It was a cool winter day when the 49ers looked to defend their home one last time in 1979. While they were 1-13, there was a gleam in their eyes that wasn't there a year earlier. And it all had to do with a Genius.
Bill Walsh had arrived in San Francisco that offseason and immediately saw an organization in turmoil. While they had just gotten rid of their rotten general manager Joe Thomas, it would take years to clean up the mess that he left behind.
So Walsh set about building the roster in his image, drafting quarterback Joe Montana and receiver Dwight Clark while claiming safety Dwight Hicks off waivers. While it was still a work in progress, their offensive line featured four of the five starters that would win the Super Bowl two years later.
Still, the team was hobbled by Thomas's ill-advised trade for the legendary O.J. Simpson which cost the franchise five high draft picks over the span of three years. Hobbled by numerous knee injuries, Simpson was nowhere near the Hall of Fame-bound player that he had once been. But there was a light at the end of the tunnel as Simpson had announced during the 1979 season that he was retiring.
So as the 49ers stepped out of the tunnel at Candlestick Park on December 9, 1979, the hometown crowd was prepared to bid the legendary running back a fond farewell. OF course, they were in for a treat that had very little to do with Simpson and everything to do with the dynasty to come.
After years in the wilderness of despair, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers had started to look like a contender in 1979. Led by a suffocating defense and a lethally-armed quarterback, Tampa Bay was ready to make a push for the playoffs. Still, after losing their previous two games, the Bucs still needed just one more win to clinch their first ever playoff berth.
Steve DeBerg began the game by lofting a 19-yard touchdown pass to Mike Shumann to give San Francisco the lead. Second-year linebacker Dan Bunz picked off Doug Williams on the Buccaneers first possession and nearly fumbled it away but quickly fell on the pigskin like his life depended on it. The 49ers quickly made Tampa Bay pay with a field goal to give them an early 10 point lead.
Williams was picked off again on the following drive, this time by Dwight Hicks. It was the first of two interceptions that Hicks would nab that afternoon and Doug Williams would ultimately cough up five before the day was done. But he refused to give up. In the middle of the second quarter, he caught the 49ers flatfooted and lofted a beautiful pass over the defense and into the waiting hands of Isaac Hagins for a 57 yard gain, setting up Tampa's only points. Invigorated, Williams found Jimmie Giles in the endzone for a 19-yard touchdown to cut the lead to three.
Ray Wersching nailed a 27-yard field goal to send the 49ers into halftime with a 13-7 lead. The teams battled to a scoreless stalemate in the third quarter, but the 49ers were not done scoring. Lenvil Elliott scored on a one-yard plunge before Wersching capped off the Niner's scoring binge with a 45-yard field goal, giving San Francisco a 23-7 lead that they would hold for the rest of the game.
But there was one more sight that fans had come to see: O.J. Late in the fourth quarter, Bill Walsh inserted Simpson into the lineup and the crowd of just over 40,000 instantly applauded. They knew what was coming. O.J. stepped to the right and for a moment it looked like he would blindly follow his blockers. But he summoned one last burst to the left and picked up a quick 17 yards, giving football fans everywhere one last glimpse of "the Juice".
As the clock wound down to zero, the players lifted Walsh onto their shoulders and carried them off the field while the crowd gathered on the field and tore down a goalpost. It is rare for a championship atmosphere to emerge within an organization late in a 2-14 season. But San Francisco knew that something special was on the horizon and while Tampa Bay clawed its way to the NFC Championship Game and O.J. Simpson faded into retirement, the 49ers began to dream of a time when victories such as this were more common. The best was yet to come.
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