Everybody with any kind of enduring connection and affection to the 49ers knows exactly where they were and exactly what they were doing on Jan. 10, 1982, when Dwight Clark climbed into a colorless sky at Candlestick Park to encounter fate in the form of a falling football.
Particularly everybody who was actually there to live it.
Like the football world watching intently around them, the 1981 49ers will forever remember in their hearts and minds that frozen moment in time when Clark’s cleats returned to earth to catapult San Francisco toward greatness and set in motion the birth of one of the greatest dynasties in the history of professional sports.
How could anybody possibly forget? “We have a signature moment together that kicked Dallas’ ass and sent us to the Super Bowl,” Clark said in October after he was honored by the organization with “Dwight Clark Day” at Levi’s Stadium during a Week 7 encounter with the Cowboys. “There’s a lot of stories that come from that play.”
Is there ever. More than 35 years later, the characters that were there to experience it and take part in it could relive it like it happened yesterday.
As some three dozen of Clark’s teammates from that day gathered back in the Bay Area for the tribute to their ailing friend and comrade, Carlton Williamson — a Pro Bowl safety on that team — looked back on that January afternoon decades ago and put simply into words the significance of one of the seminal moments in NFL history.
“The Catch,” Williamson said, “was miraculous.”
Those are two words that need no other introduction to most football fans, particularly those who follow the 49ers. There have been hundreds of thousands of catches in NFL games since the inception of the league, but only one of them is known as “The Catch.”
There will never be another catch quite like it. When Clark landed in the end zone clutching the winning touchdown of the 1982 NFC Championship Game, it became the pivotal and epoch-making event in the 72-year history of 49ers football.
Esta historia es de la edición December 2017 de Niner Report.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor ? Conectar
Esta historia es de la edición December 2017 de Niner Report.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor? Conectar
EIGHT IS ENOUGH
Set 49ers lineup still has several new starters
Calling all cornerbacks
Loss of Verrett exposes 49ers’ thin depth at CB
Always finding their way to run
49ers system accomplished at developing homegrown talent
ANOTHER COMEBACK?
Resilient veteran Verrett to miss rest of season
TOP 10 Rookie running backs
THE BACK LIST
STOCK UP STOCK DOWN
DEOMMODORE LENOIR | AMBRY THOMAS
Will Mostert run for 49ers again?
Raheem Mostert was primed this year to be the centerpiece of one of the NFL’s most dynamic offenses, featured as the lead performer in San Francisco’s grinding rushing attack while making his climb among the league’s top running backs.
THE WONDER OF WARNER
49ers make All-Pro star highest-paid LB in NFL
Making the right choice at QB
In the weeks that follow after you read this — and perhaps sometime even sooner than that — Kyle Shanahan and the rest of the 49ers organization will make a titanic decision that will have present, future and perhaps even everlasting implications for the franchise. It will chart the course for the team’s pivotal 2021 season while determining whether San Francisco really does have the juice to return to powerhouse status and again be considered a legitimate contender to get back to the Super Bowl.
TOP 10 Linebacker seasons
Fred Warner vaulted to stardom with a spectacular 2020 season — and the 49ers rewarded him this summer with a $95.225 million deal that makes him the highest-paid inside linebacker in NFL history. By today’s standards, Warner’s performance last year was worth the money as he posted an Approximate Value of 19 — matching the highest score ever recorded by a San Francisco defender according to a Pro Football Reference formula that puts a single number on each player-season across all positions since 1960. Patrick Willis and NaVorro Bowman (twice) also had seasons with an AV of 19 as they dominate this list of the greatest individual seasons by a linebacker in 49ers history.