Charle Young, a starting tight end on the 49ers’ first Super Bowl-winning team 45 years ago, has passed away at age 75, the club announced Tuesday.
Young caught the first of Joe Montana’s 45 career touchdown passes in the playoffs, in the 1981 team’s postseason debut. Young also played a key role in their eventual NFC Championship Game win over Dallas in “The Catch” game — making a third-down conversion reception on their opening touchdown drive, long before Dwight Clark’s game-winner at Candlestick Park.
Young, a Fresno native, played 13 NFL seasons with four teams, starting with All-Pro honors as a rookie in 1973 with the Philadelphia Eagles. He played three years with the 49ers beginning in 1980. Drafted sixth overall out of national champion USC, he was the Rookie of the Year and made the Pro Bowl his first three seasons with the Eagles.
“Of course, I made an impact because I wanted to make an impact. I had certain goals that I needed to attain,” Young told the Eagles’ website in 2017 upon returning as an honorary captain for a game. “Plus, for me coming from California, Philadelphia was on the other side of the world. And back in those days, there were only three television stations, and I wanted my parents to know that I was doing well. That’s why I had to make a statement.”
He moved on in 1977 to the Los Angeles Rams for a three-year stint that included perennial playoff runs. After joining Bill Walsh’s 49ers for the next three years, Young finished with the Seattle Seahawks from 1983-85.
“When I first came into the league, it was more about individual stats, but I learned quickly that it is the team stats that are most important where you accomplish the ultimate goal and that’s to win,” Young told PhiladelphiaEagles.com in 2017. “And so looking from the standpoint, that solidifies the legacy of being a winner because I won in college, the National Championship, I won in the NFL, a Super Bowl (XVI) championship (with the 49ers). And so that is what I look at as being the most promising and probably the most fruitful of my endeavors.”
Young changed the spelling of his first name from “Charlie” in 1982. He told reporters, “People had a problem. They thought they had better call me Charlie or Chuck. But Chuck doesn’t fit me, and they didn’t know if they should spell the other one Charlie or Charley. So I decided to find a shorter name that would make it easier for them, and I decided on Charle. Call me Charlie if you want but spell it Charle.”