欧博Dolphins Super Bowl XIX at Stanford Stadium ‘cha

How 49ers-Dolphins Super Bowl XIX at Stanford Stadium ‘changed everything'

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San Francisco Chronicle

Stanford Stadium is viewed during Super Bowl XIX between the San Francisco 49ers and the Miami Dolphins in 1985. (Associated Press)

Eric Branch

Mon, February 2, 2026 at 1:00 PM UTC·

10 min read

More than 40 years ago, after Jim Steeg was given his most daunting assignment - host a Super Bowl at spartan Stanford Stadium - the meticulous NFL executive attended at least 10 Stanford football games over a two-year period to prepare for Jan. 20, 1985.

During his trips, Steeg had a routine. At halftime, he'd find a spot on top of the press box and watch the irreverent Stanford band. Steeg observed during a time when the NFL had a local college band perform for its on-field Super Bowl pregame entertainment. And one performance by Stanford's often-disciplined group of rowdies made it clear to Steeg: The NFL's nearly two-decade-old pregame tradition had to be scrapped for Super Bowl XIX in Palo Alto.

"They did a tribute to, well, they came out and spelled ‘Coca-Cola,'" Steeg said. "Then they spelled ‘coke.' And then they brought out a bunch of white balloons and formed a razor blade. So, yeah, I didn't think that was going to be our pregame show."

The Super Bowl pregame show never returned to its roots after the Leland Stanford Junior University Marching Band forced that edit 41 years ago. And that wasn't the only lasting, born-from-necessity change that came from the first Super Bowl played in the Bay Area, which will host the game for the third time on Sunday when the Seahawks meet the Patriots in Super Bowl LX at Levi's Stadium.

Forty-one years ago, the San Francisco 49ers' 38-16 win over the Dolphins was the franchise's second Super Bowl title, and the game that served as the source of the biggest creative inspiration for Steeg, 75, a retired NFL senior vice president who ran the Super Bowl from 1979 through 2005.

NFL executive Jim Steeg announces that the NFL Experience, pro football's interactive theme park, will be a part of the Super Bowl in New Orleans on Dec. 4, 2001. (BILL HABER/AP)

Under Steeg's watch, the Super Bowl grew from an American sporting event to a global spectacle. During his 26 years, the cost of a 30-second, in-game ad went from $275,000 to $2.5 million and the face value of a ticket soared from $30 to $600. In 2019, Steeg was included on the Athletic's list of "NFL's 100 most influential business people of all-time," one spot ahead of Nike co-founder Phil Knight.

"Now you have two events happening on Super Bowl Sunday - there's the game and halftime," former 49ers president Carmen Policy said. "They're two separate events and our audience changes dramatically during halftime. So it's staggering."

Super Bowl XIX was Steeg's sixth NFL championship game. And in a region that was becoming known world-wide for cutting-edge technology - Apple's Macintosh was introduced in 1984 - the challenges presented by a venue built in 1921 forced Steeg to innovate.

The potential for a traffic nightmare at a stadium where fans arrived via two one-lane roads? It inspired the explosion of corporate VIP tents, with Steeg hoping to lure attendees to the game hours before kickoff to lessen congestion. The rickety stadium's drab walls? That marked the advent of industrial-sized Super Bowl banners, flags and other signage. Stanford's wooden bleachers? That led to sponsored seat cushions - they featured Apple's rainbow-colored logo in 1985 - which were part of nearly every Super Bowl until 2009.

Jan. 20, 1985: A San Francisco 49ers fan in Palo Alto to watch the team beat the Miami Dolphins in Super Bowl XIX. (Steve Ringman/The Chronicle)

Stanford Stadium required $3.5 million in renovations that included a remodeled main entrance, new concession stands and a ticket office. The facelift prompted Steeg to hire an architect and decorator that he kept on his Super Bowl staff. Seven years later, they helped create the first "NFL Experience," a mini theme park in the Super Bowl host city, now called the "Super Bowl Experience," that will be held at the Moscone Center this week.

The seeds were planted during Steeg's Bay Area experience that inspired him to begin thinking bigger, acting bolder and spending more. In 1985, a group of local children's choirs sang the national anthem. The anthem singer four years later: Billy Joel. In 1985, the halftime show was Tops in Blue, an Air Force touring ensemble. The halftime entertainment eight years later: Michael Jackson.

"It was one of the most important games we ever did," Steeg said. "It changed everything we did. In a lot of ways for me, it gave me more confidence, more independence, about everything. It made me understand that this was more than just 60 minutes of football. … The focus had been on everything that happens on game day. And then it changed."

Super Bowl XIX was in the Bay Area because then-commissioner Pete Rozelle got his wish. Rozelle attended USF and worked for the school as its sports information director and wanted the big game in the region. Stanford was selected for its seating capacity of more than 84,000, but it lacked the amenities of Candlestick Park and the Oakland Coliseum, which were too small to be considered.

