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, 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 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 ever 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 total 851 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 period, 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 and three touchdowns. He also broke the Super Bowl record for most rushing yards gained by a quarterback with his 5 rushes for 59 yards and 1 rushing touchdown.
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 January 20 fell on a Sunday, Reagan was sworn in privately and the public ceremony took place the following day.
Read more about Super Bowl XIX: Background, Pregame News and Notes, Television, Overseas Broadcasts, In Popular Culture, Game Summary, Reactions, Starting Lineups, Officials
Famous quotes containing the words bowl and/or xix:
“In a bowl to sea went wise men three,
On a brilliant night of June:
They carried a net, and their hearts were set
On fishing up the moon.”
—Thomas Love Peacock (1785–1866)
“Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins;”
—Bible: Hebrew Psalm XIX (l. XIX, 13)