Enlarge 1969 AP photo Joe Namath famously guaranteed victory before the Jets stunned the Colts and notched the AFL's first Super Bowl victory in the game's third installment.   ABOUT THE AFL SERIES USA TODAY will celebrate the American Football League's 50th anniversary this summer with a series of retrospectives. THE AFL, 50 YEARS LATER Photos: Key moments and decision makers from the AFL's impactful tenure Upstart to the big time: How the underdog AFL changed the course of the NFL Patriots: Nomad team had humble beginning before reign as NFL champs Dolphins: After slow start in the AFL, Shula-led Dolphins flourished Bengals: AFL's Bengals became Paul Brown's entry back into NFL Broncos: Couldn't put a sock in 'second-class' days in AFL Chargers: Early days with Al Davis set stage for Raiders rivalry Raiders: Lamonica's Raiders took pride in wide-open offenses of AFL Chiefs: After they left Dallas, the Chiefs became the toast of the AFL Jets: Broadway Joe's win in Super Bowl III etched league's place in lore Bills: AFL glory days came too early for Bills to make a Super mark Oilers: Team owner Bud Adams' influence often overlooked

For fans who embraced the New York Titans' debut in 1960 as part of the fledgling American Football League and the team's transformation into the Jets three years later, there is one game to cling to in an otherwise bleak history.

But what a game it was.

The Jets' 16-7 conquest of the NFL's Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III to close the 1968 season ranks among the most meaningful upsets in sports history. It forever altered the pro football landscape and legitimized the AFL's merger with the NFL in 1970.

"I think if we had lost, there might not have even been a merger," says Gerry Philbin, who played defensive end for the Jets from 1964 to 1972. And even though the AFL and NFL agreed in 1966 to ultimately join forces, Philbin maintains the Jets' landmark victory "secured television rights, advertisements, everything."

The Jets not only successfully backed up quarterback Joe Namath's guarantee of victory against the powerhouse Colts — whose 13-1 regular-season record had them mentioned as an all-time NFL team before Super Bowl III — but New York also accomplished it with surprising authority, defeating an 18½-point favorite coached by Don Shula and quarterbacked by 1968 NFL MVP Earl Morrall.

"We were ridiculed and deemed as being inferior athletes to the glorified NFL," former Jets cornerback John Dockery says. "To come out and stuff them and prove something was a huge part of the celebration."

Namath, who keeps a low profile these days and did not respond to USA TODAY's requests for an interview, uttered the words that sealed his legend three days before the title clash with the Colts. "You can be the greatest athlete in the world, but if you don't win these football games, it doesn't mean anything," he said at a dinner hosted by the Miami Touchdown Club. "And we're going to win Sunday, I guarantee you."

Namath told Gerald Eskenazi, author of Gang Green, a book that chronicles the Jets' history: "I didn't plan on stirring up anything. Hey, (coach Weeb Ewbank) had told me to keep my big mouth shut. That week at poolside, I had told a bunch of reporters that half a dozen AFL quarterbacks were better than Morrall. That drove Shula nuts. It didn't do Weeb any good, either. Anyway, at the dinner I accepted an award, and we got into a discussion of the game coming up. I said I was angry we were such underdogs. I was tired of answering questions about the big, bad Colts. I thought it was ridiculous they were 18-point favorites."

And so he uttered one of the most famous guarantees in history.

Fans reacted with disbelief.

The NFL's Green Bay Packers had crushed the AFL's Kansas City Chiefs and Oakland Raiders in the first two Super Bowls. On paper, it appeared to oddsmakers that the Jets had no business sharing the field with the Colts at the Orange Bowl in Miami.

But the Big Apple's underdogs saw it very differently.

"We didn't cringe, because we had been watching film of Baltimore all week long," says wide receiver Don Maynard, an original member of the Titans and the only player besides Namath to play most of his career with the Jets and reach the Hall of Fame. "We had a great offensive line. Our defense was unbelievable, and we had a passing game that was as good as anybody will ever play."

Dockery remembers tight end Pete Lammons urging Ewbank, "You'd better turn off the film, because we're going to get overconfident. We can run on these guys. We can throw on these guys."

Ewbank was furious when Namath publicly voiced the cockiness that pervaded the locker room.

"I remember going to a meeting the next day, and Weeb was pacing back and forth, and you knew he was agitated," Dockery says. "Weeb was beside himself. Why did anybody say anything to agitate this team? Why guarantee a game of this magnitude?"

But that was what made Namath "Broadway Joe." And it helped to explain why teammates gravitated to him and eagerly followed his lead.

"For him to guarantee it gave ripples of confidence," Dockery says. "OK, he believes it. We believe it, and we can do it."

The Jets excelled in every aspect of the matchup. Namath, the Super Bowl MVP, hit 17 of 28 passes for 206 yards. Matt Snell rushed for 121 yards and a second-quarter touchdown. Defensive back Randy Beverly produced two of the four interceptions vs. Baltimore.

David A. "Sonny" Werblin, who led an ownership group that replaced founder Harry Wismer after Wismer could no longer pay the bills, sure knew what he was doing when Namath was selected first overall in the AFL's 1965 draft and signed a record three-year, $427,000 contract that included a new blue Lincoln Continental.

Namath displayed uncommon confidence from the moment he signed. As the quarterback sat with a number of reporters at Toots Shor's as part of his introductory news conference, The New York Times' Dave Anderson recalls one of them suggested to the youngster from Beaver Falls, Pa., that he might not succeed.

Namath, according to Anderson, looked the questioner in the eye and replied in a low, even voice, "I'll make it."

The famed passer from the University of Alabama required surgery on a severely damaged right knee 23 days after he signed, and he was so gimpy-legged that fans held their breath every time he went down, but he made it, all right.

He came along at the perfect time for his team and his league. With his white shoes, long hair and Fu Manchu mustache — and with a swagger he backed up game after game — Namath was very much a man for the anti-establishment 1960s.

"He was the playboy of the decade," Anderson says. "The girls would go (to Namath's bar) hoping to attach themselves to him."

Even today, Namath remains the most recognizable face of a franchise that has often lacked star power. Despite his nocturnal activities, he emerged as the AFL's rookie of the year in 1965. Two years later, he became the first quarterback in AFL or NFL history to throw for more than 4,000 yards while leading the Jets to their first winning season at 8-5-1.

Other than Namath and the 1968 Super Bowl III team, the AFL Jets were more infamous than famous. Because they were second-class citizens to the Mets at Shea Stadium, they sometimes practiced in front of prison inmates at Rikers Island. Tales abound of kicker Jim Turner practicing field goals by aiming between trees at Flushing Meadow Park.

Then there was the "Heidi Game." NBC broke away from the Jets' 1968 visit to Oakland to televise Heidi, a movie about a girl in the Swiss Alps, after Turner's field goal gave New York a 32-29 lead with 65 seconds left. The network's decision-makers never imagined that the Raiders would score two TDs nine seconds apart and win 43-32.

NBC apologized to angry viewers for "a forgivable error committed by humans who were concerned with the children."

Even at their worst moment, the AFL's Jets were unforgettable.