"I can't go that high....It must have been God or something."

Dwight Clark makes The Catch over
Cowboy DB Everson Walls (SI photo)

Dwight Clark is dying of ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, aka Lou Gehrig's Disease). He is 61.

On January 10, 1982 Dwight Clark made one of the most famous plays in football history. With less than a minute to go in the game The Catch propelled the young San Francisco 49ers into the Super Bowl over the perennial powerhouse Dallas Cowboys.

a dynasty was born and a dynasty ended. The 49ers went on to win the Super Bowl - the first of four in nine years for [QB Joe] Montana and five in 14 years for the Niners - and the Cowboys slowly deteriorated, which led to the legendary Tom Landry getting fired in 1989.

During the pre-salary-cap 1980's owner Eddie DeBartolo spent lavishly to create and maintain the 49ers dynasty:

A real estate scion from Youngstown, Ohio, he put his fortune, and his heart, into the 49ers after buying them in 1977. To play for the team was to have your wife receive flowers on her birthday, to fly to Hawaii on team trips, to bring your kids to the Christmas party and find real, live reindeer there to greet them. To be treated, as [Hall of Fame safety Ronnie] Lott puts it, as part of an ever-growing family.

18 years after he gave up his team and 36 years after The Catch, Eddie DeBartolo still looks after his "family."

“Like a guardian angel for us,” says [running back Roger] Craig, citing how DeBartolo has helped dozens of former players with medical expenses, eventually launching the Golden Heart Foundation with a million dollars of his own money (challenging the Yorks, who succeeded him as owners, to match it, which they did), providing a fallback for retired players who slip through the cracks.

Last month 49ers of the '80's and '90's (and a few others) gathered at Eddie D.'s Montana ranch to say goodbye to Dwight Clark. To non-football fans most of the names will be unfamiliar. For those of us who were followers, especially if intimations of our own mortality have become louder, the chronicle of The Last Huddle is an emotional read. Bring Kleenex.

Front row, L-R: Carlton Williamson, Lindsy McLean (49ers trainer), Huey Lewis, Dwight Clark, Eddie Debartolo, Michael Zagaris (longtime 49ers photographer, seated), Carmen Policy, Ronnie Lott, Gary Plummer, Fred Formosa (former 49ers director of security), Kirk Reynolds (former 49ers PR man)
Middle row, L-R: Rick Winters (friend of Clark’s), Paul Hackett (former 49ers assistant coach), Garrison Hearst, Eric Wright, Mike Wilson, Roger Craig, Dwight Hicks, John Faylor, Lawrence Pillers, Russ Francis, Guy McIntyre, Ron Ferrari, Harris Barton; Third row, L-R: Dwayne Board, Dr. Ken Kenyhercz, Charles Haley, Kirk Scrafford, Kevin Gogan (SI photo)

Note: articles like these are expensive to produce and are likely to have a limited audience. I've come around to the belief that professional publications, including those whose politics are not the same as mine (wall-to-wall partisanship of any kind I won't countenance, however), should be supported. After a long hiatus I restarted my subscription.