Joseph Montana Sr., the father of NFL Hall of Famer and former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Joe Montana, died Tuesday, May 23, 2017, according to multiple news sources including The Sacramento Bee newspaper.
He was 85.
It was the elder Montana who introduced Joe Jr. to the game of football.
The son would go on to win four Super Bowl championships and earn the distinction of MVP in three of them.
Joe Montana was selected late in the third round of the 1979 draft by San Francisco 49ers coach Bill Walsh and went on to lead the 49ers to victories in four Super Bowls, including consecutive wins in 1989 and 1990. He joined the Kansas City Chiefs in 1993 before retiring. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2000.
Early Years and College
Joseph Clifford Montana was born on June 11, 1956, in New Eagle, Pennsylvania. A talented multi-sport athlete at Ringgold High School, he was offered a scholarship to play basketball at North Carolina State University before enrolling at the University of Notre Dame to play football.
At one point a seventh-string quarterback for the Fighting Irish, Montana eventually took over the starting job and led the team to the 1977 national championship. After fighting off the flu to spark a comeback win over the University of Houston at the 1979 Cotton Bowl, he was selected in the third round of that year’s National Football League draft by the San Francisco 49ers.
Pro Football Career
Installed as a starter toward the end of his second season, Montana proved an accurate quarterback with an ability to scramble to keep plays alive and remain calm in important moments. The signature play of his early career came at the end of the 1981 NFC Championship Game when he lofted a pass to a leaping Dwight Clark in the back of the end zone for the winning score. Two weeks later, he was named MVP of San Francisco’s 26-21 win over the Cincinnati Bengals in Super Bowl XVI.