Football The Super Bowl and Roman numerals: a match made in Kansas City - Page 3

**bevischief** · 01-31-2013, 01:40 PM

NEW ORLEANS – It is the most American of occasions, the showpiece of the most American of all sports, so why does the Super Bowl use Roman numerals to denote its grand event every year?

No other major American sport uses the Roman counting system, one formerly familiar to school kids around the country but now essentially obsolete to the iPad generation. Yet the Super Bowl persists with the tradition, has no desire or plan to change it, and the ancient characters will continue to appear just as they have since 1971.

That was the year when what was supposed to be Super Bowl 5 became Super Bowl V, at the insistence of pioneering sports entrepreneur Lamar Hunt, the owner of the Kansas City Chiefs and one of the most significant figures in the growth in the game’s popularity.

The Baltimore Colts emerged victorious that year, outlasting the Dallas Cowboys 16-13 thanks to a winning field goal in the dying seconds.

Lamar Hunt (Getty Images)Hunt was a man with plenty of ideas, most of them good. It was he who also coined the term Super Bowl ‐ coming from the children's toy, a "Super Ball" – and his numbering concept was considered successful enough to retain. The system has even been retroactively incorporated for Super Bowls I through IV.

"It was his brainchild," said Bob Moore, historian for the Chiefs. "I think people felt from the start that it had something to it, even if they couldn’t quite put their finger on exactly what it was. Before long it was just part of it. Now it wouldn’t be the same without it."

Hunt, who died aged 74 in 2006, was a stakeholder in seven different sports franchises and has been inducted into eight different ‘Halls of Fame’, but amid his multitude of achievements he was, according to his son, Clark, to be particularly proud of suggesting Roman numerals for the Super Bowl.

"It has been in place ever since," NFL official historian Joe Horrigan told Yahoo! Sports. "It is part of the Super Bowl culture, it is an established part of the magic of the Super Bowl.”

No discussions have been held to consider changing to a more common numbering system even with Super Bowl 50, sorry, Super Bowl L, just three years away.

"If you asked me to count up using Roman numbers I wouldn't even know how to do it," said San Francisco 49ers safety Donte Whitner. "But it's a good thing. It's the Super Bowl, man."

The fans love it too, according to a small sampling of opinion gathered on the streets of New Orleans on Wednesday afternoon.

"I don’t think you need anything to make the Super Bowl even more dramatic," said mother of three and Saints fan Ree Nygren. "But it does add something to it, it is kind of cool and timeless and important-sounding. There is no point in changing it, although it won’t be quite the same once it become Ls rather than Xs."

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/nfl--th...164002135.html

Dayze · 01-31-2013, 06:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by listopencil

That never gets old

Prison Bitch · 01-31-2013, 07:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dayze

That never gets old

It's about as original as Lamar's "idea".....

**007** · 01-31-2013, 07:53 PM

I'm sick of the roman numerals. Its stupid.

Just call it the damn Superbowl. No numbers. No anything. Just Superbowl.

**Shaid** · 01-31-2013, 07:58 PM

I like the roman numerals. It is part of the Super Bowl culture now. If you don't like it go back to prison and be someone's bitch. Oh wait....

Aries Walker · 01-31-2013, 08:13 PM

Okay, I was going to try and be all diplomatic, but I don't feel like it.

Hey, dummy.

No one here is contending the fact that the Rose Bowl and Cotton Bowl and whatever existed before 1971. They did. It's a fact. We all know that.

The Rose Bowl was named after the stadium more than a hundred years ago. The Cotton, Orange, and Sugar Bowls are came around in the '30s. Someone named each one. Were they all hopeless plagiarists and feckless copycats as well? No.

Just the same, neither was Lamar Hunt. In fact, he was the first to call a professional game a 'bowl game' - all of those others, if you'll notice, are college games. He could have called it the Great Bowl, or the Marvelous Bowl, or the Stupendous Bowl; instead, he came up with the word 'Super' because of his kid's toy, made a bad pun, and it stuck. It's all been documented and recorded and accepted by every person who cares about that sort of thing, except you. What is so difficult to grasp about all of this?

