{"id":889044,"date":"2026-09-12T06:16:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-12T06:16:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/889044\/"},"modified":"2026-09-12T06:16:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T06:16:13","slug":"san-francisco-49ers-photographer-marks-54-seasons-behind-the-lens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/889044\/","title":{"rendered":"San Francisco 49ers photographer marks 54 seasons behind the lens"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — Michael Zagaris has spent more than half a century documenting the San Francisco 49ers<\/a>, a career that began when he was a teenager sneaking into Kezar Stadium with homemade credentials and grew into an official role embedded with the team.<\/p>\n

Zagaris said his access started early.<\/p>\n

“Here’s a picture I took at 11,” he recalled, pointing to an image from his childhood.<\/p>\n

Growing up near the College of the Pacific, he said, “This team sent 11 guys to the NFL.”<\/p>\n

By high school, he was already finding ways onto the field.<\/p>\n

MORE: 49ers Faithful take over Melbourne as Niners dominate Rams in season opener Down Under<\/a><\/p>\n

“I used to make my own credentials when I was in high school,” he said. “I found one of these on the field. So I’d make my own every week.”<\/p>\n

His break came in 1979, when Bill Walsh took over as head coach. Zagaris approached him with a pitch.<\/p>\n

“I said, coach, you know what I want to do? I want to cover this team as a photojournalist, and I want to cover it the way the presidency is covered by an official White House photographer.”<\/p>\n

He told Walsh he wanted full access: “I want to be on the team plane, on the team bus. I want to shoot pre-game, halftime, post game, on the bench, everything.”<\/p>\n

Since then, Zagaris has photographed generations of 49ers legends.<\/p>\n

He remembers capturing Joe Montana and Jerry Rice “after one of the many touchdowns,” and shooting Super Bowl moments.<\/p>\n

Now 81, Zagaris is entering his 54th season with the franchise.<\/p>\n

“I used to run the streets with these guys,” he remembers.<\/p>\n

Players today remind him of the years that have passed.<\/p>\n

“As a couple people have told me, bro, you’re older than my grandfather,” Zagaris laughed.<\/p>\n

Despite the decades, the job still brings new experiences.<\/p>\n

When asked, “Have you been to Australia before?” he answered, “Never been.”<\/p>\n

And he has no plans to slow down. “Baby, they’re going to have to tear that uniform off of me.”<\/p>\n

He remains a constant presence for fans who have followed the team through five Super Bowl wins – and for Zagaris, he’s waiting for the sixth.<\/p>\n

“You know what? You have to be ready,” he said.<\/p>\n

After 53 official seasons, Zagaris’ archive has become part of the team’s legacy.<\/p>\n

“It’s rich San Francisco history,” he said.<\/p>\n

And after decades documenting the 49ers, it’s clear he’s become part of that history too.<\/p>\n

\"Now<\/a><\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 KGO-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — Michael Zagaris has spent more than half a century documenting the San Francisco 49ers,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":889045,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[458672,449,458,459,64,63,460,134],"class_list":["post-889044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-458672","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-design","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/889044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=889044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/889044\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/889045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=889044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=889044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=889044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}