49ers Trivia
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This San Francisco 49ers trivia quiz has 78 free questions with answers and runs the full history of the franchise, from its 1946 founding in the All-America Football Conference and the Gold Rush prospectors behind the name to the Levi's Stadium era of Kyle Shanahan, Christian McCaffrey, Nick Bosa and Brock Purdy. Along the way you will hit Bill Walsh and the West Coast offense, Joe Montana, Jerry Rice, Steve Young, Ronnie Lott, Dwight Clark and The Catch, and every one of the five Super Bowl wins. There are questions for casual fans (which number did Montana wear?) and for the Faithful who have been around since Kezar and Candlestick (who nicknamed Hugh McElhenny The King?). Expect rivalries with the Cowboys, Rams and Seahawks, the 1994 season, the 2019 and 2023 Super Bowl runs, Sourdough Sam and a few genuinely obscure old-timers. Every answer was checked against primary sources, mainly Wikipedia and official team and league pages, so you can settle arguments with confidence. Play through, see your score, and pass it along to the rest of your group chat.
30 of 78 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The 49ers began play in 1946 as charter members of which league?
All-America Football Conference
All-America Football Conference was the 49ers' first home; the league lasted four seasons, and when it folded after 1949 the 49ers, Browns and original Baltimore Colts were absorbed into the NFL.
Q 02The 49ers' name honors which group of people?
Gold seekers who came to California in 1849
Gold seekers who came to California in 1849 gave the team its name, and the theme stuck: the mascot Sourdough Sam is a gold-rush prospector.
Q 03Where did the 49ers play their home games from 1946 through 1970?
Kezar Stadium
Kezar Stadium, in Golden Gate Park, is where Minnesota's Jim Marshall picked up a 49ers fumble in 1964 and ran 66 yards the wrong way into his own end zone.
Q 04Which stadium was the 49ers' home from 1971 through 2013?
Candlestick Park
Candlestick Park was home for 43 seasons; five years before the 49ers moved in, the Beatles played their last full public concert there.
Q 05Levi's Stadium, the 49ers' home field, is located in which city?
Santa Clara
Santa Clara was already home to the 49ers' headquarters when Levi's Stadium opened there in 2014, right beside the team's training facility.
Q 06Who was the 49ers' first head coach?
Buck Shaw
Buck Shaw coached the 49ers through 1954, and in 1960 his Philadelphia Eagles beat Green Bay for the NFL title, the only playoff game Vince Lombardi ever lost.
Q 07Which British band headlined the halftime show when Levi's Stadium hosted Super Bowl 50 in 2016?
Coldplay
Coldplay shared the stage with Bruno Mars and Beyoncé, who used the slot to perform her new single Formation; the 49ers were only the hosts that day.
Q 08In 2016, Levi's Stadium turned part of its roof into what?
A vegetable farm
A vegetable farm was planted on the stadium roof in 2016, and its herbs, tomatoes and peppers went to the stadium's own kitchens.
Q 09Bill Walsh's innovative play design earned him which nickname?
The Genius
The Genius scripted his opening offensive plays before each game, and his short-passing offense won three Super Bowls in ten seasons.
Q 10Bill Walsh developed what became known as the West Coast offense while an assistant with which team?
Cincinnati Bengals
Cincinnati Bengals assistant Walsh built the short, timing-based passing game in the early 1970s to suit quarterback Virgil Carter; the 'West Coast' label was first applied to Don Coryell's very different system.
Q 11In which round of the 1979 draft did the 49ers select Joe Montana?
Third
Third round, 82nd overall: three other quarterbacks went in the first round that year, yet the 49ers found a four-time champion with the last pick of round three.
Q 12Joe Montana became the first three-time what?
Super Bowl MVP
Super Bowl MVP went to Montana in three of his four title games; in the other, Super Bowl XXIII, the award went to Jerry Rice, the receiver catching his passes.
Q 13What name is given to Joe Montana's 1979 Cotton Bowl comeback, played while hypothermic?
The Chicken Soup Game
The Chicken Soup Game got its name from the bouillon the medical staff fed Montana in the locker room; his temperature had dropped to 96 degrees before he rallied Notre Dame past Houston 35-34.
