1965 NFL Championship Game
The 1965 NFL Championship Game was the 33rd championship game for the National Football League (NFL), played on January 2, 1966, at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin. This was the first NFL championship game played in January, as well as the first televised in color and the last played prior to the Super Bowl era. It would be staged four more times as a qualifier for the Super Bowl before being replaced with the NFC championship game post-merger.
| |||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||
| Date | January 2, 1966 | ||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stadium | Lambeau Field, Green Bay, Wisconsin | ||||||||||||||||||
| MVP | Jim Taylor (Fullback; Green Bay) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Referee | George Rennix | ||||||||||||||||||
| Attendance | 50,852 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Hall of Famers | |||||||||||||||||||
| Browns: Jim Brown, Lou Groza, Gene Hickerson, Leroy Kelly, Paul Warfield Packers: Vince Lombardi (coach/gm), Herb Adderley, Willie Davis, Forrest Gregg, Paul Hornung, Henry Jordan, Jerry Kramer, Ray Nitschke, Dave Robinson, Bart Starr, Jim Taylor, Willie Wood | |||||||||||||||||||
| TV in the United States | |||||||||||||||||||
| Network | CBS | ||||||||||||||||||
| Announcers | Ray Scott, Ken Coleman, and Frank Gifford | ||||||||||||||||||
| Radio in the United States | |||||||||||||||||||
| Network | CBS | ||||||||||||||||||
| Announcers | Jack Drees, Jim Morse | ||||||||||||||||||
The game matched the Eastern Conference champion Cleveland Browns (11–3), the defending NFL champions, and the Green Bay Packers (10–3–1) of the Western Conference. A week earlier, the Packers defeated the Baltimore Colts in a tiebreaker Western Conference playoff at Lambeau Field, while the Browns were idle. The Packers were making their first appearance in the championship game in three years, since their consecutive wins in 1961 and 1962. Green Bay was relegated to the third place Playoff Bowl the previous two seasons, with a victory over the Browns and a loss to the St. Louis Cardinals.
The home field for the NFL title game alternated between the conferences; in odd-numbered seasons, the Western team was the host. Home field advantage was not implemented in the NFL playoffs until 1975.
With the 23–12 victory, the Packers won their ninth NFL title, sixth in the championship game era.