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Dining In The 80’s:
The Other 49ers
by Chris Brophy
19/8/2009
Throughout their domination of the decade the San Francisco 49ers offered us a galaxy of stars with which we feasted our eyes upon. If Joe Montana wasn’t hitting the incomparable Jerry Rice or the speedy John Taylor for touchdowns he was handing the ball off to the ultra-versatile Roger Craig. If the defense was on the field Ronnie Lott would be making the middle of a field a no-go area or Charles Haley would be giving opposing quarterbacks nightmares. Whilst all those players deserve their top billing, there were plenty of other reasons the 49ers enjoyed their consistent success. Here, we take a trip down memory lane to remember the other 49ers.
Montana’s first set of receivers
You don’t need to be an NFL history buff to know who Jerry Rice is and his place in NFL folklore. His partner for many years John Taylor is well enough known from his Super Bowl XXIII winning TD as well as a nice habit of making big plays in big games, especially Monday Night Football. Around about the same time as that pairing was making play after play, if Joe Montana couldn’t find them open he could look underneath to Roger Craig or Tom Rathman coming out of the backfield. However, all those guys belong to the second half of the decade (Craig was slightly earlier but his prime years were the later part of the decade) and before Rice, Taylor and Rathman were winning Super Bowls the 49ers and Montana already had two World Championships on their rsum.
 So who was catching the football from Montana before that? Well, Dwight Clark has his place in NFL history and 49er fans hearts with The Catch but he wasn’t operating alone. Freddie Solomon (right) joined the franchise from the Dolphins in 1978 and endued the painful years before the dramatic rise under Bill Walsh in the early ’80’s. Never prolific in the regular season, Solomon had a knack of producing when it mattered in big games. On the drive for The Catch in the 1981 NFC Championship Game, Soloman caught 2 key passes, the first being a 3rd down conversion deep in 49ers territory. He also had a run on a reverse for another first down. In eight play-off appearances Soloman scored TD’s in six games. The only games he failed to score in were both his Super Bowl appearances and in his eight year career with the 49ers he managed 46 touchdowns in the regular season.
The West Coast offense likes to get the ball in the hands of running backs flanking out from the offensive backfield. That was true at the start of the 49ers glory years and the main guy Montana would float a short one out to would be fullback Earl Cooper. In his rookie year (1980) Cooper caught 83 passes! He added 51 passes in the 49ers first run for a Championship in 1981 and in 1984 when the Niners returned to the big game he added another 41 receptions.
Finally, we need to give a mention to Mike Wilson, a guy who was a back-up receiver for all his 10 years with the franchise, making contributions doing the dirty work on special teams but he did have one moment of glory when he scored two TD’s against the Redskins in the 1983 NFC Championship game as the 49ers chased a big Redskins lead and almost pulled off an impossible looking comeback.
Who Are The Hogs?
This article is about remembering the guys who don’t instantly jump into people’s heads when thinking about the 49ers glory years but think of an offensive line in the 1980’s and it’s the Redskins and The Hogs that come to mind but over the course of the 49ers dominance the offensive lines they possessed and the players that made up those units were pretty good too.
 A bit like the receivers and backs, it splits into two and whilst there is cross over, the line changes over the course of the decade with the majority of that change coming in the middle. In the first part of the decade the line was led by Randy Cross in the interior of the line. Drafted in the mid-70’s by the team, he was another guy who had gone through the tough years before Bill Walsh only to come through and shine in the 80’s, being named to three Pro Bowls and ending his career after the victory in Super Bowl XXIII on the ultimate high. Always good for a quote, he’s now a familiar voice covering games for TV and/or radio. He teamed up with the likes of right tackle Keith Fahnhorst (Pro Bowl in ’84) and Fred Quillian (a two time Pro Bowler) to protect Montana and open holes for the runners.
