The 49ers history is filled with spectacular catches made by fascinating men who led inspirational lives. But among the many great hands that caught the pigskin for the 49ers over the years, R.C. Owens literally leaped out from the crowd, at once scoring touchdowns and inventing a new term for the sports lexicon: the Alley-Oop. This is his story.
The Early Years
Raleigh Climon "R.C." Owens was born on November 12, 1934 in Shreveport, Louisiana and soon moved to Santa Monica, California where he blossomed into the city's premier athletic specimen. After starring in football, basketball and track for Santa Monica High School while earning all-state honors in both football and basketball, Owens accepted a scholarship offer to the College of Idaho.
He was a natural rebounder with the Yotes, leading the nation with 27.6 rebounds per game as a sophomore. During his junior year of 1954-1955, Elgin Baylor joined him and the two combined to take college basketball by storm. That year, Baylor averaged. 32.8 points per game while Owens averaged 19.7 rebounds. After that season, Baylor transferred to Seattle University to finish his college career. even back then, it was clear to all that he was well on his way to greatness.
But the hardwood was hardly in Owens' future. While he was busy vacuuming up rebounds in basketball, he was also setting all kinds of receiving records for the Yotes. By the time he graduated, R.C. Owens held single season records for yards (905), receptions (48) and touchdowns (7), all set in 1954 and each broken by Marcus Lenhardt in 2016.
Owens was drafted by the San Francisco 49ers in the 14th round of the 1956 NFL Draft but elected to spend that year playing for Seattle Buchans, one of the top amateur basketball teams of the era. After that lone year in Seattle, Owens traveled South to try his luck in the NFL.
One Memorable Rookie Year
Making an NFL roster is never an easy accomplishment whether the player is the first overall selection or a meager 14th round afterthought. But R.C. Owens was no ordinary late round selection as he had a not-so-secret weapon: a tremendous leaping ability. Honed from his basketball days, Owens soon started showing that unique ability on the 49ers practice field and even displayed it in a three reception 109 preseason performance against the Chicago Cardinals to cement his place on the squad moving forward.
He was quiet in his first official game, catching two passes for a mere 20 yards in a loss to the Cardinals., but Owens quickly rebounded the following week. In a thrilling 23-20 win over the Los Angeles Rams, R.C. caught two passes for 57 yards and two touchdowns. He kept up his momentum the following week in Chicago, catching two passes for 55 yards and two touchdowns, an almost identical stat line from a week earlier.
Owens was relatively quiet the next couple of weeks, not catching any touchdowns until the 49ers hosted the Detroit Lions in Week 6. Going into the contest, both teams were near the top of the Western Division with the 49ers' 4-1 record just a victory better than Detroit's.
The game was truly a classic shootout with both offenses lighting the field ablaze. In the fourth quarter alone, the two teams would combine for 28 points until the final seconds. It felt as though the team with the ball last would win the game. With the clock winding down, the 49ers drove to the Detroit 41-yard line.
From there, quarterback Y.A. Tittle reared back and launched a high arching pass into the corner of the end zone where his young receiver came down with the game winner. In that moment, the "Alley-Oop" pass was born. Years later, basketball would adopt the term, having little knowledge that it was born in a 35-31 49ers victory over the Lions.
That day made R.C. Owens' career, making him an instant celebrity in the City by the Bay, but there was still work to bge done. After catching three passes for 60 yards and a thrilling touchdown against one of the league's premier franchises, Owens caught just two passes for 16 measly yards in a loss to the Rams.
But he and his teammates bounced back to end the regular season tied for first in the Western Division with the Detroit Lions, again facing them for all the marbles at Kezar Stadium. Ironically, Owen scored the first touchdown in the contest, catching a 34-yard Alley-Oop from Tittle in the first quarter. the 49ers poured it on in the first quarter and extended their lead to 20 early in the third. All looked well in Golden Gate Park, but Detroit was starting to get angry
Little by little, Detroit clawed their way back into the game while the Kezar Stadium crowd held their breathe. Jim Martin hit a 13-yard field goal to complete the 31-27 comeback, breaking hearts all over San Francisco. Thus ended R.C. Owens' memorable rookie year, a year that saw him catch 27 passes for 395 yards and five touchdowns while singlehandedly inventing a new term for the sports vernacular.
The Final Years
Suffice it to say, the rest of R.C. Owens playing career paled in comparison to his rookie campaign. Sure he was more productive some years, gaining more yards in 1958 (620) and 1960 (532) and even becoming the first in team history go gain 1,000 yards through the air when he caught 55 passes for 1,032 yards and five touchdowns, but his career could be bumpy. Despite scoring five or more touchdowns in three separate seasons, he was never a scoring machine.
After 1961, he became one of the league's first free agents and signed with the Baltimore Colts. In his first year with Johnny Unitas, Owens caught 25 passes for 307 yards and two touchdowns. It was his last productive year and he ended his time in Baltimore with just a single seven-yard catch in 1963. Owens' last hurrah in the NFL was in New York, catching four passes for 45 yards from his old 49ers teammate, Y.A. Tittle.
After his playing days were over, R.C. Owens worked public relations for J.C. Penney and as a contract compliance officer for the Department of Health, Education and Welfare. While these jobs paid the bills, there was a void in his life that couldn't be filled.
That changed when his old team hired Bill Walsh. The 49ers had spent the past couple of years distancing themselves from their alumni and discarding much of their cherished history. As a part of his developing culture, Walsh wanted to change that when he hired Owens to be his team's training camp director.
After several years running training camp, Owens moved into the front office and soon found himself as the team's alumni coordinator. For 22 years, he worked at patching things up between the team and its many jilted alumni. In that time he organized countless picnics, dinners and trips that celebrated the 49ers' alumni and their accomplishments of both yesteryear and the present.
It was because of him that the 49ers became the first in the NFL to organize an annual Alumni Day, inviting various alumni for a game to connect them with the fans of today. R.C. Owens retired from his roll as alumni coordinator in 2001 and passed away on June 17, 2012 in Manteca, California. Til his dying breathe, he never forgot the place that made him famous.
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