49 Fun Facts About Joe Montana

Which head coach drafted Montana in 1979 and built the 49ers' West Coast offense around him?

Bill Walsh took the 49ers from 2-14 in his first season to a Super Bowl title in his third, with Montana running his offense of short, quick passes.

Which nickname did Montana carry through his 49ers years?

Joe Cool was earned for his calm, shown early: as a Notre Dame sophomore he came off the bench against Air Force, trailing 30-10 in the fourth quarter, and won 31-30.

Montana won Notre Dame's starting job in 1977 by rallying past which in-state rival?

Purdue led 24-14 when the third-string Montana came in with about 11 minutes left; he threw for 154 yards, Notre Dame won 31-24 and did not lose again that season.

In which round of the 1979 NFL draft was Montana selected?

Third round, 82nd overall: a pre-draft scouting report said he "doesn't have great tools, but could eventually start", and three other quarterbacks were taken ahead of him.

Who caught "The Catch" from Montana in the 1981 NFC Championship Game?

Dwight Clark's leaping grab at the back of the end zone beat Dallas 28-27 and sent the 49ers to their first Super Bowl. Montana, knocked down as he threw, never saw it.

Which team did Montana beat in both Super Bowl XVI and Super Bowl XXIII?

Cincinnati Bengals: the 49ers led the first meeting 20-0 at halftime and held on to win 26-21. Seven years later they needed a touchdown in the final minute to win 20-16.

Who caught the winning touchdown ending Montana's 92-yard drive in Super Bowl XXIII?

John Taylor caught the 10-yard pass with 34 seconds left. The drive began at the 49ers' own 8-yard line with just over three minutes to play, and Montana hit 8 of 9 throws on it.

Who broke Montana's record of three Super Bowl MVPs?

Tom Brady tied the mark in Super Bowl XLIX and passed it two years later. Montana's one Super Bowl without the award was XXIII, the game of his 92-yard winning drive, when a teammate took it.

Which team did Montana's 49ers rout 55-10 in Super Bowl XXIV?

Denver Broncos: it was their third Super Bowl defeat in four seasons, each heavier than the last. Montana threw five touchdown passes and the 45-point margin set a Super Bowl record.

Which head coach did Montana play for during his two seasons in Kansas City?

Marty Schottenheimer, Montana recalls, warned him that Arrowhead would be louder than anything he had heard. The veteran of four Super Bowls scoffed, and the coach replied, "Just wait."

Which comedian did Montana point out in the stands to relax his huddle before the winning drive of Super Bowl XXIII?

John Candy was standing near an exit ramp, and Montana asked tackle Harris Barton, "Isn't that John Candy?" The 49ers, three points down with 3:20 left, then drove 92 yards to win.

In which Pennsylvania coal-mining town did Montana grow up?

Monongahela: he was born in neighboring New Eagle and starred at Ringgold High, which renamed its football ground Joe Montana Stadium in 2006.

Which school offered Montana a basketball scholarship out of high school?

NC State made the offer after he starred for a title-winning Ringgold High team. Basketball was his favorite sport, but he chose football at Notre Dame instead.

Which Notre Dame coach said Montana was "the guy who's going to feed our family"?

Dan Devine said it in 1975 after his wife asked, "Who's Joe Montana?" Yet two years later he still had Montana third on the depth chart when the title season began.

Montana's 1979 Cotton Bowl comeback against Houston is remembered by what name?

The Chicken Soup Game: fighting hypothermia in an ice storm, Montana was warmed with soup in the locker room, returned with Notre Dame down 34-12 and won 35-34 on the final play.

Which No. 1 team did Notre Dame beat 38-10 in the Cotton Bowl to clinch the 1977 title?

Texas was unbeaten and had Heisman Trophy winner Earl Campbell, but lost by 28 points, and fifth-ranked Notre Dame vaulted to the national title.

Which quarterback did the New York Giants draft seventh overall in 1979, 75 picks before Montana?