So you're clinging to your claim, and looking more like an idiot with each passing post. I don't know why. You could have just "Oh, how about that", and moved on. I'm guessing you don't want to lose face, or you want to Be Right At All Costs, or you're trying to Prove Yourself, or you're just an Internet dolt. I don't know. All I know about you is that you have an unfortunate nickname and you display yourself to the word as a sex-toy gimp.

Crush · 01-31-2013, 08:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Prison Bitch

It's about as original as Lamar's "idea".....

It is official: You have the world's largest stick up your ass.

Monty · 01-31-2013, 08:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Crush

It is official: You have the world's largest stick up your ass.

Hence the user name.

**cdcox** · 01-31-2013, 08:54 PM

Kansas City has more fountains than anywhere but Rome.

**TribalElder** · 01-31-2013, 10:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Virtua Chief

I hope not. Why would people be butt hurt? Does anyone call it super bowl ecks el vee eye eye? I think most say super bowl forty seven.

Quote:

Originally Posted by htismaqe

LOL WUT?

I think that when we get to 50 aka L most people will go full dumb dumb and not realize that L represents roman numerals and the complaints will flow. we shall see in a few years.

Amnorix · 02-01-2013, 08:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TribalElder

I think that when we get to 50 aka L most people will go full dumb dumb and not realize that L represents roman numerals and the complaints will flow. we shall see in a few years.

Hard core Star Trek fans who are old enough will probably have heard this story, but apparently when they were doing marketing test runs or whatever they do for new shows for Deep Space Nine, they initially had the show named "Deep Space IX".

And people were like "'Deep Space ick?' Why the hell are you calling it that? That's a dumb name."

So yeah, "NINE", not "IX".

*note, could be urban legend, but I remember hearing about that very shortly after the show started.

**bevischief** · 02-01-2013, 08:31 AM

Wow. Just wow.

**mdchiefsfan** · 02-01-2013, 08:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Guru

I'm sick of the roman numerals. Its stupid.

Just call it the damn Superbowl. No numbers. No anything. Just Superbowl.

This. There is no AFC Championship 47.

Prison Bitch · 02-01-2013, 09:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Amnorix

Hard core Star Trek fans who are old enough will probably have heard this story, but apparently when they were doing marketing test runs or whatever they do for new shows for Deep Space Nine, they initially had the show named "Deep Space IX".

And people were like "'Deep Space ick?' Why the hell are you calling it that? That's a dumb name."

So yeah, "NINE", not "IX".

*note, could be urban legend, but I remember hearing about that very shortly after the show started.

So Lamar's naming idea for "Bowl" was just lame, and his idea for Roman Numerals was just dumb. What a creative genius that man was.

Crush · 02-01-2013, 10:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Prison Bitch

So Lamar's naming idea for "Bowl" was just lame, and his idea for Roman Numerals was just dumb. What a creative genius that man was.

You need to see a proctologist asap.

Aries Walker · 02-01-2013, 02:01 PM

Off topic: TribalElder, I like your avatar. An underrated actor, that one - although he's Oneida, not Osage, but I don't think he'd mind.

