagues tried to compete. One being, the American Football League (AFL). Lamar Hunt, the son of Texas oil magnate H. L. Hunt, wanted to put his allowance (?) towards expanding the NFL, but the NFL didn’t want oil money (actually it’s said that they just didn’t want to expand, who knows why...but let’s imagine they were taking a political stance). And as someone who doesn’t hear “no” much, Hunt decided to create a rival league AKA the American Football League--that'll show ‘em!

The NFL was at first unbothered by the AFL because after all they were getting the NFL reject players, but things started to change when those rejects turned out to be winning games. As AFL started to get recognition, the NFL and AFL would have a huge bidding war for the best football player coming out of college. The NFL was feeling threatened by the AFL, and for good reason:

“The AFL enjoyed one critical advantage over its established rival, which was that its owners on average were wealthier than their NFL counterparts. With a few exceptions, Hunt had successfully recruited owners who not only had deep pockets, but more importantly, the patience and willingness to absorb the inevitable financial losses of the fledgling league's early years. Therefore, in spite of the bad press, and unlike the NFL's previous rivals, the AFL was able to survive and grow” (Thank You Wikipedia for all this complicated, yet well explained sports drama.)

The NFL knew that eventually they would not be able to out-bid the AFL and proposed a merger in 1966. After what I imagine were lots of heated discussion with the NFL sweating lots and the AFL smirking lots, the AFL–NFL merger was agreed upon. This merger decided that the AFL and NFL would officially merge into one league with two conferences: the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC), in 1970. It also created a Common Draft helping end bidding wars and the leagues agreed to play an annual AFL-NFL World Championship Game. One hurdle for the merger to happen was the need for Congress to exempt the merged league from antitrust sanctions, which, spoiler, ended up happening. Though, while the merger was still in a transitional phase between 1967 to 1970, the NFL and the AFL played the AFL–NFL World Championship Game. Since 1971, the Super Bowl has been played between the best team from each of the two conferences.

(Photo: Awesome shot from the first Super Bowl. Credit: AP Photo)

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The first Super Bowl wasn’t close to the grand scale it is now. There were 61,946 people in the stadium, but 32,000 empty seats (about a third of the stadium). Tickets costed $12 and the halftime show featured marching bands from the University of Arizona and Grambling State University, as well as, “300 pigeons, 10,000 balloons, and a demonstration of the Bell Rocket Air Men.” It’s safe to say that Super Bowl watch parties probably weren’t really as much of a thing as they are now.

Super Bowl parties now are more than just football. They are an excuse to see your friends, get drunk and full, watch commercials and the halftime show. I mean, usually (I say this being to one Super Bowl party) the game is just playing in the background and people who don’t even know which teams are playing join in. You treat the day like other holidays: Valentine’s Day, Halloween, and most similarly July 4th. And like holidays, there is a unity with how Super Bowl parties are celebrated, with similar food, drinks, outfits, activities, and total excessiveness. In 2025 article and in articles that date back to 2011, Super Bowl Sunday is known to be the second-biggest day for eating, with Thanksgiving being the first. LendingTree conducted a 2025 Super Bowl spending survey where they found “that Super Bowl watchers expect to spend an average of $142, [which is a] 22% increase from $116 in 2024.” It seems like Super Bowl parties are only growing, but when did they really start to kick off? I cleverly started my search by using Google Trends feature where you can see the search history of a term since 2004 worldwide.

(Photo: Google search trends of the the term “Super Bowl Party”)

Thanks to this great tip we know that Super Bowl parties have been talked about since 2004...At this point I rolled up my sleeves because it was starting to feel like a mystery. I wondered when the Super Bowl first broadcasted, like did they even have TVs in 1967?? Yes, there was TV, and, in fact, the first Super Bowl was the only Super Bowl to be broadcasted by two broadcasters.

A separate mystery occurred when the tape for Super Bowl I was deleted by both broadcasters, and could not be found even after following rumors of tape copies all the way from Cuba to the Playboy Mansion. Don’t worry they don’t need us on the case because in 2005 “this guy showed up [to the Paley Center] with a shopping bag that had Super Bowl I in it,” which had been stored in an attic in Pennsylvania. But then, like always, there was a legal battle that led to the tape not being revealed to the public until 2024.

The first Super Bowl had 51.18 million viewers combined. So, 50 million people were watching the Super Bowl, but when did the people who don’t care about Super Bowl football, but care about Super Bowl commercials and halftime show start to tune in. It seems like the eerie movie-like Apple’s “1984” ad, directed by Ridley Scott is one of the most famous Super Bowl commercial: “Nobody was prepared for it, and that's why nobody forgot it.” As for the halftime show, it was the 1993 Michael Jackson halftime show that kept everyone in their seats and away from the channel change button on the remote. Between 1984 and 1993, the Super Bowl itself was being elevated, but it’s still not clear of when Super Bowl parties started to be iconic. In my last ditch effort to find the start of the fratty, well attended Super Bowl parties I searched “super bowl party 1967,” on Google Images and adding a year for every search up until to “super bowl party 2010.” Here’s a gallery of the best pics:

(Photo: People looking suave entering the Los Angeles home of Fay Horbach for a Super Bowl party in 1973, Credit: Penske Media/Getty)

(Photo: Bob Hope, Herb Caen, and Lee Iacocca at a “Super Bowl society party” in 1985. Credit: SF Chronicle)

(Photo: Brad Pitt and Jason Priestley at a 1990 Super Bowl party, Credit: Yahoo News)

(Photo: Some pals at a Super Bowl party in 1994 or 1995, Credit: Rudi Linke Facebook Page)

(Photo: United States Air Force at a 2006 Super Bowl party, watching from Balad Air Base, Iraq. Credit: Wiki/US Air Force)

(Photo: Bobby Flay doing a Super Bowl party shoot in 2010. Credit: Parade Magazine)

As you can see from the photos, it started as a more formal event, but over time started to get more relaxed and kickback-y. Of course, football watching has always been a bit of a fratty boys club situation, and over time as frat boys got less posh, so did their viewing habits. It makes sense. Also, I hypothesize that with the accessibility and increase in ownership of TVs, more people were able to host parties, and thus the Super Bowl party spread started. Plus, with commercialization of Super Bowl- stores dedicating an aisle to Super Bowl themed plates and food-along with the cute dog commercials and sexy halftime shows, it’s no wonder Super Bowl parties are popping. It’s how every holiday gains its wings. Everyone loves a reason to celebrate and consume! I know I do.

And with that...let’s talk about my SBP. Well first, the theme would be Red, White, and Blue or whatever teams are playing. We would serve chicken wings, pizza, ranch and cheese dips, celery and carrots, Ruffles potato chips, tortilla chips, guacamole and salsa, Coca-Cola, Budweiser, Modelo, brownies or cookies in the shape of footballs, pigs in blanket, and Dots pretzels. Probably no water. Maybe grapes. The guest list is simple, everyone you know minus people who wrote capitalism on their “outs” list. The party would be an indoor/outdoor situation, since I will be living in LA and it is sunny year round. The activities, besides half watching the game would be: betting. Lots of it. About everything, shotgunning a beer, more drinking, guessing the company of the commercial before it’s revealed at the end, cheering for the team with the cuter colors and booing the team with Trumpies, ooohing and ahhhhing at the halftime performance, looking up “what is a down,” and “Hot or Not”-ing the players. Jealous? Don’t worry, you’re invited.