Seventh-string to starter

Montana arrived in South Bend in the summer of 1974 as one of seven scholarship quarterbacks under head coach Ara Parseghian. He spent his freshman year on the JV, redshirted in 1975 after Dan Devine took over as head coach, and entered 1976 as the third-string QB. A late-game comeback against North Carolina that fall — Montana came in down 14-6 with 5:11 left and threw two TDs to win 21-14 — earned him a permanent reputation as a comeback artist.

He didn’t get the official starting job until midway through his junior year (1977), after Devine benched starter Rusty Lisch. Montana started the 1977 USC game in the rain in South Bend; Notre Dame won 49-19, the rest of the season was a march, and the Fighting Irish finished #1 in the AP Poll after blowing out Texas 38-10 in the Cotton Bowl. National championship.

The Chicken Soup Game (Cotton Bowl, January 1, 1979)

Montana’s final college game was the 1979 Cotton Bowl vs Houston in Dallas. Wind chills hit -6°F. Notre Dame fell behind 34-12 in the third quarter. Montana, suffering from hypothermia, was sent to the locker room at halftime. Trainers brought him chicken soup to raise his core temperature. He came out for the fourth quarter still shivering and erased the deficit.

He threw for two touchdowns, ran for another, and Notre Dame scored 23 points in the final 7:25. The winning two-point conversion came on the game’s final play — a Montana lob to Kris Haines as time expired. Notre Dame won 35-34. The game is taught in football coaching clinics as the textbook example of a great quarterback in adverse conditions, and it cemented Montana’s NFL draft stock.

From the 1979 NFL Draft to four Super Bowls

The San Francisco 49ers selected Montana in the third round (pick #82) of the 1979 NFL Draft. Bill Walsh — the new head coach who’d been Cincinnati’s QB coach the year before — had worked Montana out personally and convinced GM Joe Thomas to wait. Three other QBs went earlier in 1979: Jack Thompson (#3 to Cincinnati), Phil Simms (#7 to Giants), Steve Fuller (#23 to KC).

Montana won four Super Bowls (XVI, XIX, XXIII, XXIV), three Super Bowl MVPs, and two regular-season MVPs across 16 NFL seasons. His Notre Dame jersey #3 isn’t formally retired (Notre Dame doesn’t retire numbers), but his Wikipedia page lists him as the most distinguished quarterback in program history.

Background facts cross-referenced with the Wikipedia article on Joe Montana and Pro-Football-Reference / Basketball-Reference public records. Lead image via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain).