It took some digging, but these 49ers finally struck the motherload of championship gold. San Francisco Forty Niners owns and operates the San Francisco 49ers professional football team, which boasts five Super Bowl championships (a mark it shares with the Dallas Cowboys). The franchise was started in 1946 as part of the All-American Football Conference (AAFC) and joined the National Football League in 1950. Its burst of championship glory came in the 1980s and 1990s with the help of such stars as Joe Montana and Steve Young. The team was started by brothers Anthony and Victor Morabito; it is owned by Denise DeBartolo York through her family's DeBartolo Corporation.