R. C. Owens, Receiver Who Made the Alley-Oop Famous, Dies at 77 R. C. Owens, a former wide receiver for the San Francisco 49ers whose kangaroolike leaps above defenders to snag passes not only entered football lore but also introduced a new phrase to sports - alley-oop - died on Sunday in Manteca, Calif. He was 77. His son Kelvin confirmed the death. He said the cause had not been determined. The concept was hardly Einsteinian or really all that new: throw a football really high to a superb jumper and watch him outleap the defense. What was novel was making it a formal play, with its own name, rather than designating it with numbers like other 49ers plays. It may have started as a blooper that worked, or as a twist on a practice drill, or perhaps even as a result of forethought. Stories have varied. There is no doubt it involved a long pass to Owens from quarterback Y. A. Tittle, something that had happened many times. Its first use as a planned tactic may have been in a game between the 49ers and the Los Angeles Rams on Oct. 6, 1957, when Owens made two acrobatic catches. It became legend on Nov. 3, 1957, when Owens soared over two of the N.F.L."s best defensive backs to catch a 41-yard touchdown pass with 11 seconds on the clock to beat the Detroit Lions. "I decided to go for the alley-oop pass," Tittle said afterward. I knew I had to lay it in the end zone, high, and I just reared back and threw as hard as I could. The Oxford English Dictionary says that this was the first use of "alley-oop" in sports. The phrase derives from the French for the cry of a circus acrobat who is about to leap. Alley Oop was also the title character of a long-running comic strip about the prehistoric kingdom of Moo and later the name of a No. 1 song by the Hollywood Argyles in 1960. Today, alley-oop is most often used to denote a pass by one basketball player to another flying near the rim - say, from Dwyane Wade to LeBron James. The recipient usually tries to dunk the ball. Owens was eminently qualified to introduce alley-oops to either sport. He remains the leading career rebounder at the College of Idaho, and he played for a barnstorming team of N.B.A. all-stars. The Minneapolis Lakers were impressed enough to offer him a contract, but the 49ers made him a better offer. Last year, Jerry Rice, the longtime 49er considered perhaps the greatest receiver ever, said he saw a lot of Owens in Calvin Johnson, the current Detroit receiver known for eye-popping athleticism. In 1962, the 6-foot-3 Owens wowed fans by standing under the goal post at the goal line (goal posts have since been moved to the back of the end zone) and leaping to block a long, line-drive field-goal attempt by the Washington Redskins. The tactic was legislated out of existence. Raleigh Climon Owens was born in Shreveport, La., on Nov. 12, 1934. Two years later his parents moved to Santa Monica, Calif. He went to the College of Idaho, in Caldwell, on the Oregon border, on a football and basketball scholarship, and he excelled in both sports. The 49ers selected him in the 14th round as the 160th pick in the 1956 draft. He was the 49ers" rookie of the year, making 27 receptions for 395 yards and 5 touchdowns. Owens played five seasons for the 49ers, two for the Baltimore Colts and one for the New York Giants. His best season came in 1961, when he caught 55 passes for 1,032 yards and 5 touchdowns for the 49ers. He finished his career in New York in 1964 with a total of 206 catches for 3,285 yards and 22 touchdowns. After football he worked in public relations for J. C. Penney until 1971, then in a California office of the federal Department of Health, Education and Welfare and later in promotion for the Oakland Stompers soccer team. In 1979, Bill Walsh, the 49ers" head coach, hired him to oversee the team's training camp. In June 1963, a tornado swept Owens's car off the road as he was going to the opening of the Colts" training camp in Colorado. His 3-year-old daughter, Pam, was killed, and his 1-month-old son, Darren, sustained a fractured skull, which the family believed led to his death at age 7. Owens's first marriage, to Tina Smith, ended in divorce. In addition to his son Kelvin, he is survived by his wife, the former Susan Morrell; two other sons, Kenny Morrell and Anthony Salazar; two daughters, Melinda Grissett and Shelly Morrell; and 12 grandchildren. Owens started a youth reading program in Manteca and was active in many charities. His enthusiasm for lifting people's spirits was evident when an injury prevented him from playing football in his senior year of college. He tried out for the cheerleading team. "I guess I made it because I could jump higher than anyone else," he said.