Simpson and Curt Gowdy were the top two play-by-play men on that network before and after the merger of the two leagues.

Simpson called Super Bowl I on Jan. 15, 1967 for NBC Radio and confirms something that many young sports fans couldn’t fathom today.

“I would say it was half- to two-thirds full,” the legendary broadcaster said of Los Angeles Coliseum, the venue for Green Bay’s 35-10 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs that day.

“It wasn’t even called the Super Bowl then,” Simpson recalled. “It was the First AFL-NFL World Championship Game.”

To say television sports broadcasting has evolved since that day is an understatement.

“Today, we have so many computer-generated graphics,” Simpson said. “You’ve got the blue line for the line of scrimmage. You’ve got the yellow line for the first down. You can tell instantly how many yards a running back has. We had to keep track of all that.”

Simpson recalled preparing for a game each week.

“One of my biggest fears was a person in the home city would say, ‘He’s doing our game and doesn’t know that?’” he said. “I asked each team’s PR man to send me the newspaper clippings from the week’s previous game. Now, of course, it’s all available on the internet or can be faxed over. So certainly, technology has brought us a long way.”

Simpson’s professionalism was on display every week. He is in the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Hall of Fame.

He was a broadcasting icon when, in the late 1970s, a crazy group decided it needed “name” talent to help launch its fledgling cable-TV operation.

Simpson would love to say he saw instantly the potential of the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, but he didn’t. But he was one of ESPN’s first on-air broadcasters.

“They told me about Getty Oil being behind this network, that is was doing all sports. Stuart Evey called me every day for months,” Simpson said. “The timing was just right. The last of our five children were very close to getting out of school. We decided that, rather than have them come back to visit, maybe we could go visit them. We decided to do it.”

Few realize now what a gamble that was 30 years ago.

“The people I worked with thought I was nuts,” Simpson said with a laugh. “They asked me, ‘Who would ever want to watch sports 24 hours a day?’

“I told them nobody. But if you want to see sports, it’s there.”

ESPN teamed Simpson for basketball with a former head coach who had a dynamic personality, but a newcomer to broadcasting. Over the years, Dick Vitale has evolved into a cartoon of himself, but Simpson said his knowledge of the game and his enthusiasm for it made him a perfect analyst.

“He’s a very caring, compassionate man,” Simpson said. “We still exchange notes and cards. He’s a great guy — and he absolutely knows the game.”

Vitale credited Simpson for teaching him several lessons about the business. One of the most important lessons he discussed in his book, Living a Dream.

“One night, [Simpson] and I were doing a game—a so-so game. Somebody came up to me and asked, ‘What game do you guys have coming up?’ I turned to the guy and said, ‘Aw, it’s just another game, man, just another game.’ Jim grabbed me and said, ‘There is no such thing as just another game.’ He was right.”

Simpson, now 82 years old, remains a sports fan.

“I get mad if they miss the shot or if a guy messes up a name,” he said. “But I’m very happily retired. I was lucky to do what I loved doing. Nobody had more fun than me doing it.”