49ers fan's Peninsula restaurant celebrates 42 years of Niner Faith (and burgers)
REDWOOD CITY -- As the entire football world turns its attention toward the Bay Area for the NFC title game Sunday between the Detroit Lions and the San Francisco 49ers, a restaurant owner in Redwood City is recalling the days when the home team needed a little help and the fast friendships that followed.
He was using the pay phone at a gas station in Redwood City when Tim Harrison noticed an abandoned 7-Eleven across the street and thought it would make a good location for a restaurant. The year was 1972. Turned out, it was a good location.
He opened the Canyon Inn, serving up high-quality hamburgers that his customers loved. But Harrison's love was reserved for the 49ers. He remembers watching his heroes like Y.A. Tittle and Hugh McElhenny playing at Kezar Stadium in San Francisco. The team never had a whole lot of success so, in 1981, he approached a 49ers official with an offer to host a rally for the team in his parking lot, to stir up some local spirit.
"He said, 'you know Tim, the only way you're going to get these guys up here is if you give something away.' And I started thinking 'Geez, I'm trying to help these guys!'" Harrison said.
He made the team an offer: a free meal for anyone in the organization, including office staff, on weeks when the 49ers won.
"What did I have to lose, you know? They only won, like, three games a year, right?" he said with a laugh. "Well, that was the year they went to the Super Bowl. They went 16-3 and the rest is kind of history."
Talk about timing. Players and coaches began frequenting the place. Harrison still has the free meal card issued to Jack "Hacksaw" Reynolds. Now the restaurant offers a burger named after the fiery linebacker.
Harrison said he's not sure how much the free meal offer actually cost him.
"It turned out to be a lot. Quite a bit. I never really stopped to add it up but $10,000? And those are old '81 prices!" he said.
For what it cost him, he got much more in return. The Canyon Inn's location was about a mile away from where the 49ers used to practice in Redwood City. Many of the players and coaches had homes in the area and became regular customers. Harrison became close to many on the team. Displayed on the wall is a personal invitation from the Walsh family to attend former head coach Bill Walsh's funeral. Harrison became friends with many of the players who were part of the glory days of those first championships.
"That is Dan Bunz over there, sporting a Super Bowl ring," he said, pointing to a framed picture. "Notice he's got a real tight grip on my neck there. Wanted to make sure I wasn't going to run away with it."
It meant a lot to him that former linebacker Keena Turner offered to voice a radio commercial for the restaurant for free. The ad still airs on game-day broadcasts. Harrison says he never intended for the Canyon Inn to be a "49er restaurant." it just kind of evolved that way with each new memory added to the walls.
HIs wife, Stephanie, thinks it is that authenticity that makes the place so important to visitors.
"Everybody comes in. They always want to know, they always want to talk about the 49ers. It's a big deal," she said.
It's been a long time since the 49ers were considered upstarts but, for Harrison, those were the sweetest days of all.
"So, it's been a great ride and here we are, 42 years later, hoping for another one," he said.
Now, another team has come from nowhere to stand on the brink of football glory. Harrison says the Lions remind him of that Niners team in 1981 and he wishes them well.
Just not this year.