San Francisco 49ers

#TBT: Vin Scully's final football call was 'The Catch' that launched a 49ers dynasty

Published Nov. 15, 2016 2:06 p.m. ET

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Barry Werner

The Dallas Cowboys will visit the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday, causing more than a bit of irony as Vin Scully calls the final game of his glorious career while the Los Angeles Dodgers visit the San Francisco Giants.

For of all the great grabs the announcer has described, no catch is more iconic than one that happened on a football field rather than a baseball diamond.

On Jan. 10, 1982, Scully was announcing games for CBS. And in that role, he did play-by-play for the Cowboys-Niners NFC Championship game at Candlestick Park.

San Francisco trailed 27-21 when this happened:

Scully told the audience Tom Landry was seeking to make his sixth Super Bowl as Cowboys coach and "of course, for the upstart 49ers, they are 6 yards away from Pontiac.

"Third and three. ... Montana looking, looking, throwing in the end zone, Clark caught it. Dwight Clark. .... It's a madhouse at Candlestick."

"The Catch" tied the game at 27, and the subsequent PAT by Ray Wersching gave the Niners a 28-27 victory and sent them to the first of five Super Bowls they would win from 1982-95.

Scully, now 88, called football games on CBS from 1975-82. The Clark catch would be his final call for the network.

In typical humble fashion, the national treasure made a prudent decision.

"When that game ended, I got on the airplane and I was emotionally worn out from doing it and making sure I didn’t make some horrific mistake,” he told the San Jose Mercury News.”I thought, ‘OK, I’ve done it. I’ve gotten the boost that I needed for my energy.

“When I got home, I told my family, ‘That’s a great game on which to call it a football career.” And that was that.”

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