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In 1981, not many people were familiar with the San Francisco 49ers.

Joe Montana was pretty much unknown. Dwight Clark, nobody even knew who that was. And Bill Walsh was a mystery.

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On the other side of the NFC Championship game was the Dallas Cowboys, America's team.

Even though the 49ers had the best record in the league, they were an underdog in the minds of Americans, even in San Francisco.

Ironically, the Cowboys -- when the Niners were ahead, 21-17, early in the fourth quarter -- had a chance to score a touchdown with a pass in the back of the end zone. But the toss to Doug Cosbie was knocked away, and Dallas settled for a field goal.

Dallas later scored to make it 27-21, setting up the drive during which Joe Montana and Dwight Clark became American icons with "The Catch."

San Francisco got the ball on their own 11-yard line with 4:54 remaining in the game. During the drive, the 49ers actually ran as much they passed.

	Joe Montana established the 49ers as a great team with his historic pass to Dwight Clark.

Montana marched the team up field. One of the key plays preceding the historic play was a pass to Freddie Solomon. The 49ers had the ball on the Dallas 25-yard line. Solomon caught the ball in heavy traffic at the 12.

Soon after, with :51 left, came this: "Montana, looking. Looking. Throwing in the end zone ... Clark caught it! Dwight Clark."

"Joe had to scramble a bit back there, and he came up with a great throw," Clark said. "I'm just glad I came up with 'The Catch.'"

Historically, what this game did was catapult the 49ers to the great team we now know them as, five-time Super Bowl champions. It was where the legend really began.

What few people consider is that the 49ers had good teams before 1981. It was just that the Cowboys denied them chances at Super Bowl glory. For example, in 1972 Roger Staubach engineered one of the greatest comebacks of all time in Candlestick Park to knock the Niners out.

So "The Catch" not only symbolized the beginning of a great championship run but also marked the defeat of the team (Cowboys) that stuck them with a knife in the back a decade before.

"We talked about being champions back on July 7. We're champions right now. We got one more to go. Congratulations on a tremendous effort, tremendous," coach Bill Walsh said after the 1981 win.