It had been 29 years since the Packers last won a championship, and Titletown residents were desperate for another title.

A five-year rebuilding plan under general manager Ron Wolf had come to fruition during the 1996 season. The Packers entered their matchup against the New England Patriots as the hottest team in the NFL and the heavy favorites to hoist the Lombardi Trophy. They had scored 30 or more points in their previous six games, the second longest such streak in the Packers’ 78-year history and were the first team since the undefeated 1972 Miami Dolphins to lead the league in both scoring offense (456) and scoring defense (210).

The Packers’ first Super Bowl appearance in nearly three decades stoked the demand for tickets. Brokers on the black market garnered as much as $1,100 for $275 tickets in the upper deck and as much as $5,000 for seats in luxury boxes that normally sold for $350-$500.

The game was a homecoming of sorts for Packers quarterback Brett Favre, the league’s reigning two-time MVP, who was born and raised in Kiln, Miss., about an hour’s drive east of New Orleans. He bought 40 tickets for family and friends to attend the game.

Packers fans outnumbered Patriots fans by a 2-to-1 ratio according to observers. Still, New Englanders did their part to show their support. About 10,000 of them attended a pep rally in the French Quarter on the Friday before the game.

The main storyline from Patriots camp centered around head coach Bill Parcells, who was attempting to become the first coach with a Super Bowl victory with two different teams. Six days before the Super Bowl, the Boston Globe reported that the Super Bowl would Parcells’ final game with the Patriots because of irreconcilable differences with owner Robert Kraft.

Parcells spent the week deflecting questions from the media about his status. “He hasn’t said anything to us,” linebacker Chris Slade said. “Until I hear it out of his mouth, he’s still my coach, and he’s going to be my coach next season.”

Meanwhile, the Super Bowl entertainment and party scene was thriving, as usual. The Allman Brothers Band headlined a private part for Turner Sports at the House of Blues. ZZ Topp surprised guests by joining the band for a few numbers. Among the celebrities in the crowd were actor Dean Cain, model Carol Alt and former NFL star Marcus Allen.

Ethel Kennedy, Raiders owner Al Davis and Pete Fountain were among the celebrity guests at Barron Hilton’s annual Super Bowl extravaganza.

Super Bowl XXXI was dedicated to former NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle, who died Dec. 6, 1996, at the age of 70. Players for both teams wore special helmet decals with Rozelle’s signature “Pete” printed across the NFL logo. Tributes to Rozelle were also published in the Super Bowl XXXI game program.

Game day arrived without much controversy. The week of coverage was relatively quiet and scandal-free.

Mike Dikta’s presence during the pregame coin toss ceremony was of particular interest to New Orleanians. He was one of six Super Bowl winning coaches who participated in the pregame coin toss. The others were Tom Flores, Tom Landry, Chuck Noll, George Seifert and Hank Stram, who performed the toss. Ditka had been linked to the Saints head coaching opening for days and was officially introduced by the club at a press conference the next day.

The pregame show featured Spanish duo Los del Rio, who performed their multi-platinum smash hit “Macarena,” singer-songwriter Mary Chapin Carpenter and Cajun musical group BeauSoleil, who collaborated on Carpenter’s hit song “Down at the Twist and Shout.”

Luther Vandross sang the national anthem, and Miss Louisiana 1996 Erika Schwarz Wright performed sign language for the national anthem.

Once the teams kicked off, the anticipated shootout did not take long to materialize. Farve hit Andre Rison for a 54-yard touchdown pass on the Packers’ second offensive play. The teams traded scores, and the Patriots took a 14-10 lead after one quarter. The 24 first-quarter points was a Super Bowl record.

The Packers broke open in the second quarter, outscoring the Patriots 17-0 in the period. The key play was an 81-yard touchdown strike from Favre to Antonio Freeman, who beat man-to-man coverage by safety Lawyer Milloy for the score. It was the longest pass play in Super Bowl history at the time and it put the Packers ahead for good at 17-14. They added a 31-yard field goal by Chris Jacke, which was set up by Howard’s 34-yard punt return, and a 2-yard touchdown run by Favre to make it 27-14 at halftime.

