to the guys that witnessed the glory days...

Originally posted by Lobo49er:

Originally posted by Joecool:

Remember we went 10-6 and that was a disappointing year?

1992? we go 10-6, but the falcons and saints go in ahead of us. That year sucked. The last game of the year was against the Bears ... who were going to the playoffs and we weren't. I remember beating the ever-loving sh*t out of them that last game. IIRC, that was the season we had an awful start. Young got hurt, Grbac took a while to get in a rhythm, but we cam roaring back, but just couldn't do enough to seal a playoff berth.

As to the OP: some of these replies make it seems like we blew out all of our opponents. We didn't. We had many many many games where we were down in the 4th quarter.

But you knew we were going to win.

Joe Montana was the best comeback quarterback I've ever seen. Close second: Elway.

We would be down in many games, but Joe would bring us back. It was magic and it was gut-wrenching, but when you had Joe behind center, you almost just knew that he'd pull it off. That's what made him great.

It was Bono that took over in 92'. Grbac took over around 95' I believe

Originally posted by backontop:
It was great! We would blow teams away damn near every game.

That's not true. We had some close games especially in our division.

Followed the 9ers with my father in the late 50s through the 70s when they were often good, but not quite good enough! Brodie would often lead the team back just to throw an interception as they came into scoring distance. Of course, he was good enough to keep them in the game even when the rest of the team wasn't so good.

When the Walsh era started, I had been a fan of Stanford and hoped he could bring that game to the NFL. I did not like Montana at first because he made some of the worst mistakes I could imagine and Walsh would pull him out and talk him through his mistakes. After a couple of years we saw just how good Joe Cool was and I was sold.

The way they sliced up Ds was incredible. At first no one believed they could be consistent enough to make the short game work. Many "experts" said they could not possibly complete enough short passes to consistently move down the field. So much for the wizzards of the media.

Started watching them in '82... obviously, they were on TV all the time, even in the Midwest where the Chiefs and St. Louis Cardinals were the areas viewing teams.

Watching Roger Craig was a pleasure... and seeing Ronnie Lott light up WR's was SO much fun. It got to the point when if the opposing team scored, you'd get mad or frustrated. It was pretty ridiculous... and down right sad when they lost. Good times.

Talk about nervousness when they'd meet Dallas in the playoffs. Uhg. Just unbearable at times. But that last win with Steve Young... man, that was like the Superbowl. You knew it was over. I remember thinking (right after that win), "Whoever we play is going to get smashed. I feel sorry for them."

I'm serious, you knew it was automatic.

Complete opposite of today's team. I'm very grateful to have witnessed one of the best dynasties in my lifetime. Seriously doubt it will happen again.

Beyond great. I lived in Squaw Valley at the time and Niner games were on in very bar and were packed. The cheering and upbeat enthusiasm was awesome.

Every game on our first offensive series

Soory - hit the wrong button.

Beyond great. I lived in Squaw Valley at the time and Niner games were on in very bar and were packed. The cheering and upbeat enthusiasm was awesome.

Every game on our first offensive series WE EXPECTED TO SCORE. That was the norm or seemed to be the norm. Everyone on the team made plays on both sides of the ball. Not only Ronnie Lott but Jeff Fuller, Keena Turner, Hacksaw Renolds, Dwaine Board, not only Montana & Rice but John Taylor WendalTyler, Tom Rathman, Jon Ayers. I'd wake up Sunday after partying hard on Saturday and be excited to go and watch the game w/ fellow Niner fans.

Still a fan, Niner fan forever. And we shall return!

What these highlights don't give you as a fan is the feelings that every time our guys stepped on the field, we know we are better than them. We have a better offense that can over come any level of defense. We throw, catch, block, etc better. I scoffed when they said the other team has the #1 ranked defense. But when we struggled and not on top of our game, there's always Montana. That's another thing you can't take from the highlights. He has this aura, confident and cool, that as a fan you know, even when the team struggles through the game, you know deep inside, Montana can bring us back and win it. Because he had done it seemingly some many times before. Sometimes with a minute or less. You've seen it before but always makes everyone including the opponents, wonder how he did it. Makes you proud to be a Niners fan.

