Joe Montana grew up in Monongahela, Pennsylvania, where he excelled in baseball, basketball, and football during high school. He received a basketball scholarship to North Carolina State University in Raleigh but chose instead to attend the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, to play football.
He started his junior year as the Fighting Irish’s third-string quarterback but quickly rose to starter after leading the team to a comeback victory in the third game of the 1977 season. That year, he helped Notre Dame, which had just one loss, secure the NCAA Division I-A national championship. Following a successful senior season that concluded with a victory in the Cotton Bowl, Montana was selected by the San Francisco 49ers in the third round of the 1979 NFL Draft.
Montana holds a stellar record of winning four Super Bowls in his career. He won the Super Bowls XVI (1982), XIX (1985), XXIII (1989), and XXIV (1990). Joe Montana is only one of two players to have won as many Super Bowls without any losses.
Throughout his 16 years in the league, Montana threw for 40,551 yards and 273 touchdowns for a 92.3 career passer rating, and remains in the conversation as one of the greatest quarterbacks in league history.