John Brodie

Born August 14 1935 in Menlo Park California John Riley Brodie grew up in Oaklands Montclair district and attended Oakland Technical High School where he excelled as a standout athlete He played college football and golf at Stanford University earning consensus AllAmerican honors in football as a senior in 1956 Remarkably Brodie rejected an athletic scholarship and played as a walkon while also competing on Stanfords golf team which kept him out of spring football drills He nearly chose professional golf for his career playing in several PGA Tour tournaments after college before committing to football The San Francisco 49ers selected Brodie with the third overall pick in the 1957 NFL Draft He saw limited action initially sitting behind YA Tittle for his first four seasons before becoming the fulltime starter in 1961 following Tittles trade to the New York Giants Strengths included mastery of the screen passwhich legendary coach John Madden called the best he ever sawexceptional passing ability clutch performance under pressure and strong leadership that earned respect throughout the league Brodies 1970 season stands as his masterpiece He led the entire NFL with twentyfour touchdown passes 223 completions 2941 yards and a passer rating of 938 while taking just eight sacks as the 49ers went 1031 and reached the playoffs for the first time in over a decade He won the NFL Most Valuable Player Award and led San Franciscos offense to a leagueleading 352 points In the Divisional Round against Minnesota Brodies fourthquarter touchdown plunge proved the difference in a 1714 victory During the final game of the 1972 regular season against the Vikings with a playoff berth on the line Brodie came off the bench in the third quarter with his team trailing 176 engineered a ninetynineyard touchdown drive and threw the gamewinning touchdown pass with twentyfive seconds remaining in a dramatic 2017 comeback victory Brodie retired after the 1973 season ranked third in career passing yards with 31548 behind only Johnny Unitas and Fran Tarkenton He compiled 214 touchdown passes with a 74768 record as starter and won three passing titles The 49ers retired his number twelve jersey After football he worked as an NBC broadcaster calling Super Bowl XIII and competed on the Senior PGA Tour winning once Brodie died January 23 2026 at age ninety