With two full weeks between the National Football League’s championship weekend and Super Bowl Sunday, there was plenty to contemplate leading up to the 50th anniversary of the country’s biggest sporting event.

Would this be Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning’s final game as a professional? Would the Carolina Panthers bring home their first championship in the franchise’s second attempt? Questions and answers were thrown around by analysts for nearly two full weeks, but nothing concrete would be known until the game kicked off in Santa Clara, Calif. on Feb. 7.

“Both teams have very strong defenses who can cause havoc on the opposing offense,” said freshman Brian Carpenter. “I personally believe that this will be Peyton’s final game. He has had an amazing career but I think age is getting to him.”

Carpenter, a New England Patriots fan, also said that he would be pulling for the Panthers and quarterback Cam Newton, who he believed would be able to perform well enough on the big stage to lead his team to victory.

Closer to home, Dr. David Weber, a Communication Studies professor at UNC Wilmington, can claim a unique stake in American sports history. Back in 1967, at the age of eight, Dr. Weber attended the very first Super Bowl—a contest between the NFL’s Green Bay Packers and the American Football League’s Kansas City Chiefs.

Super Bowl I, then called the AFL-NFL World Championship Game, was a win by blowout on part of the Packers. The final score of 35-10 remains as one of the most thoroughly dominant performances in Super Bowl history.

“We had very good seats in the curve of the oval stadium across from the L.A. Coliseum’s peristyle,” said Weber. “I seem to recall we were closer to the Chiefs’ bench than the Packers’.”

“A number of celebrities, mostly Hollywood actors, were in attendance and the stadium announcer called out some of their names—actors probably few of The Seahawk’s readers would recognize or care about, but at the time they were big stars,” said Weber.

After a game that polarized fans and analysts alike—some lauding it for the defensive slugfest, others cringing over the lack of scoring and the slow pace—the Denver Broncos won their third Super Bowl, 24-10.

Denver was led by Super Bowl MVP Von Miller, who accrued six tackles, 2.5 sacks, and two forced fumbles. He single-handedly changed the game in the first quarter when he sacked Newton and forced a fumble, allowing Broncos defensive lineman Malik Jackson to scoop the ball up and score.

“It got old listening to all the talk about him [Cam Newton] all week,” Jackson said to the Denver Post. “We dominated them. We should be talked about now among the all-time greats.”

The Broncos would never look back, keeping the Panthers from getting anything going the entire night. Cam Newton was rattled the entire night, completing only 18 of 41 passes for 265 yards. Peyton Manning’s night was not easy, either. The 19-year veteran completed 13 of 23 passes for only 141 yards.

“It’s very special,” said Manning, who will likely retire as a Super Bowl champion. “I’m gonna go kiss my wife and kids. I want to go hug my family. I’m going to drink a lot of Budweiser tonight, Von Miller’s buying.”

Until the next Super Bowl, always remember to keep pounding.