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Back then, Apple Computer provided 85,000 seat cushions to prevent Super Bowl attendees from picking splinters from their keisters. The wooden benches on the Stan- ford campus are now gone. The downsized Stanford Stadium, remodeled a decade ago, now features 50,424 stadium seats — all with backs. The 49ers won Super Bowl XIX in deci- sive fashion. Their relentless pass rush, fea- turing Corning High grad and Chico resi- dent Jeff Stover, hounded Miami Dolphins quarterback Dan Marino. Roger Craig scored three touchdowns, and Joe Montana, as usual, was perfect. The 49ers were never better than that day, entering the game as a 3 ½-point favorite and leaving little doubt with a 38-16 victory. The 49ers, in case you haven't noticed, are no longer perfect. But the organization has arrived at an- other Super Bowl — even if the actual prod- uct on the field showed no glimpses of being able to compete for the Lombardi Trophy any time soon. Coincidentally, the Bay Area's Super Bowl bid committee and the owners of the 49ers were successful in landing the big event just months after going down to defeat in Su- per Bowl XLVII to the Baltimore Ravens in heart-breaking fashion. "After losing a Super Bowl, it's certainly nice to win a Super Bowl," 49ers CEO Jed York said on May 20, 2013, in Boston after the league's owners selected still-under-con- struction Levi's Stadium to host Super Bowl 50 over Miami. California has hosted 11 previous Su- per Bowls, including the first champion- ship game after the NFL-AFL merger. Super Bowl I was played at the Los Angeles Memo- rial Coliseum in 1967. The last time California was chosen as the Super Bowl site was January 2003, a game in which the Tampa Bay Buccaneers put a 48- 21 shellacking on the Oakland Raiders in San Diego. The Raiders have not advanced to the postseason since that season. It's a turbulent time for Bay Area foot- ball. The Raiders' long-term future in Oak- land is in question, even as owner Mark Da- vis fought unsuccessfully — for now, anyway — to relocate the franchise to Southern Cal- ifornia. The 49ers relocated two seasons ago to Santa Clara – 38.5 miles south on High- way 101 from where only dirt remains in the footprint of old Candlestick Park. Candlestick Park was briefly on the books to host Super Bowl XXXIII, but the neces- sary stadium upgrades never occurred, and that NFL championship game at the conclu- sion of the 1998 season was moved to Mi- ami. "All we lacked in the past was a stadium, and now we have that," 49ers owner John York said upon the Bay Area being named to host this Super Bowl. The 49ers' fan base suffered through a miserable 2015. Jim Tomsula replaced ultra-popular coach Jim Harbaugh as head coach. Tomsu- la's team failed miserably, seemingly playing worse as the season progressed en route to a 5-11 record. The recent hiring of Chip Kelly to replace Tomsula brought some much-needed energy and intrigue to the football side of things. And, now, the Yorks' crowning achieve- ment as 49ers owners is on full display for the entire football world to see. "It's the first pro football stadium in Cal- ifornia since the 1960s, so it's a significant achievement for the people that worked so hard to make it happen," NFL commis- sioner Roger Goodell said at the ribbon-cut- ting ceremony for the $1.3 billion facility in July 2014. | SUPER BOWL SUNDAY | 29 SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2016 SWEET RESPITE FOR 49ERS YOUR SUPER HOSTS Matt Maiocco Nothing more than a shell of the stadium is still standing from the only previous Super Bowl played in Northern California. Levi's Stadium, situated in the heart of Silicon Valley, looks nothing like Stanford Stadium, circa January 1985. EMILY BERTOLINO — CHICO ENTERPRISE-RECORD For all the grandeur of their new stadium in Santa Clara, the one thing the 49ers haven't been able to bring to Levi's is a championship game. The Denver Broncos and Carolina Panthers will take care of that for them in Super Bowl 50.