It was called Sprint Right Option. "We actually practiced that play a lot. Coach [Bill] Walsh always told Joe, 'Just throw it way up there, so that if Dwight can't get it, nobody can. Just don't throw an interception.'"
And so, with the Cowboys' Too Tall Jones clawing at his cleats, Montana backpedaled in desperation with Walsh's words in his head. He could not even see the end zone, but he knew where Clark would be. He pump-faked Jones and sailed one that referee Jim Tunney would later say "should've ended up in the third row of seats."
"When I saw it, I remember thinking to myself, 'Holy s---! That's really high!" Clark says.
The defender, the Cowboys' Everson Walls, once told Clark, "Man, I thought that thing was going to fly way past us out of bounds."
But Clark, a former high jumper who could dunk in eighth grade, climbed some unseen escalator and snagged it with the tippy tips of his six middle fingers. Touchdown. Candlestick nearly shook into the bay. Your basic Greatest Catch Ever.
"Man, your boy Dwight really bailed your ass out on that one," somebody chided Montana when he came off.
"C'mon, it wasn't that high," Montana scoffed.
But in watching replays during postgame interviews, Montana said, "Wow. It was pretty high, wasn't it?"
Source