Super Bowl XIX Run

Lore & Background

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.

The two teams combined for 851 total offensive yards, which at that time was a Super Bowl record. 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 five rushes for 59 yards and one rushing touchdown. San Francisco set a Super Bowl record with 537 total yards.

Reader's Guide

This was the first Super Bowl to be televised in the United States by ABC. 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 was the only Super Bowl to have been played on inauguration day.

Did You Know?

• The NFC's run of 13 consecutive Super Bowl wins began with Super Bowl XX, not Super Bowl XIX.
• From 1984 to 1996, the National Football Conference won 13 consecutive Super Bowls and the average score per game in that span was nearly identical to the result of this game, 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.