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All photos courtesy of Stanford Special Collections Archives
 (All photos courtesy of Stanford Special Collections Archives)

The Stanford Super Bowl: Wooden Bleachers, a Jetpack and Show Biz, 1985-Style

The Stanford Super Bowl: Wooden Bleachers, a Jetpack and Show Biz, 1985-Style

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The last time the Bay Area hosted the Super Bowl, President Ronald Reagan was sworn in, privately, for his second term, little LeBron James was 3 weeks old and the San Francisco 49ers beat the Miami Dolphins 38-16 behind quarterback Joe Montana, named the game's MVP.

Compared with halftime spectacles in recent history, the 1985 show for SB XIX looks old-fashioned and a little corny. It featured a U.S. Air Force entertainment group called Tops in Blue presenting a show titled "The World of Children's Dreams."

The extravaganza included pirates, circus clowns, a tribute to the space program and adorable kids waving to the crowd. The highlight was a guy with a jetpack who soared dozens of feet above the field for maybe 20 seconds before settling back to earth.

That's a long way from more recent halftime extravaganzas -- including Super Bowl 50's planned performances by Coldplay, Rihanna and Beyoncé.

Sponsored

"This year is a battleship amongst rowboats compared to the past Super Bowls," said Steve Steinhart, a sales and marketing consultant who helped coordinate college bowl games at Levi's Stadium and AT&T Park. "We thought they were big classy productions in our day. This is a world event now."

It's been more than three decades since the one and only time the Bay Area hosted the Super Bowl. So here's a look back at a Super Bowl that might have been a little more about the game and less about TV ads and glitz; a game that took place long before we started talking about football's often tragic toll.

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An announced crowd of 84,049 was in attendance at Stanford Stadium in 1985, with the average ticket price at $60. The average secondary market price for a ticket today? Close to $5,000.

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Long before Apple came out with the iMac, iPod and iPhone, the company sponsored 84,000 seat cushions -- the only "luxury" touch at a stadium that didn't have seats with backs, let alone private skyboxes or seats with drink holders.

"We didn't know a whole lot different at the time," said Mark Soltau, a longtime Bay Area sports reporter who covered all five of the Niners' championship teams. "So many Bay Area people were so excited just to have the game in our backyard that I don't think people dwelled too much on the inconveniences."

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If spectators at the game missed Eric Wright's interception at the 1-yard line in the third quarter, there was no state-of-the-art stadium screen to watch replays on. Instead, Steinhart recalls, there was an enormous Jumbotron placed at an odd angle at the entrance of the stadium. That's where spectators could watch one of Apple's legendary Super Bowl TV ads.

"It was an epic moment in advertising," said Steinhart.

Super Bowl advertising is a much bigger and more lucrative deal than it was in 1985, and everyone wants in if they can afford it. NBC had an average audience of 114.4 million viewers last year, making Super Bowl XLIX the most watched broadcast in U.S. TV history. Thirty seconds of airtime costs $5 million.

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Whether you're staying home for the Super Bowl or plan to brave the storm that will be the Levi's Stadium parking lot, one thing is for sure: Three decades ago, this event was a lot less flashy in comparison to the spectacle we'll see Sunday. But for those sitting on the wooden benches at Stanford Stadium on Jan. 20, 1985, Super Bowl XIX was as spectacular as it could possibly be.

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