History of the San Francisco 49ers

The San Francisco 49ers are the first major league professional sports franchise to be based in San Francisco, and one of the first professional sports teams based on the West Coast of the United States.

The 49ers have won five NFL championships – all Super Bowls. They were the first team to win five Super Bowls (Super Bowls XVI, XIX, XXIII, XXIV, and XXIX). They are considered "The Team of the Eighties", winning four Super Bowls in the decade. Prior to the 80s, the 49ers had never won an NFL championship (They did not even win a division title until 1970). During the 1980s, they failed to make the playoffs only twice—in 1980, and again in the strike-shortened 1982 season which saw them go 0–5 at home and 3–1 on the road—the only time in NFL history that a team went winless at home while winning more than half its away games in the same season.

The 49ers entered professional football in 1946 as a member of the All-America Football Conference. They were founded by lumber magnate Tony Morabito, who had tried several times to get an NFL team for the Bay Area. Morabito was one of the first to realize that with the advent of air travel, truly national professional sports leagues were now possible. Indeed, the 49ers were the very first team in the four major sports to originate on the West Coast.

The 49ers could never unseat the dominant Cleveland Browns, and had the misfortune of being in the same conference as the Browns. Nonetheless, they were clearly the second-strongest franchise in the AAFC both on and off the field. Thus, along with the Browns and the first Baltimore Colts, they were granted admission to the National Football League in 1950.

The team's name came from the California Gold Rush gold-seekers who came to the San Francisco area during 1849.

The 49ers' first game as a member of the NFL was a home match with the New York Yanks on September 17, 1950. San Francisco lost 21–17. Unlike the Cleveland Browns, who won the championship that year, the 49ers struggled in the NFL, finishing the 1950 season 3–9. In 1951, they would do much better, with a 7–4–1 season and nearly reaching the championship game. The 1952 season saw seven wins and five losses. With a 9–3 record, San Francisco had its best season yet in 1953, but a loss to the Lions kept them from the championship match. Injuries in 1954 caused a 7–4–1 finish. More injuries (notably to RB Hugh McElhenny) caused the 49ers to fall to a losing 4–8 the following year. With former quarterback Frankie Albert taking over as head coach in 1956, the team went 5–6–1. This period was most notable for the destructive on-field antics of LB Hardy Brown, traded from Washington in 1952. Brown established a fearsome reputation for injuring players by ramming them with his shoulder during his five years on the 49ers roster.

...
Wikipedia