Flashback: The Catch, and the Dynasty It Started
January 10, 1982. Candlestick Park. Fifty-one seconds left, the back of the end zone, and a fingertip grab that changed everything for the 49ers.
Before the five Super Bowls, before Jerry Rice and Steve Young, before the 49ers became the gold standard of an entire decade, there was one play that made all of it possible. It happened on January 10, 1982, in the NFC Championship Game against the Dallas Cowboys at Candlestick Park, and Bay Area football fans have been reliving it ever since.
The 49ers trailed late and faced third down near the Dallas goal line with under a minute to go. Joe Montana rolled to his right, chased by the Cowboys' pass rush, and threw a high ball toward the back of the end zone that looked for all the world like it was sailing out of bounds. Then Dwight Clark rose up out of nowhere and pulled it down at his fingertips for the go-ahead touchdown. The 49ers won 28-27, and a dynasty was born on the spot.
The play itselfWhat makes The Catch more than a highlight is what it ended and what it began. It ended the Cowboys' run as the class of the conference, the team that had bullied the NFC for years. And it began the Montana era in San Francisco, the first step of a franchise that would win Super Bowl XVI just two weeks later and four championships in the decade that followed. Every gold-and-red banner that hangs today traces back to that one throw and that one leap.
Every dynasty has a first domino. For the 49ers, it was a high ball to the back of the end zone and a receiver who refused to let it land.
Bay Area Sports Blog- Capped a 14-play, 89-yard game-winning drive engineered by Joe Montana
- Beat the Dallas Cowboys 28-27 for the NFC title
- Sent the 49ers to Super Bowl XVI, the first of five championships
- Widely regarded as one of the greatest plays in NFL history
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