Saloon font and red end zones: A playoff tradition for the 49ers is back and at Levi’s Stadium for the first time

Before this season kicked off, the 49ers committed to representing their franchise’s storied past more diligently.

They added historical imagery to the Levi’s Stadium concourse. They sought to make the statue of Joe Montana and Dwight Clark more prominent. Team president Al Guido even hinted that the 49ers may hold a future training camp practice or two in Rocklin (where they held camp from 1981-1997) for old time’s sake.

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But two pledges, in particular, drummed up more excitement among the fan base than anything else. The first was a commitment to permanently bringing back the traditional saloon font lettering in both end zones. The second was a guarantee of an extra decorative step, one that’d make the Levi’s field look like Candlestick Park’s did during some of the franchise’s most famous moments — but only if the team hosted a playoff game.

“The end zones will be red,” Guido said in August. “I can promise all the fans that. But we’re going to save it for those days where it matters the most.”

Well, those days are here. The 49ers take on the Minnesota Vikings in the NFC divisional round on Saturday afternoon in what will be Levi’s Stadium’s first playoff game, and its end zones now feature large gold saloon font floating in a sea of red paint:

This is a decorative combination that was last seen during the playoffs in January 2003, when the 49ers stunned the New York Giants with a 24-point second-half comeback to win an NFC wild-card game at Candlestick.

Even though they painted the end zones red for subsequent home playoff games at the end of the 2011 and 2012 seasons, the 49ers used a more modern, blockier font for lettering during those years.

The gold saloon font returned in 2018 for what was initially supposed to be a one-time occurrence, remained for the season because the 49ers wanted to preserve the end zone grass, became officially permanent this season and has now been reunited with red paint.

The red paint-saloon font combination was first seen at Candlestick during the franchise’s initial Super Bowl run following the 1981 season.

“I know the fans love it,” 49ers vice president of stadium operations and Levi’s Stadium general manager Jim Mercurio said. “The grounds crew loves it. It’s going to give a vibrant look to that stadium.”

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Head groundskeeper Matt Greiner’s crew has spent the past two days applying approximately 50 gallons of paint across the end zones. The bulk of the work wrapped up Wednesday, so the paint has plenty of time to air out ahead of Saturday’s game.

“We tend to put it on a little heavy for the playoffs because of the national broadcast and importance of the game,” Mercurio said. “When you start throwing down the heavy reds and the blackout line and the gold 49er colors, it might take a little bit longer to dry.”

The Levi’s Stadium field, which was successfully resodded in early December to overcome typical late-season wear-and-tear, has been unused since Cal beat Illinois in the RedBox Bowl on Dec. 30. After that game, groundskeepers ripped out portions of the field featuring bowl game logos, installed new turf at those spots (it’s trucked in from West Coast Turf in the Central Valley town of Patterson), stenciled in the saloon font and began painting on Tuesday.

“This is a canvas for them,” Mercurio said of Greiner and his grounds crew. “These guys are damn good at it and they take a lot of pride in it. It’s very much a talent. They want it to look picture perfect on game day. And beyond the look and feel of it is the actual face of the playing surface. You’ve got million dollar athletes playing on this stuff.”

The quality of the playing surface was an issue for a stretch after the stadium’s 2014 opening, when a mistake in base mix compromised the playability of the grass surface. Those issues have since been resolved. The field remained in good shape throughout the 2019 regular season, despite a relatively rainy fall in the Bay Area.

Now, the 49ers are excited that the field will be back in the spotlight — but for positive reasons, thanks to its new visual connection to the franchise’s illustrious history.

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Historical links have been a common theme during the 2019 season. The 49ers wore throwback uniforms to their 1994 Super Bowl championship season during a Week 8 win over Carolina. Team captains then advocated for the 49ers to don those same throwbacks for Week 17’s tilt at Seattle that decided the NFC West title.

That particular connection to the past had special meaning for 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan, who was a ball boy for the 1994 team while his father, Mike, was the 49ers offensive coordinator.

“I remember people making fun of me because I got Deion Sanders’ throwback jersey for Christmas and I didn’t take it off until the day after the Super Bowl when my dad became the Broncos head coach,” Shanahan said on Tuesday. “So, I wore it for however many days that is, a month and 10 days. I changed my undershirt, though, I promise.”

The 49ers will wear their standard home uniforms on Saturday against Minnesota, but perhaps it’s fitting that they secured the return of their old-school end zone look while wearing a special set of old-school uniforms.

“The Seattle stop happens by Dre,” Guido said of linebacker Dre Greenlaw’s dramatic goal-line tackle that preserved a 49ers’ win and secured home-field advantage for the team, “and he’s the same number as Dan Bunz (57), and it’s literally the same (26-21) score as the Super Bowl (to cap the 1981 season).

“And now you fast forward, and you’re going back to the same end zone paint, same font as those great games during the playoffs.”

Bunz, whose goal-line stop helped secure that 49ers’ Super Bowl XVI victory over the Cincinnati Bengals, will be in attendance at Levi’s this Saturday. And it’s interesting to note that the 2019 49ers, just like that 1981 team, played under a third-year head coach and finished the regular season with the NFC’s No. 1 seed with a 13-3 record.

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As an added kicker, Shanahan was born in 1979 — the same year that Bill Walsh took over as 49ers coach.

“It’s nutty, it’s eerie,” Guido said. “In a cool way.”

And, of course, the saloon font was freshly paired with red end zone paint after the 1981 regular season, just like it is this year. The 49ers didn’t use saloon font, nor did they paint end zones red for playoff games, while they played at San Francisco’s Kezar Stadium from 1946-70. They hosted playoff games against Washington and Dallas at Candlestick in 1971 and 1972, but the stadium had an Astroturf surface back then and the end zones remained green.

The saloon font and corresponding paint are uniquely and nostalgically tied with the dynastic 49ers, especially when the combination went unused for a large part of the past two decades.

“The plan is to reproduce what we had at Candlestick,” 49ers chief marketing officer Alex Chang said (there’s one notable difference: Both end zones read “49ers” now while, in the past, one used to read “San Francisco” in saloon font). “We know that respecting and honoring our past is important. Bringing back positive energy and great memories is important.”

This season has done that in droves for the 49ers. Enthusiasm has certainly returned to the fan base. Guido said that the team quickly sold out its remaining inventory of tickets for the playoffs during the recent bye week. Now, prices are soaring on the secondary market, reaching an average resale value of about $500 — making Saturday’s ticket the hottest in the NFL.

“We have Stone Cold Steve Austin tweeting at our tight end,” Guido said, referencing All-Pro George Kittle. “We’ve got the Hot Boyzz and we’ve got a new hip-hop song that fans are chanting on planes as they go into other territories. It’s rabid. And it was crazy at Candlestick. I remember how the building shook when Vernon (Davis) caught the pass (against the Saints in January 2012). It feels good to be back to that.”

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The feeling may be familiar to the 49ers and their fans, but it’s new in the context of Levi’s Stadium, which is in its sixth season and about to host that first playoff game.

“Home doesn’t feel like a home until it’s lived in, until you have moments and memories in it,” Guido said. “This is the first time that it’s gonna happen here. We’ll create our own new traditions moving forward. It’ll be ones that start Saturday.”

But sometimes, new memories demand a traditional setting. A look to the future requires an embrace of the past. And with all that red surrounding the gold saloon font again, the 49ers feel that Levi’s is ready to shine in a way they’ve been waiting for it to.

— Reported from Santa Clara

(Photo: David Lombardi / The Athletic)