In 1984 the team would draft Guy McIntyre in the 3rd round of the draft. He would go on to be the most accomplished of all the offensive linemen the 49ers had over their period of dominance making 5 Pro Bowls in his time with the team. He, along with Bubba Paris, would be the holdovers as change came as the likes of Fahnhorst and Quillam moved on. Right tackle Steve Wallace came in the draft in 1986 and he would become one half of a bookend pairing with the classy Harris Barton who was taken in the first round of the 1987 draft.
No one paid much attention to these guys although Bubba Paris got some press purely because of his size, he was the 49ers version of Nate Newton eating champion! However, they were a key part of the 49ers success, being able to open holes for the likes of Roger Craig and also being mobile to pull out for plays like screens and reverse’s that made up part of the west coast style.
Not Just a Lott of Defense
Like Jerry Rice and Joe Montana, Ronnie Lott is a name instantly in your mind when thinking about the 49ers Super Bowl teams. A vicious hitter and excellent coverage guy, there is no doubt Lott deserves his reputation but when he started off his career he wasn’t the only rookie to make an impact for the 49ers. In the 1981 draft the 49ers spent three of their top four picks on defensive backs and all of them returned dividends exceptionally quick. Lott (drafted 8th overall) started out as a cornerback, teaming up with second round pick Eric Wright. Third rounder Carlton Williamson went in at safety and this rookie unit was led by third year veteran Dwight Hicks at the other safety spot. Maybe opposing coordinators and quarterbacks didn’t know which rookie to pick on but when they tried, they paid the price as the three rookies and Hicks teamed up for 23 interceptions in 1981 and the team went to its first of four Super Bowls in the decade. Lott’s achievements are well known but Wright went on to be a two time Pro Bowler and he intercepted passes in both Super Bowl XVI and XIX. Williamson also made two Pro Bowls and started for the team through until the start of the 1987 season whilst Hicks made the first of his four Pro Bowls in that 1981 season. It is arguably the best young secondary the game has ever seen!
Ronnie Lott would go on to move across to safety and as the guys we just talked about moved on or ran out of steam, they were replaced by another excellent cornerback due Don Griffin and Tim McKyer. Both guys came in the superb draft class of 1986 the 49ers enjoyed (the team also got John Taylor, Tom Rathman, Charles Haley, Larry Roberts and Kevin Fagan in that draft) and both contributed straight away. They would spend the rest of the decade blanketing receivers before McKyer moved on and spent the 1990’s as a journeyman whilst Griffin would stay with the team until 1993.
 One guy who was always there but never the first name to jump into your head was linebacker Keena Turner who would earn four Super Bowl rings during his tenure with the team. An excellent coverage ‘backer, his best year came in 1984 when he made the Pro Bowl on the back of four interceptions and some key plays that season. He still remains involved with the franchise to this day. Turner was part of a linebacking crew that had been set an example by Jack Hacksaw Reynolds, the former LA Ram who was as tough as they came and was part of the 49ers first two Super Bowl teams.
In front of those guys was a defensive line that never had any guys that appeared to be dominant but that doesn’t mean they were short on talent. Like Reynolds at linebacker, 2008 Hall of Famer Fred Dean set the tone for a lot of the young players in the early part of the decade. The likes of Pete Kugler at nose tackle, the versatile Jeff Stover and Dwaine Board at defensive end quietly put together solid careers. Later in the decade, they handed over the torch to the likes of Michael Carter (a silver medallist in the 1984 Olympics at the shot put), Pierce Holt and the aforementioned Kevin Fagan and Larry Roberts. Carter had weight issues at times but could be put his strength and power to excellent use when he put his mind to it and Holt developed into a very good player before moving on to Atlanta in the early ’90’s. In the second half of the decade, stand up defensive end/outside linebacker Charles Haley got a lot of attention because of his sack numbers but make no mistake, the 49ers had some very good players all around their defense that made significant contributions to their success through the 1980’s.
Even though football is a team game, individuals who either get camera time, media headlines or are able to put up attractive statistics will always be well remembered. The Diner hopes it has put the record just a little bit straighter for some of those other 49er heroes from the greatest period in franchise history.
Learn More about past NFL greats in our History Archive
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