Montana and Clark Hook Up Once Again

It turns out Joe Montana’s impending retirement also is a time for reconciliation.

Montana and Dwight Clark, indelibly linked as the passer and receiver in one of NFL’s most famous plays, had grown apart since Montana left the San Francisco 49ers to play for the Kansas City Chiefs.

Close friends while both were with the 49ers, the two barely saw or spoke to each other in the last couple of years, but they will be reunited Tuesday.

Montana made the first move to end their estrangement, calling Clark and asking him to attend Tuesday’s public retirement announcement and celebration of Montana’s career at San Francisco’s Justin Herman Plaza.

“There was a period when there was some tension just because it was such a bad scene when he left,” said Clark, now the 49ers’ vice president for football operations. “It was a difficult time for everyone and I don’t think either one of us knew how to handle it. He was in another city with another team. There was just a natural division there, and it’s over. I talked to him (Thursday) at length and it was time for it to be over.”

Clark said he was thankful Montana called because “I’m not much for going where I’m not invited.”

Now that the two have made up, he said, “I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

Clark, who retired as a player in 1987, made the leaping last-ditch touchdown catch from a backpedaling Montana to vault the 49ers to victory over Dallas in the 1981 NFC title game.