The halftime show was titled “The Blues Brothers Bash” and featured an eclectic ensemble, led by the Blues Brothers — actors Dan Akroyd, Jim Belushi and John Goodman — along legendary soul singer James Brown and rock band ZZ Topp. Among the songs performed were “Soul Man,” “I Got You (I Feel Good),” “Tush,” “Legs,” and “Gimme Some Lovin.’” The show’s finale featured 107 motorcyclists on Harley-Davidsons whirling around the stage with dancers, riding shotgun.

During the broadcast of the show, the NFL displayed a graphic honoring Laura Patterson, the stuntwoman who was tragically killed the Thursday before the game while rehearsing a bungee jumping exhibition from the roof of the Superdome. Patterson’s picture and name also appeared on the Superdome scoreboard at the conclusion of the halftime show.

In the second half, the defenses started to gain their footing. Patriots running back Curtis Martin finally got into the end zone on an 18-yard run with 3:58 left in the quarter to trim the Packers’ lead to 27-21. That set up the biggest play of the game.

On the ensuing kickoff, Howard took the kick from Adam Vinatieri at the 1-yard line and burst through the middle of the Patriots’ coverage unit. He bounced off a tackle by Hason Graham at about the Packers’ 30, angled slightly left and was gone. The 99-yard touchdown return was a Super Bowl record, and the Packers added an ensuing two-point conversion pass from Favre to Mark Chmura to make it 35-21.

More than 3 minutes remained in the third quarter, but that was it. The Patriots never threatened again. Their final five drives resulted in four sacks, three punts, two interceptions and just one first down.

Packers defensive end Reggie White led the onslaught with three sacks, including two on consecutive plays in the third quarter. White dominated Patriots right tackle Max Lane, pancaking him right times in 41 snaps.

“Obviously, that touchdown was a backbreaker,” Howard said of his return score.

It was Howard’s fifth return touchdown of the season and gave him a Super Bowl-record 244 return yards for the game. He also set Super Bowl records for most kickoff return yards (154) and punt return yards (90). In doing so, he became the first special teams player to be named Super Bowl’s MVP.

“I never would have imagined that I would win the MVP of the Super Bowl, simply because I really didn’t expect them to be kicking the ball to me that much,” Howard said. “But, like I said through the course of the two weeks before this game, they can roll the dice and kick it to me if they want.”

The victory was particularly gratifying for White, who had gone 12 seasons without a championship despite being one of this league’s most dominant defensive linemen. He took the Lombardi Trophy for a postgame victory lap, to the delight of the thousands of noisy cheeseheads among the Superdome crowd of 72,301.

“Coach Lombardi had a wonderful legacy for the rest of us, and now we’re trying to do our part. I hope we can do it for a long time to come,” Packers head coach Mike Holmgren said.

Things weren’t as rosy in the Patriots postgame locker room.

“Any time you get to this game there’s a measure of satisfaction,” Parcells said. “But when you lose it, you’re disappointed. No one could be more disappointed than I am.”

The rift between Parcells and the Patriots was so bad that he stayed in New Orleans and did not return to Boston with the team. Phone records from the New Orleans Marriott showed that Parcells made dozens of phone calls to Hempstead, N.Y., where New York Jets headquarters are located, during the week of the game. Five days after the Super Bowl, Parcells was named the Jets head coach.

The win was the 13th consecutive by an NFC team over an AFC team in the Super Bowl and was the 12th NFL championship for the Packers. When they returned to Green Bay the next day, a crowd of more than 150,000 fans braved the snow and 20-degree weather to greet them at the victory parade

”Now I’m greedy,” Favre said. ”I want to win more. I want to come back and win another. But I want to enjoy this a little while.”