Green: How the Super Bowl went from cowpoke to chic

Houston — At Super Bowl VIII, the athletes had to be wary of where they hung their street clothes; the journalists had to be careful where they stepped; and the local cops were intent on raiding a penny-ante gambling den.

It has changed, here in Houston.

At Super Bowl LI, the athletes dress in spiffy locker rooms; the journalists are in no danger of soiling their boots; and an army of police officers is intent on security for the mobs of visitors. Houston has turned glittery and sophisticated. Not quite so 43 years ago, when the Super Bowl still was a rather-new phenomenon.

“This is shabby treatment,” Bud Grant told us as the festivities for Super Bowl VIII began. “This is the Super Bowl, not a pickup game.”

Grant had guided the Minnesota Vikings to that Super Bowl in January 1974. They would be combatting the Miami Dolphins, reigning champions, who had capped their perfect season the year before at Super Bowl VII.

The NFL had grabbed off the Minneapolis-St. Paul area back when it was battling the new American Football League for space before the rival leagues merged and got buddy-buddy.

Grant symbolized Minnesota. He was grizzled and frosty — and subtle. We called him “The Ice Man.” And he was.

Fines and flushes

Grant’s team had been assigned Delmar Stadium as its practice facility. It was a practice area used by Houston high schools. There were no lockers in the locker room. The athletes were required to hang their street clothes on nails. The assistant coaches had no separate room in which to change and plot. The showers were rusted, Grant told us. Oh, and a flock of sparrows were nesting in a corner of the shower area.

“The NFL sets up the practice facilities and they had a year to do it,” Grant said, his iciness turned to steam. “Go look for yourselves. We don’t have any lockers. Our seven coaches get to share one table for spreading out our clothes. And we have to go back to the hotel for our meetings instead of having them here before practice.

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“The facilities definitely give the Dolphins an advantage.”

The Dolphins had been given a comparatively lush practice area at Rice University, where the game was to be held.

Grant’s complaints reached commissioner Pete Rozelle in his New York ivory tower with the speed of tom-toms. Rozelle sent a signal back that Grant had better shut up.

“I’ve been threatened with a fine by the commissioner,” Grant told us the next day. “He took a dim view to my observations. I know we went from where we were the other day right to the penthouse.”

There were more headlines across America.

Rozelle phoned Grant in Houston and told him he would be fined $5,000.

Meanwhile, a load of journalists passed the Houston evenings with card games in the press room of the Hyatt Regency Hotel. It was long after midnight, I was told by a participant, when suddenly the Houston police arrived.

“It’s a raid,” a bunch of my colleagues said.

“No one moves until we finish this hand,” said Rick Talley, a sports columnist from Chicago, according to our very functional grapevine.

A different day

Back then, Rozelle continued with what was prominently known as the Commissioner’s Party, to which all the sportswriters, television journalists, NFL club officials, prominent townies and the like were urged to attend.

This time, Rozelle rented the massive Astrodome for his party. It was Texas-style, in an artificial pasture. The famed Astroturf baseball field was covered with dirt imported for the party. The NFL went cowboy complete with cattle, fiddle music, chili and barbecue beef.

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It was Rozelle’s best Super Bowl shindig so far. But we had to be careful where we stepped.

Now, there are groups of cops at every downtown Houston intersection. They are protecting us outside the media workrooms in the massive convention center. Perhaps from each other. They are re-routing rush-hour traffic. They are much too busy to raid poker games.

The Astrodome, long ago vacated, is being restructured into a parking garage.

And Roger Goodell long ago turned the Commissioner’s Party into a highly exclusive affair. No journalists invited. But I walk in clean shoes.

Jerry Green has covered every Super Bowl for The Detroit News.