And one more thing. The organization was class all the way through. From owner to coaches and players. Players don't trash talk. They don't say how they are going to beat the other team. They don't show boat on or off the field. They just go out and do it. They let the score board do all the talk. And after the beat down, they were already thinking about the next team. Until they were holding the SB trophy at the end of the year. The whole team was like a professional machine.

It was all about winning with class.

Originally posted by Hoovtrain:

Originally posted by Lobo49er:

Originally posted by Joecool:
Remember we went 10-6 and that was a disappointing year?

1992? we go 10-6, but the falcons and saints go in ahead of us. That year sucked. The last game of the year was against the Bears ... who were going to the playoffs and we weren't. I remember beating the ever-loving sh*t out of them that last game. IIRC, that was the season we had an awful start. Young got hurt, Grbac took a while to get in a rhythm, but we cam roaring back, but just couldn't do enough to seal a playoff berth.

As to the OP: some of these replies make it seems like we blew out all of our opponents. We didn't. We had many many many games where we were down in the 4th quarter.

But you knew we were going to win.

Joe Montana was the best comeback quarterback I've ever seen. Close second: Elway.

We would be down in many games, but Joe would bring us back. It was magic and it was gut-wrenching, but when you had Joe behind center, you almost just knew that he'd pull it off. That's what made him great.

It was Bono that took over in 92'. Grbac took over around 95' I believe

Thanks! Which reminds me...someething else the "glory years" seemed to provide: a year-after-year--after-year amazing QB depth.

Deep. Sigh.

Originally posted by Lobo49er:

Originally posted by Hoovtrain:

Originally posted by Lobo49er:

Originally posted by Joecool:

Remember we went 10-6 and that was a disappointing year?

1992? we go 10-6, but the falcons and saints go in ahead of us. That year sucked. The last game of the year was against the Bears ... who were going to the playoffs and we weren't. I remember beating the ever-loving sh*t out of them that last game. IIRC, that was the season we had an awful start. Young got hurt, Grbac took a while to get in a rhythm, but we cam roaring back, but just couldn't do enough to seal a playoff berth.

As to the OP: some of these replies make it seems like we blew out all of our opponents. We didn't. We had many many many games where we were down in the 4th quarter.

But you knew we were going to win.

Joe Montana was the best comeback quarterback I've ever seen. Close second: Elway.

We would be down in many games, but Joe would bring us back. It was magic and it was gut-wrenching, but when you had Joe behind center, you almost just knew that he'd pull it off. That's what made him great.

It was Bono that took over in 92'. Grbac took over around 95' I believe

Thanks! Which reminds me...someething else the "glory years" seemed to provide: a year-after-year--after-year amazing QB depth.

Deep. Sigh.

Yup. Someone goes down, just plug another one in and keep rolling. What was so impressive/frustrating about 92' was that we really got rolling once Bono settled and were playing the best football in the league, IMO. Problem was that we really put ourselves in a hole at the beginning of the season. I really think we had a great chance to win it all had we managed to get into the playoffs. That f*cking hail Mary in ATL is the one that really came back to haunt us. That one still burns me.

it was always knowing ya team had a chance

My first game, Y.A. Tittle was our starting QB. All those years of frustration, getting close in the Seventies, only to lose in the playoffs, and then it finally happened. Of course, we were REALLY bad just before things changed. I'll always remember my Dad, at the game for 'the catch' saying to me, "well, that's what I have been waiting for all these years. No need to come to any more games, I'm satisifed." We went on to win our first SB, and began bringing my friends to games while my Dad sat contentedly at home watching the games on TV. It really was fun togo to games and tailgate, then watch our team beat down some phony contender. We were great, we really were. Lucky to have seen it.

