Super Bowl XIX took place on January 20, 1985 at Stanford Stadium in Stanford, California, a neutral site in a city that is not home to an NFL team (although in the media market of the San Francisco 49ers, who played in the games.) This Super Bowl was unique in that it fell on the same day that Ronald Reagan 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. In honor of the inauguration, Reagan became the first president to participate in a Super Bowl coin toss and the only sitting president ever to do so. However, he did it from the White House via satellite.

The final result was San Francisco 49ers 38, Miami Dolphins 16.

Much hyped as the battle between two great quarterbacks, Miami's Dan Marino and San Francisco's Joe Montana, the 49ers would end up taking the game in dominating fashion. It would be Marino's only trip to the Super Bowl during his career.

Montana was named the Super Bowl MVP completing 24 of 35 passes for 331 yards and three touchdowns. He also had 5 rushes for 59 yards and 1 rushing touchdown.

It was the most watched game in history with an estimated 115.9 million viewers. This game also was the first time television commercials ran for a million dollars a minute.

ABC televised the game, its first Super Bowl broadcast. The game was called by Frank Gifford, Don Meredith, and Joe Theismann.

The Game

Despite playing against Miami's powerful passing attack, the 49ers defense intercepted Marino 2 times, sacked him 4 times, and only allowed 25 rushing yards and 16 Dolphins points. The Dolphins set a Super Bowl record for least rush attempts in a game(9). The ninth was a Marino rush for 0 yards to end the game.

The Dolphins scored first with a field goal on their first drive. But the 49ers countered with Montana's 33-yard touchdown pass to running back Carl Monroe . Afterwards, Miami took the lead 10-7 with Marino's 2-yard touchdown pass to tight end Dan Johnson .

But San Francisco scored three straight touchdowns in the second half to take the lead 28-10:

• Montana's 8-yard pass to running back Roger Craig
• Montana's 6-yard run
• Craig's 2-yard run

Meanwhile, the Dolphins offense couldn't do anything with the ball until they got a field goal with 12 seconds left in the half. Miami then recovered a fumbled squib kick, and kicked another field goal as time expired to cut the lead 28-16.

The Dolphins were shutout in the second half, as the 49ers scored another touchdown, a Montana 16-yard pass to Craig, and another field goal to seal the victory 38-16.

Scoring Summary

• MIA- FG Von Schamann 37
• SF- Monroe 33 pass from Montana (Wersching kick)
• MIA- D. Johnson 2 pass from Marino (Von Schamann kick)
• SF- Craig 8 pass from Montana (Wersching kick)
• SF- Montana 6 run (Wersching kick)
• SF- Craig 2 run (Wersching kick)
• MIA- FG Von Schamann 31
• MIA- FG Von Schamann 30
• SF- FG Wersching 27
• SF- Craig 16 pass from Montana (Wersching kick)

Playoffs

See NFL playoffs, 1984-85