Dwight Clark is a real estate developer now, 48 years old, back home in Charlotte, coaching his son Mac's Pop Warner football team in the same league where it all began for him.

He is not your average Pop Warner dad, though. What sets him apart is two Super Bowl rings, two Pro Bowls, one All-Pro designation, one selection as Sports Illustrated Player of the Year, one No. 87 jersey retired by the San Francisco 49ers and one pass he leaped high and caught against Dallas in the 1981 NFC Championship that gave the Niners a 28-27 win and gave him fame that still follows him today. It became known as "The Catch" and you can still buy souvenirs with its image on them.

Clark played at Garinger High and Clemson, played nine seasons as a receiver with the 49ers, spent 10 more years in their front office (where he collected three more Super Bowl rings) and another three years as an executive with Cleveland.

With another Super Bowl bearing down on us, I wanted to talk to someone who had been there, in the locker room before the game, running out onto the field the first time, playing with millions of people watching, winning and celebrating a national championship. Who better than Clark, one of the glamour players on one of the most glamorous Super Bowl teams, the 49ers of Joe Montana, Randy Cross, Russ Francis, Roger Craig, Jack Reynolds, Ronnie Lott, Eric Wright, Dwight Hicks?

We met in a coffee shop and I asked Clark what's the most gripping moment.

He said, "The most gripping moment is when they play the national anthem. Fireworks are going off, music is playing and you're standing there on the sidelines with your helmet, looking across the field at your opponent. The anthem always gives me chills anyway, but for it to be part of a great moment like the Super Bowl, when you're getting ready to go to battle for the world championship, that's the moment I remember the most."

Clark's eyes are bright as he talks. He might be 48, but the years have made little progress against his Hollywood looks, and he still has a youthful exuberance.

He smiled and said, "I remember running out on the field for warm-ups at my first Super Bowl (against Cincinnati in Detroit in January, 1982). It was one of those moments when you can't feel your feet. I don't remember my feet touching the ground.

"I even ran down the wrong sideline. When I realized it, I just pretended I was running a lap around the field."

Had the media horde picked up on the wrong sideline, he might have gotten the kind of overreaction Buffalo's Thurman Thomas got when he couldn't find his helmet at the start of another Super Bowl. Everything, everything , is magnified at a Super Bowl.

Clark said his coach, Bill Walsh, understood this and spent the days leading up to the games finding ways to keep the team calm.

For Clark, the edge began the Wednesday before the game and built as the week went on.

"There's just so much importance put on it and it's so hard to get there," he said. "I know people who have been in the league 30 years and never been there. Football's a huge sport, and when there's only one game, all those fans are watching it."

All the fans -- tens of thousands in the stands, millions at home beside the TV -- are watching. It could be overwhelming, and has been to some.

"Once you run the first play or get hit or catch your first pass," Clark said, "you relax and start playing like you would in any other game. Standing on the sidelines during the game, you might think about it, but you don't have much time for that.

"The only time I got really nervous was in my first one. We were leading Cincinnati 26-20 with 16 seconds left in the game and they were lining up for an onside kick. We had our `hands' team in and I'm the guy they are kicking to, on the end, front row.

"The ball bounced right to me. I caught it and immediately hit the ground. Ronnie Lott jumped on top of me and started screaming, "Super Bowl champions! Super Bowl champions!"

Clark's close buddy in those days, quarterback Joe Montana, said once the Super Bowl is over and the locker room celebration is over, he felt a big letdown.

"As soon as it's over," he said, "it's like, `Oh, God, now what do we do?'"

"I understand what he's saying," said Clark. "People like Joe thrive on competition. They can't wait to get to the next one. But I celebrated. It's so hard to get there and then win it. For the first time in six months you can actually relax. You've accomplished the goal. You've been through all kinds of adversity and now it's time to appreciate it. You've got two, three months off before you go back to it, but for a whole year, you're the world champions.

"Yeah, I enjoyed it. I celebrated as hard as I could."

He studied his coffee cup without seeing it. He was looking off into the past.

"There's nothing like your first Super Bowl," he said. "It's like there's nothing like your first kiss, your first love.

"There's nothing like it."

Ron Green Sr. is a retired Observer columnist. Reach him at greensr@charlotteobserver.com