Phil Simms was one of three quarterbacks taken in the first round while Montana waited for the 82nd pick. Simms started and won one Super Bowl; Montana won four.

Which starter did Montana back up for most of his rookie season in 1979?

Steve DeBerg started while the rookie Montana threw only 23 passes. DeBerg later saw starting jobs in Denver and Tampa Bay go to two more young future Hall of Fame quarterbacks.

Montana's first NFL comeback win, from 35-7 down in 1980, came against which then-winless team?

New Orleans Saints: they led 35-7 at halftime, but the 49ers tied it by the end of regulation and won 38-35 on an overtime field goal. It was the biggest deficit Montana ever overcame.

Super Bowl XIX, Montana's second title, was played close to home at which college stadium?

Stanford Stadium is just down the peninsula from San Francisco, so the 49ers won almost on their doorstep. No team won a Super Bowl in its own home stadium until Tampa Bay in 2021.

What cut short the 1982 season in which Montana had five straight 300-yard games?

Players' strike: it wiped out seven games of the 1982 season. Montana's passing streak filled most of what was left, yet the 49ers went 3-6 and missed the playoffs a year after winning the Super Bowl.

In 1983 the 49ers and Baltimore Colts discussed a trade of Montana for which top draft prospect?

John Elway was the Stanford star Baltimore held the first pick for. The deal died, the 49ers kept Montana, and Elway, who refused to play for the Colts, was traded to Denver instead.

Which team handed Montana's 15-1 49ers their only loss of 1984?

Pittsburgh Steelers won 20-17 in October, all that stood between the 49ers and a perfect season. San Francisco won its other 18 games, the Super Bowl among them.

Which quarterback did Montana outduel in Super Bowl XIX with a then-record 331 passing yards?

Dan Marino had thrown a record 48 touchdown passes that season, but Montana outpassed him, ran for 59 yards more and won 38-16.

Doctors suggested Montana retire in 1986 after he injured what in the season opener?

Spinal disc: he ruptured it throwing a pass and needed back surgery, and doctors advised him to give up football. He returned within two months and threw three touchdown passes in his first game back.

Montana set an NFL record in 1987 with 22 straight what?

Completed passes: he hit his last five against Cleveland and his first 17 a week later against Green Bay, breaking Ken Anderson's record of 20 in a row.

Which quarterback did the 49ers trade for in 1987, sparking a years-long controversy over Montana's job?

Steve Young arrived from Tampa Bay as the backup, took over while Montana was injured in 1991 and 1992, and kept the job. Montana asked for a trade and left in 1993.

Montana's four fourth-quarter touchdown passes in 1989 beat which team?

Philadelphia Eagles led 21-10 in the fourth quarter before Montana threw touchdown passes to four different receivers and won 38-28, finishing with 428 yards.

Montana threw a career-best 476 yards and six touchdowns in 1990 against which team?

Atlanta Falcons: his 476 yards and six touchdown passes both set 49ers records, and five of the scores went to the same receiver, yet San Francisco won only 45-35.

Which Giants defender's sack knocked Montana out of the 1990 NFC Championship Game?

Leonard Marshall's blind-side hit bruised Montana's sternum and broke a rib and a bone in his hand; Montana called it the hardest he ever took. The Giants won 15-13 on five field goals.

Montana missed all of 1991 and most of 1992 with an injury to which body part?

Elbow: the injury cost him nearly two full seasons. He returned for the second half of the 1992 finale against Detroit, threw two touchdown passes, and never took another snap for the 49ers.

Montana wore No. 19 in Kansas City because 16 was retired for which quarterback?

Len Dawson wore 16 for the Chiefs for 14 seasons and was MVP of their Super Bowl IV win, which stayed the franchise's only Super Bowl title for 50 years.

Which star running back signed with Kansas City shortly after the Montana trade?

