Green Bay Packers Wide Receiver Max Mcgee

Considering what former Green Bay Packers wide receiver Max McGee remembers about New Orleans from his college days at Tulane, the Pack should thank its luck stars that Super Bowl I was held in Los Angeles and not in the Big Easy, site of Sunday's game. "All I know is that the bars stayed open all night," says McGee, who is remembered more today for his carousing than for his 345 career receptions. As it was, McGee was still shaking off the residue from hours of partying when he reached the Los Angeles Coliseum sideline on Jan. 15, 1967. "I got back to the room about 7:30 to get Paul Hornung up for breakfast," says McGee, who had fallen into a backup role with Green Bay and had caught only four passes during the 1966 season, his 11th with the team. "That's why Lombardi kept me around, to make sure Hornung made breakfast."

Any plans that the 34-year-old McGee had for resting on the Packers' bench that day were quickly scuttled when starting split end Boyd Dowler injured a shoulder on Green Bay's second play. "Max didn't even have his helmet," recalls Hornung. "Hawg Hanner, our defensive line coach, had to throw him one." Moments later, McGee scored the first touchdown in Super Bowl history, on a 37-yard pass from quarterback Bart Starr. McGee finished with seven catches for 138 yards and two scores as Green Bay dumped Kansas City 35-10.

McGee retired after the Packers' win in Super Bowl II and went on to make millions in real estate and as a cofounder of the Chi-Chi's Mexican-food restaurant chain. Recently he raised almost $1 million for his charity, The Max McGee Fund, to fight juvenile diabetes, which struck his seven-year-old son. Dallas. In 1979 McGee was hired by the Packers' flagship radio station, WTMJ-AM, and his off-the-wall color commentary has made him a fan favorite. "I'm not a technical guy," says McGee. "I just say things off the top of my head." Take the time in October when WTMJ play-by-play man Jim Irwin noted during a Green Bay game against Tampa Bay that a Bucs trainer had cut the tip off one of wide receiver Alvin Harper's fingers while treating Harper for a hand injury. McGee's analysis: "Thank god it wasn't a groin injury."

On Sunday, McGee fulfilled his broadcasting goal of working a Super Bowl. The setting was fitting. "I'd been telling people I'd be out all night in New Orleans before the game and see if I could broadcast without sleep," says McGee. "In truth, I was in bed by 10 p.m."