Q 21How many touchdown passes did Steve Young throw in Super Bowl XXIX, setting a record?
6
6 touchdown passes set a Super Bowl record and won Young the game's MVP award; "I haven't thrown six touchdown passes in a game in my life," he said afterwards.
Q 22The 49ers' left-handed Hall of Fame quarterback descends from which historical figure?
Brigham Young
Brigham Young, who led Mormon settlers to Utah, was Steve Young's great-great-great-grandfather, and the quarterback played his college football at the university that bears his ancestor's name.
Q 23Which jersey number did the 49ers retire for Steve Young in 2008?
8
8 was retired at halftime of a 2008 game against the Patriots; Young had arrived in 1987 in a trade from Tampa Bay, where he threw nearly twice as many interceptions as touchdown passes.
Q 14Which team acquired Montana in a 1993 trade?
Kansas City Chiefs
Kansas City Chiefs got Montana after he turned down a move to Phoenix; with Steve Young now the 49ers' starter, he took his new team to the AFC Championship Game in his first season.
Q 15Which jersey number did the 49ers retire for Montana in 1997?
16
16 was retired by the 49ers in 1997; at his final stop the number already belonged to Hall of Famer Len Dawson, who offered to un-retire it, but Montana chose 19 instead.
Q 16Jerry Rice played his college football at which school?
Mississippi Valley State
Mississippi Valley State drew Rice in part because coach Archie Cooley, nicknamed The Gunslinger, ran a pass-heavy, no-huddle offense.
Q 17Which receiver broke Jerry Rice's 1995 single-season receiving-yards record in 2012?
Calvin Johnson
Calvin Johnson passed Rice's 1,848 yards and finished 2012 with 1,964, yet his Detroit Lions won only four games all season.
Q 18Which jersey number did the 49ers retire for Rice in 2010?
80
80 was retired by the 49ers in 2010; Rice had taken the number with him after leaving and was still catching passes in it at age 42.
Q 19Jerry Rice played regular-season games for which two teams after leaving the 49ers?
Raiders and Seahawks
Raiders and Seahawks: Oakland signed him in 2001, then traded him to Seattle six games into 2004 for a seventh-round pick, reuniting him with his old 49ers coordinator Mike Holmgren.
Q 20Before joining the NFL, Steve Young played two seasons for which USFL team?
Los Angeles Express
Los Angeles Express lured Young in 1984 with a contract reported at $40 million, most of it deferred for decades; after two seasons he left for the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Q 24What did 49ers safety Ronnie Lott have amputated in 1986 rather than miss games?
Tip of his left pinky
Tip of his left pinky: the finger was crushed making a tackle, and the surgery to save it would have cost him the start of 1986; he later said he regretted the amputation.
Q 25Ronnie Lott was a consensus All-American at which university?
USC
USC sent Lott to the 49ers eighth overall in 1981; he was one of three rookies in the starting secondary that year, and the team won its first Super Bowl months later.
Q 26Dwight Clark, who made The Catch, was drafted by the 49ers in which round of the 1979 draft?
Tenth
Tenth round, 249th overall, was where the 49ers took Clark in 1979, after Walsh noticed him at Clemson while scouting quarterback Steve Fuller.
Q 27Dwight Clark made The Catch to beat which team in the January 1982 NFC Championship Game?
Dallas Cowboys
Dallas Cowboys led late in the fourth quarter until Montana found Clark in the end zone; the play's first option was Freddie Solomon, who was not open.
Q 28Which defender was covering Dwight Clark on The Catch?
Everson Walls
Everson Walls, a rookie, had already intercepted Montana that day, yet he is remembered as the defender reaching in vain in the famous photo of the play.
Q 29Super Bowl XVI, the 49ers' first title, was played in which venue?
Pontiac Silverdome
Pontiac Silverdome, near Detroit, staged the first Super Bowl in a cold-weather city, and the 49ers won it just three seasons after Walsh took over a team that had gone 2-14.
Q 30Super Bowl XIX was the first played in the Bay Area, at which venue?
Stanford Stadium
Stanford Stadium had no lights and no dressing rooms when the NFL chose it, so the league helped pay for renovations and brought in temporary lighting for the January 1985 game.