Marcus Allen, the Chiefs' general manager recalled, phoned as soon as the Montana trade went through to say he wanted in. The two former Super Bowl MVPs reached the AFC Championship Game in their first season together.

Which team beat Montana's Chiefs in the 1993 AFC Championship Game?

Buffalo Bills won 30-13 after Montana left with a concussion early in the third quarter, and went on to their fourth straight Super Bowl.

Which console maker put Montana's name on its football video games in the early 1990s?

Sega paid for his name, found its developer had barely begun, and turned to Electronic Arts, which reworked its own John Madden Football into Joe Montana Football.

Montana co-hosted Saturday Night Live in 1987 with which fellow NFL star?

Walter Payton shared the stage in January 1987. Montana played Stu, the "Sincere Guy", in a sketch called The Honest Man, and both men turned up on Church Chat.

What nickname did 49ers teammates give Montana because of his very thin calves?

Bird Legs: one teammate joked that he had no calves at all. Montana, another recalled, was the man who gave everyone else in the locker room a nickname.

Which first-year head coach led Montana's 49ers to the Super Bowl XXIV title?

George Seifert was promoted from defensive coordinator when his predecessor retired after the previous title. In his first season the 49ers went 14-2 and won three playoff games by a combined 100 points.

Which 49ers owner, later a Hall of Famer himself, presided over all four of Montana's Super Bowl wins?

Eddie DeBartolo bought the 49ers in 1977 and built them into five-time champions, then lost control of the team over a Louisiana corruption case in which he pleaded guilty in 1998.

Montana met his wife Jennifer while the two were filming what?

Razor commercial: the Schick shoot brought them together. They married in 1985, and both of their sons went on to play college quarterback, one of them at Notre Dame.

Which Notre Dame quarterback was Montana's boyhood idol, helping steer him to the school?

Terry Hanratty was a local hero: he came from Butler, in the same western Pennsylvania quarterback country that produced Unitas, Namath and Blanda, and starred at Notre Dame in the 1960s.

Which opposing head coach in Super Bowl XXIII had been Montana's first quarterbacks coach with the 49ers?

Sam Wyche ran the 49ers' passing game from 1979 to 1982 and tutored the young Montana. Six years after leaving, he watched his old pupil beat his team with 34 seconds left.

Montana was a Notre Dame teammate of which player whose story became a Hollywood film?

Rudy Ruettiger did get into the 1975 Georgia Tech game and was carried off, but Montana later said the film invented its best scenes: nobody handed in a jersey and the crowd never chanted.

What did Montana's father do so his eight-year-old son could play youth football?

Listed him as nine: that was the league's minimum age, so Joe Sr. simply added a year. He had put a ball in his son's hands as soon as the boy could walk.

Which 49ers teammate entered the Hall of Fame alongside Montana in 2000?

Ronnie Lott, a defensive back on all four title teams, was elected in his first year of eligibility. He once had a crushed fingertip amputated rather than miss the start of a season.

Which quarterback had already gone 4-0 in Super Bowl starts before Montana did?

Terry Bradshaw won all four of his Super Bowl starts, though not without interceptions. Montana matched him ten years later without throwing one in 122 Super Bowl passes.

Which 49ers teammate ranked first, with Montana fourth, on NFL Network's 2010 list of the 100 greatest players?

Jerry Rice struggled with dropped passes as a 1985 rookie, then went on to catch 55 of Montana's regular-season touchdown passes, more than any other receiver.

Montana threw three touchdown passes in freezing wind to win the 1988 NFC title game 28-3 at which team's stadium?

Chicago Bears hosted at a frozen, windswept Soldier Field, yet Montana threw for 288 yards and opened the scoring with a 61-yard touchdown pass down the sideline.

Montana erased a 21-0 fourth-quarter deficit in the 1983 NFC title game, only to lose 24-21 to which team?

Washington Redskins won on a 25-yard field goal with 40 seconds left, from a kicker who had already missed four attempts that day. Montana's three touchdown passes had tied the game at 21-21.