Four 49ers fans set up camp at Stanford Stadium on Jan. 19, 1985, in preparation for Super Bowl XIX game against the Dolphins. The fans are, clockwise from top, Frank Mullin, Ernest Franco, Willie Wood and Al Gershooney. (Barry Sweet/AP)

Along with no seatbacks, Stanford Stadium didn't have lights, luxury suites, on-site locker rooms or a press-box elevator.

"To think that they gave the Super Bowl to a place that didn't have locker rooms by the field?" said former 49ers safety Tom Holmoe, then in his second NFL season. "That seems crazy to me."

It was a different time.

Dolphins coach Don Shula, who has the most wins in NFL history, traveled by BART from the Dolphins' team hotel in Oakland to a Friday morning news conference with 49ers coach Bill Walsh in San Francisco. And Shula wasn't the only big wig brushing up with commoners. Stanford's renovated press box was able to accommodate the team owners, the 49ers' Eddie DeBartolo Jr. and Miami's Joe Robbie, but many of their fellow multi-millionaires were sitting next to Mike from Millbrae.

Gary Cavalli, who in 1985 had recently left Stanford after serving as its associate athletic director, was excited about the sweet seats he and his wife had scored at the 40-yard line. Two rows in front of them, Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt, the son of an oil tycoon, wasn't as enthused.

"He walks down, he looks at the wooden bench with the Apple seat cushion on it, and he just kind of shakes his head," Cavalli said. "He turns to his wife, and he says, ‘Never again.' I'll never forget that."

The absence of luxury suites was obviously an issue. As far as some of the other problems? Two locker rooms near the open end of the stadium were built for $500,000. Without a press box elevator for the media and VIPs, the NFL hired about 30 Stanford students to serve as runners, ferrying items such as bags and camera equipment.

The San Francisco 49ers vs the Miami Dolphins in Super Bowl XIX, at Stanford Stadium, January 20, 1985 Bill Walsh (Frederic Larson/The Chronicle)

The lack of lights? That required some homework for Steeg before temporary lights were installed at Stanford. In 1982, Steeg attended the Notre Dame-Michigan game, the first night game played at Notre Dame Stadium thanks to temporary lights. In 1984, the NFL also had Stanford play a home night game as a dry run for Super Bowl XIX.

Steeg learned a key lesson from that game. Because of the eucalyptus trees surrounding the stadium, there was little ambient light to illuminate outside areas such as walkways and parking lots. As a result, the league had more outside lighting than they expected to need for the Super Bowl after many fans complained about being in the dark when doing their business.

"All of a sudden, you realized the Port-A-Potties don't have lights," Steeg said. "That was a wake-up call with that one."

Steeg spent nearly four months in Palo Alto in the year leading up to the kickoff in an effort to avoid game-day calamities. But the process he described as "scary" began when the NFL awarded Super Bowl XIX to the Bay Area at its annual league meeting in the winter of 1982. In 1984, Steeg skipped the league meeting, held in Hawaii, for the first and only time because he was so stressed.

In the weeks leading up to the game, however, Steeg felt calm and prepared. As far as others in the NFL office, they weren't as tranquil when the hometown 49ers reached the Super Bowl by beating the Bears 23-0 in the NFC Championship Game. The issue: The Super Bowl's economic impact they'd pitched to San Francisco mayor Dianne Feinstein and Bay Area hoteliers and restaurant owners was muted when only one team had a significant traveling fan base.

The 49ers had no complaints. They spent the week of the game practicing at their own facility in Redwood City and stayed at their same hotel in Burlingame the night before the game.

"The only thing that wasn't totally normal was a media day we had up at Candlestick," Holmoe said.

San Francisco 49ers cornerback Ronnie Lott (42) slams into Miami Dolphins receiver Mark Clayton (83) to break up pass during Super Bowl XIX at Stanford Stadium. (Associated Press 1985)

For Hall of Fame safety Ronnie Lott, however, the vibe in the Bay Area was wildly different with 49ers, still in the infancy of their dynasty, playing for their second title at home.

"When you were driving on the street, your neighbors and everybody could touch you and feel you," said Lott, who won four Super Bowls. "That's what made that Super Bowl so amazing because you can feel the city. And a lot of places where you go, you don't feel it. You're practicing it, but you're not feeling it. … I think it was even more sentimental than anything I've ever done in my life."

And the game had a profound impact on Steeg. Now retired in Chapel Hill, N.C., he hasn't attended a Super Bowl since the last one he oversaw in February 2005. But he has written about the 26 that he presided over in a yet-to-be published book that devotes a chapter to each game.

In making pitches to publishers, Steeg has included the chapters on three games. Those include Super Bowl XXV in Tampa, Fla., played shortly after the start of the frst Gulf War, and Super Bowl XXXVI in New Orleans, played nearly five months after 9/11.

The other chapter, on Super Bowl XIX, is particularly meaningful to Steeg.

During his years of preparation for that game, at a spartan stadium on a campus that was home to a bizarre band, he came to realize a pregame tradition wasn't going to happen. And he began to imagine, for the first time, just how much was possible.

This article originally published at .

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欧博Dolphins Super Bowl XIX at Stanford Stadium ‘cha