RIP, Dwight Clark

This is part of the famous photo of "The Catch" taken by Sports Illustrated photographer Walter Iooss Jr., capturing the moment that Dwight Clark jumped high and reached to bring Joe Montana's highly thrown football down for the winning touchdown. Everson Walls is defending. 

Sad news to report, as the sports world lost a great one. Clark had been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), better known as Lou Gehrig's disease, early last year. He ultimately succomed to the disease yesterday, at the age of 61.

Clark was one of the great 49ers receivers, and he will forever be linked with "the Catch," the play that essentially lifted the 49ers not only to a victory over the Dallas Cowboys in the 1981-82 NFC Championship Game, but which probably started their incredible dynasty of the 1980's and 1990's, has died.

It is a play that I have remembered ever since. Of course, at the time, we were living in Lodi, New Jersey, in a  fairly crowded suburb. I was flirting with becoming a Cowboys fan, and really wanted Dallas to win. It looked like they were going to, as well, until that play. I was so heartbroken, that I cried (remember, I was all of seven years old). 

Now admittedly, I did pick up the pieces and move on with my life. Still, that was a heartbreaker for me. Also admittedly, I never came around to liking the 49ers much. Don't get me wrong, I really liked Joe Montana, and Bill Walsh and Jerry Rice and, yes, Dwight Clark. That might sound contradictory, but I think you can admire individual players, while pulling for the team that they play for to fall short (and vice versa). These days, there are teams that I do not like and route actively against because someone, or some people (plural) on the team seem truly despicable ("Big Ben" on the Pittsburgh Steelers is the specific example that comes to mind). But my intense dislike of the 49ers really started after they won that fourth title, the one against the Broncos, and immediately held up three fingers, indicating "three peat." 

But prior to that, it was hard to dislike San Francisco, and you just had to admire the team that they had managed to assemble. And their serious success began with that one play, which obviously Clark was a huge part of. 

There has been a huge outpouring from his community, as well as 49ers fans, as Clark was a positive pillar of the community, and did a lot of charity work. He was beloved, and will clearly be missed.