By Ray Barrington
News-Chronicle
As the Green Bay Packers battle their way to this year's Super Bowl, HBO is looking at the first game with that title, one that also featured the Packers.
The network has scheduled "The Wild Ride to Super Bowl I," an NFL Films-produced history, to premiere at 9 p.m. Jan. 26, six days before Super Bowl XXXXVIII.
(The pay-cable network has scheduled at least seven other showings between the Jan. 26 debut and Feb. 9.)
The network has released little about the program, but has scheduled a Green Bay invitation-only premiere Jan. 20 at the Weidner Center. A release from HBO says the documentary will focus on the events leading up to the first game, held Jan. 15, 1967, in Los Angeles and won by the Packers over Kansas City 35-10.
Among the events to be focused on are the animosity between the NFL and AFL; the pressure on the Packers from other NFL teams and the lack of interest in the Los Angeles area, which led to the stadium being only two-thirds full for the game despite now-shocking ticket prices of $12 and $6.
Among former Packers interviewed for the show are Max McGee, Jerry Kramer and Bill Curry.
"The focus of this special is not on how the Packers won or why the Chiefs lost, but on the personality of the event itself, and some of the little-known stories surrounding it," said NFL Films co-producer Steve Seidman.