I started following them right about the time they picked up O.J. Simpson. They were terrible then. Later on, watching them go from a 6 and 10 team to a team that won the surperbowl the next year was amazing. Ronnie Lott and the rest of that secondary that they basically drafted that year really made a difference. Also everyone back then used ball control via the running game. We didn't have a stud running back yet but we did with the short pass. As the years and superbowls rolled on, you could see Montana, Craig, Rathman, Rice, all laughing and joking around on the sideline in preseason, and you knew they were going to win another superbowl that year. When they traded up in the draft for a player, it turned out to be Jerry Rice, or Bryant Young. Not just great players, but that best at their possitions at the time. If you can do that, or consistently draft great players in the later rounds, you can have dynasty. Of course great coaching had a lot to do with it as well.

I moved to the Bay Area in '79. It seemed like everyone was a Raiders fan...why not, they were winners and the 49ers were a joke. But I always had a thing for underdogs, so I became a Niners fan. It was Walsh's first year. The team had just come out from the Joe Thomas debacle. Steve DeBerg was the quarterback. Montana had been drafted. They were still pretty bad, but there were some not so obvious improvements that became a little more obvious in '80. That would be the last year over the next twenty when they weren't the team to beat. It was an amazing and long ride. They set the standard that is still trying to be followed to this day.

Funny thing is, I had gotten only one chance in the time I had left in Califorinia (I moved to the East coast in '85) to see the Niners play at Candlestick. It was 1980 and you couldn't give tickets away. So our next door neighbor offered us two tickets to see SF play New Orleans at the Stick. Anyone remember that game? The Saints were up on the Niners 35-7 at halftime. This was the Saints whose fans wore bags on their heads...I don't think they had even won a game up to that point.

Anyway, Walsh decided at half time to put Montana in at QB...and it turned out to be the game that cemented Montana's role as starting QB for the remainder of the season. Montana led the team on a furious comeback and the defense held the Saints scoreless in the second half. The Niners won 38-35 in what was one of the greatest come from behind victories of all time.

The only bad thing about the game...my dad had gotten called in to fly TDY and my mom wouldn't take me to the game. So I had to watch it on TV. I can only imagine how nuts Candlestick must have been.

You are Right, and they won more games on the road doing those days then ANYBODY,when they got off the bus the teams were ALREADY defeated mentally,the 9ers were so dominate during the 80s and part of the 90`s that jerry jones got jealous and made a push to bring about the salary-cap,jerry was and still is ahttp://www.49erswebzone.com/forum/niners/158559-guys-witnessed-glory-days/# Cocksucking HEATER

Some of us have actually been fans since BEFORE the glory days. That's one of the things that made those times so sweet. The Niners were a hard luck team in the early to mid-seventies, whose infrequent playoff aspirations were routinely crushed by Dallas. In the late seventies, the club declined to a low performance level, especially under GM Joe Thomas. When Walsh was hired, he didn't have immediate success, going 2-14 in his first season as Niner HC. But he did inherit a decent OL and an outstanding OL coach in Bobb McKittrick. Much like today, the front seven on defense were talented, but the defensive backfield was a sieve. Within 2 years, Walsh found Montana and drafted an entirely new defensive backfield. When they won Super Bowl XVI, that team came seemingly out of nowhere, although there were tell-tale, in-season wins at Pittsburgh and vs Dallas at home, that signalled something was happening.

The similarity to the current situation is striking to some of us old-timers. A rise from the ashes of the last 8+ years will be sweet, once it happens. And Walsh proved that it could happen dramatically in a single season. That team got it done with an imaginative offense, a QB change, a mostly-rookie defensive backfield, a running-back-by-committee, serviceable-but-unspectacular receivers, a few key FA pick-ups (Fred Dean, Hacksaw Reynolds, Charle Young, etc), and a step-by-step confidence-building approach to the regular season. Can it happen again in 2011? Probably a season too early to expect so. But then, there is Niner history.......