Fun facts about Houston's first Super Bowl in 1974 The game was held at Rice Stadium and it was very boring

PHOTOS: Surprising facts about Houston's first Super Bowl

Ushers wade through a sea of trash after Rice Stadium hosted Super Bowl VIII in 1974. It cost an estimated $25,000 to clean up the stadium and parking lot after the game.

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Ushers wade through a sea of trash after Rice Stadium hosted Super Bowl VIII in 1974. It cost an estimated $25,000 to clean up the stadium and parking ... more Photo: CURTIS McGEE, Houston Chronicle Photo: CURTIS McGEE, Houston Chronicle Image 1 of / 60 Caption Close Fun facts about Houston's first Super Bowl in 1974 1 / 60 Back to Gallery

On January 13, 1974 the city of Houston hosted its first Super Bowl when the Miami Dolphins and the Minnesota Vikings squared off in the eighth edition of the big game at the spacious Rice Stadium.

A crowd of 71,882 endured a misty, soggy gridiron contest, decades before it was a bloated, billion-dollar worldwide event. Country singer Charley Pride sang the national anthem, so it wasn’t all that bad.

The game would see the Dolphins, still an NFL powerhouse led by coach Don Shula, defeat the Minnesota Vikings by a score of 24-7. Some 14 future NFL Hall-of-Famers played in that game, including Dolphins greats Bob Griese and Larry Csonka and Vikings QB Fran Tarkenton.

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The halftime show, titled “A Musical America,” featured the University of Texas Longhorn Band, the Westchester Wranglerettes and Miss Texas 1973, Judy Mallett, on fiddle.

That’s about a million miles away from whatever this year’s halftime artist, Lady Gaga, likely has in store for the world.

In 1974 there was no accidental or intentional nudity to speak of, no overpowering messages about society, the crowd didn’t get glow sticks to wave in the air, and there was no social media to roast the whole event mercilessly for days.

"It might have been the dullest ever,” NFL Films’ Steve Sabol said after the fact of the game and the halftime show.

Why wasn’t it at the state-of-the-art Astrodome, just a mile or two away? Rice Stadium simply had more seating capacity at the time, that’s why. There was a Super Bowl party at the Dome that Friday night, complete with cattle meandering near the crowds because in 1974 we weren’t aware or yet ashamed of Texas stereotypes.

You can read what gonzo reporter Hunter S. Thompson thought about the first Houston Super Bowl (he stayed at the downtown Hyatt Regency and went to the Spindletop while he was here) in his famous “Fear and Loathing at the Super Bowl” column written in the weeks after the game.

Spoiler alert: He drank a lot.

According to reports, Houston appeared to be the front-runner in 1991 to land Super Bowl XXIX for January 1995. The exploding scoreboard at the Dome had long been removed and replaced with extra seating. In the end Miami got the game and the Oilers and owner Bud Adams moved to Nashville, Tenn.

Check out the gallery above for more fun and quirky facts you may not have known about Houston's first Super Bowl.