01-31-2013, 01:40 PM
bevischief .... Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Somewhere Kansas Casino cash: $8659352 VARSITY	The Super Bowl and Roman numerals: a match made in Kansas City NEW ORLEANS – It is the most American of occasions, the showpiece of the most American of all sports, so why does the Super Bowl use Roman numerals to denote its grand event every year? No other major American sport uses the Roman counting system, one formerly familiar to school kids around the country but now essentially obsolete to the iPad generation. Yet the Super Bowl persists with the tradition, has no desire or plan to change it, and the ancient characters will continue to appear just as they have since 1971. That was the year when what was supposed to be Super Bowl 5 became Super Bowl V, at the insistence of pioneering sports entrepreneur Lamar Hunt, the owner of the Kansas City Chiefs and one of the most significant figures in the growth in the game’s popularity. The Baltimore Colts emerged victorious that year, outlasting the Dallas Cowboys 16-13 thanks to a winning field goal in the dying seconds. Lamar Hunt (Getty Images)Hunt was a man with plenty of ideas, most of them good. It was he who also coined the term Super Bowl ‐ coming from the children's toy, a "Super Ball" – and his numbering concept was considered successful enough to retain. The system has even been retroactively incorporated for Super Bowls I through IV. "It was his brainchild," said Bob Moore, historian for the Chiefs. "I think people felt from the start that it had something to it, even if they couldn’t quite put their finger on exactly what it was. Before long it was just part of it. Now it wouldn’t be the same without it." Hunt, who died aged 74 in 2006, was a stakeholder in seven different sports franchises and has been inducted into eight different ‘Halls of Fame’, but amid his multitude of achievements he was, according to his son, Clark, to be particularly proud of suggesting Roman numerals for the Super Bowl. "It has been in place ever since," NFL official historian Joe Horrigan told Yahoo! Sports. "It is part of the Super Bowl culture, it is an established part of the magic of the Super Bowl.” No discussions have been held to consider changing to a more common numbering system even with Super Bowl 50, sorry, Super Bowl L, just three years away. "If you asked me to count up using Roman numbers I wouldn't even know how to do it," said San Francisco 49ers safety Donte Whitner. "But it's a good thing. It's the Super Bowl, man." The fans love it too, according to a small sampling of opinion gathered on the streets of New Orleans on Wednesday afternoon. "I don’t think you need anything to make the Super Bowl even more dramatic," said mother of three and Saints fan Ree Nygren. "But it does add something to it, it is kind of cool and timeless and important-sounding. There is no point in changing it, although it won’t be quite the same once it become Ls rather than Xs." http://sports.yahoo.com/news/nfl--th...164002135.html
Posts: 27,731

01-31-2013, 07:53 PM	#33
007 Shaken. Not stirred. Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: London Casino cash: $14060126 VARSITY	I'm sick of the roman numerals. Its stupid. Just call it the damn Superbowl. No numbers. No anything. Just Superbowl. __________________ My dear girl, there are some things that just aren’t done. Such as, drinking Dom Perignon ’53 above the temperature of 38 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s just as bad as listening to the Beatles without earmuffs.
Posts: 65,554

01-31-2013, 07:58 PM	#34
Shaid Supporter Join Date: Nov 2006 Casino cash: $3155783	I like the roman numerals. It is part of the Super Bowl culture now. If you don't like it go back to prison and be someone's bitch. Oh wait.... __________________
Posts: 5,687

01-31-2013, 08:13 PM	#35
Aries Walker Back again, again. Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: York, PA Casino cash: $9583357	Okay, I was going to try and be all diplomatic, but I don't feel like it. Hey, dummy. No one here is contending the fact that the Rose Bowl and Cotton Bowl and whatever existed before 1971. They did. It's a fact. We all know that. The Rose Bowl was named after the stadium more than a hundred years ago. The Cotton, Orange, and Sugar Bowls are came around in the '30s. Someone named each one. Were they all hopeless plagiarists and feckless copycats as well? No. Just the same, neither was Lamar Hunt. In fact, he was the first to call a professional game a 'bowl game' - all of those others, if you'll notice, are college games. He could have called it the Great Bowl, or the Marvelous Bowl, or the Stupendous Bowl; instead, he came up with the word 'Super' because of his kid's toy, made a bad pun, and it stuck. It's all been documented and recorded and accepted by every person who cares about that sort of thing, except you. What is so difficult to grasp about all of this? So you're clinging to your claim, and looking more like an idiot with each passing post. I don't know why. You could have just "Oh, how about that", and moved on. I'm guessing you don't want to lose face, or you want to Be Right At All Costs, or you're trying to Prove Yourself, or you're just an Internet dolt. I don't know. All I know about you is that you have an unfortunate nickname and you display yourself to the word as a sex-toy gimp.
Posts: 8,179

01-31-2013, 08:54 PM	#38
cdcox www.nfl-forecast.com Join Date: Sep 2000 Casino cash: $2391769	Kansas City has more fountains than anywhere but Rome.
Posts: 45,536

02-01-2013, 08:31 AM	#41
bevischief .... Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Somewhere Kansas Casino cash: $8659352 VARSITY	Wow. Just wow.
Posts: 27,731

02-01-2013, 02:01 PM	#45
Aries Walker Back again, again. Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: York, PA Casino cash: $9583357	Off topic: TribalElder, I like your avatar. An underrated actor, that one - although he's Oneida, not Osage, but I don't think he'd mind.
Posts: 8,179