1976 San Francisco 49ers season
NFL team season
The 1976 San Francisco 49ers season was the franchise's 27th season in the National Football League and their 31st overall. The team had a new head coach in Monte Clark, who previously was an assistant coach of the Miami Dolphins, to replace Dick Nolan. They began the season with the goal of improving on their previous output of 5–9. They were able to do so, starting the season 6–1; however, after a four-game losing streak, they finished 8–6 and missed the playoffs. This would be the first, and only, season for Clark as head coach. He was let go during the 1977 off-season.
On April 5, 1976, the 49ers traded for former Heisman Trophy winner Jim Plunkett. The 49ers gave the New England Patriots their first round pick in the 1976 NFL draft, the Houston Oilers first round pick in the 1976 Draft, the 49ers first and second round picks in the 1977 NFL draft, and quarterback Tom Owen.
This would be the final season for the 49ers under the ownership of the family of team founder Tony Morabito, as prior to the 1977 season the team would be sold to Eddie DeBartolo Jr., heir to the DeBartolo real estate development business started by his father Edward J. DeBartolo Sr..
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “1976 San Francisco 49ers season” as nFL team season. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as nFL team season. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4577293. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1976 and 1977.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “1976 San Francisco 49ers season”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow 1976 San Francisco 49ers season primary sources, 1976 San Francisco 49ers season archive and Francisco research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “1976 San Francisco 49ers season”?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “1976 San Francisco 49ers season” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.