This lot is closed. Bidding ended on 12/10/2001.
From a poorly-attended throwaway game in the L.A. Coliseum in 1967, the Super Bowl has burgeoned into not just the most watched sports event of all but a near-religious American ritual. Super Bowl Sunday has been molded by 35 separate Super Sundays in January since Vince Lombardi's sainted Packers defeated the upstart AFL Chiefs. The Pack's conquests in the first two Super Bowls seem to have been destined, as one Last Hurrah before football found its modern image -- which was born when Joe Namath came through on his promise to upset the Colts in S.B. III, setting in motion a parade of Super action heroes named Zonk, Mean Joe, Super Joe, Too Tall, Sweetness, Marcus, Favre, Kurt and a bunch of killer Ravens. Over three decades of Super Sunday, dynasties have risen and fallen and plays have become frozen in time...Swann's tumbling catches, Garo's pass, O'Brien's hit and Norwood's miss, Jackie Smith's dropped-pass infamy and John Elway's redemption. This full run of unused, near mint to mint condition Super Bowl tickets proves that the tradition of the event can be summed up by the sum of its parts, 35 parts to be exact. Each EX-NM ticket is preserved in a clear plastic holder, and the trip through time is accompanied by a distinct illustration on every one, most centering on the Lombardi Trophy in some scenic setting in the host city, such as among cactus, over the Golden Gate Bridge or next to pink flamingoes. Some of the images are in animated, lenticular form, thus showing that Super Bowl tickets have become more and more ornate as they have increasingly become coveted items in their own right (not to mention increasingly expensive, with the first ticket going for $12 and the last for, gulp, $400). We don't exaggerate by saying this is the ultimate collection, one that can truly be called Super, and one of the very few full runs that exist.