If you’re old enough to remember the 1990s, then you probably remember the Super Bowl ad featuring an epic H-O-R-S-E matchup between Michael Jordan and Larry Bird with a Big Mac on the line.

Jackie Woodward remembers it better than most of us: She was at the shoot in December 1992, when director Joe Pytka and the creative team of Jim Ferguson and Bob Shallcross from ad agency Leo Burnett teamed up for the McDonald’s spot.

At the time, Woodward was a senior director at the fast-food giant, overseeing sports and celebrity marketing. Her boss, McDonald’s CMO Paul Schrage, approved the ad; Woodward was sent to the shoot to make sure everything went as planned.

The ad – “The Showdown” – went on to win USA Today’s Super Bowl Ad Meter, the ultimate sign of mass approval in an era before social media and smartphones.

Woodward remembers the headaches of filming at the Rosemont Horizon (rechristened as Allstate Arena in 1999) in Rosemont, Ill. The arena sits just a few miles from O’Hare International Airport. “We were in the flight path that day, which meant the shoot took a lot longer than it should have,” she said. “And I do recall it being frustrating for everyone.”

Both Jordan and Bird “were talkative with people – these guys know their job and they show up and do it,” Woodward said. Jordan’s daughter, Jasmine, had just been born and Woodward remembers Jordan proudly showing off pictures of his newborn to the production crew.

The ad begins with Bird shooting baskets in an empty arena as Jordan sits down with his lunch: a McDonald’s bag with a Big Mac and fries. Bird looks at Jordan and after challenging him to play for it, adds, “First one to miss watches the winner eat.” Moments later, he adds a caveat: “No dunking.”

With that, Jordan and Bird match one another in a sequence of increasingly ridiculous shots, bouncing balls off the scoreboard and over the rafters. It ends with Bird and Jordan plotting shots from the top of Chicago’s 100-story John Hancock Center. Woodward said the effects and sequences that make the ad so effective were added in post-production.

“The fact that it’s still memorable 30 years later speaks for itself,” she said, crediting Pytka and the Leo Burnett agency team for making the ad magical.

“The Showdown” was so popular, it spawned a sequel adding in Charles Barkley that debuted during the 1994 Super Bowl. Woodward attended that shoot, too, in December 1993 in Carefree, Ariz., near Scottsdale.