San Francisco 49ers legend Dwight Clark dies after battle with ALS

San Francisco 49ers legendary receiver Dwight Clark has passed away after a battle with ALS.

For San Francisco 49ers fans, Dwight Clark will forever be immortalized as the man who brought them, “The Catch,” – a reception that helped propel the franchise to its very first Super Bowl Championship.

Clark caught a lot of passes for the 49ers over his career, but none will be remembered for being bigger than the high lob he grabbed in the back of the endzone to push San Francisco over the Dallas Cowboys in the NFC Championship game — an image that remains one of the league’s most iconic and enduring.

Following that thrilling 1981 NFC Championship game, Clark, Montana, and the 49ers would go on to defeat the Cincinnati Bengals 16-3 in the Super Bowl.

Clark, who spent his entire nine-year career with the 49ers and was one of the most recognizable faces of the franchise not named Joe Montana, after just announcing in March 2017, that he’d been diagnosed with ALS, has lost his fight against the disease at the age of 61.

Clark’s wife Kelly, posted the news of his passing on Clark’s official Twitter account today.

I’m heartbroken to tell you that today I lost my best friend and husband. He passed peacefully surrounded by many of the people he loved most. I am thankful for all of Dwight’s friends, teammates and 49ers fans who have sent their love during his battle with ALS. Kelly Clark.
— Dwight Clark (@DwightC87) June 4, 2018

Coming out of Clemson in the 1979 NFL Draft, Clark was a little known, little thought of prospect. In three seasons (34 total games) with the Tigers, Clark totaled a meager 33 receptions for 571 yards, and just three touchdowns.

However, in his first year at the helm, Bill Walsh – the man who would usher in the Golden Era of 49ers football – saw something in Clark apparently nobody else did. Walsh used a tenth-round pick and made the six-foot-four, 216 pound Clark, the two-hundred forty-ninth overall pick in 1979.

And, it turned out to be a tremendously fortuitous pick for San Francisco, who also netted a guy in the third-round of that year’s draft, who went on to do a few things named, Joe Montana.

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It took a couple of seasons for the Walsh machine to get rolling, with the 49ers posting records of 2-14 in 1979, and then 6-10 in 1980 – his first two years at the helm. For his part, Clark had a breakout season in that 1980 campaign, notching 82 receptions for 991 yards, and eight scores.

Clark then followed that up in San Francisco’s Super Bowl year, but going off for 1,105 yards on 85 receptions, and four touchdown grabs in the regular season.

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That would prove to be the high point of his career though, as he never again had a season in which he caught more than 70 passes (1983). Although, the 1982 season saw him take first-team All Pro honors after a season in which he hauled in 60 passes for 913 yards and five scores.

For his career, Clark would finish with 506 receptions for 6,750 yards and 48 touchdown grabs. He would also add another 48 receptions for 726 yards, and three touchdowns in nine total playoff games. Clark was a two-time Pro Bowler, first-team All Pro once, and a two-time Super Bowl champion.

After retiring following a 1987 season that saw him haul in 290 yards on 24 receptions, with five touchdowns, Clark did some analysis work for the 49ers postgame shows, often lamenting that Candlestick Park was shut down, saying, “it was a dump, but it was our dump.”

He also briefly served as a team executive with San Francisco in 1998, and as the GM and Director of Football Operations for the Cleveland Browns from 1999-2002.

Not too shabby for a guy who didn’t exactly have the most distinguished college career and lasted until the tenth-round of the Draft. Not too shabby at all.

Godspeed, Dwight. May you rest in peace.