Super Bowl History Quiz — 10 Free Questions

Question 1

A January 1979 rematch at the Orange Bowl between the decade's two dominant teams, and the first Super Bowl won by a team appearing for a third time. The winners built a 35-17 lead and held off a late rally to win 35-31; their quarterback threw four touchdown passes for MVP. Name the winning team.

Question 2

Four years after its home stadium sheltered evacuees during a hurricane, this team won its first Super Bowl, following the 2009 season, and recovered its own kickoff to open the second half. Which team fits?

Question 3

Played at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta in February 2019, the lowest-scoring Super Bowl ever. It was 3-3 into the fourth quarter; the game's only touchdown came late, and the winners held on 13-3. A slot receiver with 10 catches won MVP in a title that tied the franchise record of six. Name the winning team.

Question 4

The first Super Bowl held after the September 11 attacks, at the Louisiana Superdome in February 2002, with U2 at halftime. Two-touchdown underdogs, the winners were introduced as a team rather than by name and won on a 48-yard field goal as time expired, 20-17. A second-year quarterback won MVP. Which team won this game?

Question 5

This team ended a rival's bid for a 19-0 perfect season by winning the Super Bowl after the 2007 season as a wild card, then beat the same opponent again four years later. Which franchise is being described?

Question 6

A one-point Super Bowl at Tampa Stadium in January 1991, played against the backdrop of the Gulf War. The winners controlled the ball for over 40 minutes and led 20-19 when the opposing kicker's 47-yard try at the gun drifted just wide of the right upright. A running back won MVP. Which team came out on top?

Question 7

This team lost each of the first four Super Bowls it reached, spread across three decades, before finally winning its fifth appearance after the 1997 season. Which team fits?

Question 8

Played at State Farm Stadium in Glendale in February 2023, the first Super Bowl with two Black starting quarterbacks. The opposing quarterback ran for three touchdowns but also lost a fumble returned for a score. A disputed late holding call set up the winning field goal as time expired, 38-35. The winning quarterback played on a badly sprained ankle and won MVP. Which team lifted the Lombardi Trophy?

Question 9

Played at the Rose Bowl in January 1987. Denver led 10-9 at halftime before the winners took control after the break, outscoring them 30-10 to win 39-20. Their quarterback completed 22 of 25 passes, a Super Bowl accuracy record, and won MVP. Which team won this game?

Question 10

Held indoors at the Metrodome in Minneapolis in January 1992. The winners jumped to a 24-0 lead and cruised 37-24, handing Buffalo a second straight Super Bowl defeat. Their quarterback threw for 292 yards and two scores and won MVP. Which team won this game?

About Super Bowl History

The Super Bowl is the championship game of the National Football League and, for one Sunday every February, the closest thing the United States has to a national holiday. The champions of the American and National Football Conferences meet at a neutral stadium chosen years in advance, almost always a warm-weather city or a dome, and the game is numbered in Roman numerals, an affectation the league dropped only once, for Super Bowl 50 in 2016.

It did not start as a spectacle. The first game, in January 1967 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, came out of the merger agreement between the NFL and the upstart American Football League. Nearly a third of the seats sat empty, tickets ran about twelve dollars, and it remains the only Super Bowl ever carried live by two television networks at once. The Green Bay Packers, coached by Vince Lombardi, won it 35-10, and the trophy has carried Lombardi's name since he died in 1970. The name "Super Bowl" itself is usually credited to Chiefs founder Lamar Hunt, who had watched his children bounce a toy called a Super Ball; the first two games were stiffly titled the "AFL-NFL World Championship Game."

Television turned it into the biggest annual event on American screens. Super Bowl broadcasts fill almost every place on the list of most-watched programs in U.S. history, drawing audiences north of a hundred million; a single thirty-second commercial now sells for around seven million dollars, and the ads are picked apart as closely as the game. The halftime show followed the same curve, from marching bands and Up with People to Michael Jackson in 1993, U2's tribute after the September 11 attacks, Prince playing "Purple Rain" in a genuine downpour, and the 2004 performance whose fallout reshaped live-broadcast rules for years.

The football has produced its own permanent folklore. Joe Namath guaranteed a win for the heavy-underdog Jets in Super Bowl III and delivered it, legitimising the AFL overnight. The Buffalo Bills reached four straight Super Bowls from the 1990 to 1993 seasons and lost every one, the first on a field goal that sailed wide right in the closing seconds. The New England Patriots came back from 28-3 down to beat Atlanta in overtime, one of only two Super Bowls that have ever needed it. A Tennessee receiver was tackled one yard short of a tying touchdown as time expired in Super Bowl XXXIV. The Patriots and the Pittsburgh Steelers share the record with six titles each, while Tom Brady alone played in ten Super Bowls and won seven, more than any franchise.

Sixty editions in, the game is as much a cultural fixture as a sporting one, and its records, upsets, MVPs, host cities and halftime moments are the raw material this quiz works through, one Sunday in February at a time.