Super Bowl XIX

Super Bowl XIX
DateJanuary 20, 1985 (1985-01-20)
StadiumStanford Stadium, Palo Alto, California
MVPJoe Montana, quarterback
Favorite49ers by 3.5[1][2]
RefereePat Haggerty
Attendance84,059[3]
Ceremonies
National anthemSan Francisco Boys Chorus, San Francisco Girls Chorus, Piedmont Children's Chorus and San Francisco Children's Chorus
Coin tossRonald Reagan (via satellite from the White House) and Hugh McElhenny
Halftime show"World of Children's Dreams" with the United States Air Force Tops In Blue[4]
TV in the United States
NetworkABC
AnnouncersFrank Gifford, Don Meredith and Joe Theismann
Nielsen ratings46.4
(est. 85.53 million viewers)[5]
Market share63
Cost of 30-second commercial$525,000
Radio in the United States
NetworkCBS Radio
AnnouncersJack Buck and Hank Stram

Super Bowl XIX was an American football game between the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Miami Dolphins and the National Football Conference (NFC) champion San Francisco 49ers to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion for the 1984 season. The 49ers defeated the Dolphins by the score of 38–16,[6] to win their second Super Bowl. The game was played on January 20, 1985, at Stanford Stadium, on the campus of Stanford University in Stanford, California, the first Super Bowl played in the San Francisco Bay Area. This also became the second Super Bowl after Super Bowl XIV where the game was coincidentally played in the home market of one of the participants.

The game was hyped as the battle between two great quarterbacks: Miami's Dan Marino and San Francisco's Joe Montana. The Dolphins entered their fifth Super Bowl in team history after posting a 14–2 regular season record. The 49ers were making their second Super Bowl appearance after becoming the first team to win 15 regular season games since the league expanded to a 16-game schedule in 1978.

With Marino and Montana, the game became the first Super Bowl in which the starting quarterbacks of each team both threw for over 300 yards. In addition, the two teams combined for 851 total offensive yards, which at that time was a Super Bowl record. But after trailing 10–7 in the first quarter, the 49ers would end up taking the game in dominating fashion, scoring three touchdowns in the second quarter, and 10 unanswered points in the second half. Montana, who was named the Super Bowl MVP, completed 24 of 35 passes for a Super Bowl-record 331 yards (breaking the mark of 318 yards set by Terry Bradshaw) and three touchdowns. He also broke the Super Bowl record for most rushing yards gained by a quarterback with his five rushes for 59 yards and one rushing touchdown. San Francisco set a Super Bowl record with 537 total yards, breaking the previous record of 429 yards set by the Oakland Raiders in Super Bowl XI.

This was the first Super Bowl to be televised in the United States by ABC, joining the annual broadcasting rotation of the game with CBS and NBC. It was also the first time that the sitting U.S. president participated in the coin toss ceremony; Ronald Reagan appeared live via satellite from the White House and tossed the coin. This Super Bowl was unique in that it fell on the same day that he was inaugurated for a second term; because Inauguration Day (January 20) fell on a Sunday, Reagan was sworn in privately and the public ceremony took place the following day.

This Super Bowl also began the NFC's run of dominance. From 1985 to 1997, the National Football Conference won 13 consecutive Super Bowls and the average score per game in that span was NFC 38 AFC 17, the NFC scored 490 points and committed only 10 turnovers altogether during their run while the AFC only scored 219 points and committed 44 turnovers.

  1. ^ DiNitto, Marcus (January 25, 2015). "Super Bowl Betting History – Underdogs on Recent Roll". The Linemakers. Sporting News. Archived from the original on February 4, 2015. Retrieved February 4, 2015.
  2. ^ "Super Bowl History". Vegas Insider. Archived from the original on February 4, 2015. Retrieved February 4, 2015.
  3. ^ "Super Bowl Winners". NFL.com. Archived from the original on January 1, 2016. Retrieved February 4, 2015.
  4. ^ "Tops In Blue". Archived from the original on August 13, 2006. Retrieved April 27, 2006.
  5. ^ "Historical Super Bowl Nielsen TV Ratings, 1967–2009 – Ratings". TVbytheNumbers. Archived from the original on February 8, 2010. Retrieved October 9, 2012.
  6. ^ The 49ers tied the Los Angeles Raiders for the most points in a Super Bowl with their 38. The Raiders set the mark only a year earlier. It was broken the following year in SBXX by the Bears (46 pts), and later by the 49ers in SBXXIV (55 pts).