It was third-and-goal at the 49ers one-yard line in Super Bowl XVI and it looked like the Bengals would score. But just as Cincinnati's running back caught the pass in the flat, a flash of white and gold slammed into his shoulder, stopping him just short of the end zone. While the 49ers ultimately won the game and their heroic tackler has been praised ever since, few know of the man underneath the helmet. This is his story.
The Early Years
Dan Bunz was born in Roseville, California on October 7, 1965. He idolized his football playing brothers and hoped to walk in their footsteps when he was older. Like many boys with a similar temperament, he tried out for the local Pop Warner team, never thinking that he was too small. The coaches noticed and cut him from the team. Bunz would carry that deep pain of rejection the rest of his life and determined that he would never experience that again.
He practically lived in the weight room as his body grew four inches over one summer. He was no longer considered a weakling. He was an all around athlete at Oakmont High School, averaging 16 point a game in basketball and qualifying for sectionals in both the high and long jumps in track. But while he loved both of those sports, football was his passion.
He was a swirling dervish as a middle linebacker, haunting backfield, gyms and film rooms. Dan Bunz knew that he had an opportunity to be great and he wasn't going to waste a second.
He originally signed with UC Riverside and simultaneously played for both the freshman and varsity teams, a practice illegal in today's NCAA. After his freshman year, he followed the coaching staff to Long Beach State University, home of the 49ers. He led the team in tackles in each of his three years, totaling 172 in just his senior year alone.
After his senior year, Bunz prepped for the 1978 NFL Draft by working out for coaches and scouts over 100 times, leaving each group in awe of his work ethic. He was rewarded for that tenacity when he was taken in the first round (24th overall) by the San Francisco 49ers. But even though he had been drafted, Dan Bunz knew that the real work had just begun.
The 49ers
The 49ers of the late. 1970's were in a flux. In just 1978 alone, they would go through two head coaches who would combine to lead the team through the mire of a 2-14 season. It didn't help matters that their general manager, Joe Thomas, seemed determined to eradicate any of the organization's history while stripping it of talent while their young owner, Eddie DeBartolo Jr., looked on naively thinking that it would all pan out.
While the 49ers spent all of 1978 stuck in the mud of their own making, Dan Bunz enjoyed a fine year as the team's middle linebacker, racking up 83 solo tackles, three and a half sacks, three fumble recoveries and an interception. Along the way, Bunz demonstrated his willingness to do the dirty work rarely spotlighted in the public eye. Little things suc has jamming a tight end, setting the edge or stuffing another run up the gut cemented his status as a good, everyday player for a chaotic organization. He spent that offseason playing a small roll in the instant classic North Dallas Forty.
The following year was much better for the organization and also spelled the eventual end of Bunz's reign as an everyday starter. While Bill Walsh and his staff built a stout defense from the ground-up, Dan Bunz continued to make plays. Not only did he lead the team in tackles in each of his first three years with the team, but he also managed to force five fumbles in 1980, a stat that is tied for sixth in NFL history.
By 1981, he had switched to Left Inside Linebacker (LILB) while starting half the season. That was a magical year for the City by the Bay. Infused with a fresh crop of rookie defensive backs and veteran leadership in linebacker Jack "Hacksaw" Reynolds and defensive end Fred Dean, the 49ers defense was no longer an afterthought in the NFL as they took the league by storm, going 13-3 and stamping their ticket to the Super Bowl in memorable fashion against Dallas in the NFC Championship Game.
Two weeks later, the 49ers led the Bengals 20-0 at the half. With smiles on their faces, the 49ers figured that that they could cruise the rest of the way to their first Super Bowl championship. They could not have been more wrong. With quarterback Ken Anderson leading the charge, the Bengals soon scored a touchdown and again had the ball deep in 49ers territory. Clinging to a 20-7 lead and with their heels brushing against their own goal line, the 49ers knew that every play counted.
On first down, Anderson handed off to lumbering fullback Pete Johnson who rumbled from the three-yard line down to the one, stopping just short of the end zone by Bunz. On second down, an immovable object met its identical twin as Hacksaw Reynolds met Johnson at the one-yard line, giving him a stinging pop that he would not soon forget.
On third down, Cris Collinsworth went in motion to the right and Ken Anderson ran a play action towards Johnson before looking to the right where Charles Alexander was waiting in the wing. As soon as Alexander caught the ball, Dan Bunz was there, quickly wrapping him up and taking him to the ground.
On fourth down, Anderson again gave it to Johnson who was stopped just short of the end zone. With that scare averted, the 49ers ultimately won the game 26-0. Dan Bunz's life hasn't been the same since.
Later Career
After that glorious season, Dan Bunz's career wound down the way a lot of football career end, as a role player. Still, he was technically the starter as the Sam linebacker in 1984 when the 49ers went 15-1 and beat Dan Marino's Dolphins in the Super Bowl. the 49ers defense was much more nuanced by then as Bunz was routinely subbed out for rookie linebacker Todd Shell and defensive back Jeff Fuller in nickel packages. Still, he held his own as he racked up 33 tackles a sack and an interception.
Bill Walsh cut Dan Bunz that offseason. Just that act alone gave him flashbacks to a simpler time, before the bright lights of the Super Bowl and the gleam of the Lombardi Trophy, when he had been cut by the Roseville Bobcats. In that moment, Dan Bunz realized that no matter how hard he worked, he was always expendable.
He signed with the Detroit Lions late that season and even had an interception in his two games with the franchise, but after the season he was released. Seeing no other option, Dan Bunz retired as a player. Bunz never forgot his roots and returned home to Roseville where he went on to manage a successful restaurant/winery for over 30 years called "Bunz & Company" while biding his time as a P.E. teacher at Sutter Middle School. Although his life is far from the glitz and glamor, he remains present in the hearts of the 49ers Faithful.
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