Social media has become a home for football nostalgia, as evidenced by the creation of Twitter accounts like @RewindRecord, which regularly publishes articles, photos and advertisements from old editions of the Record.

Now former Geelong skipper Andrew Bews has jumped in on the act, publishing a classic series of photos on his Facebook page.

The pictures are of the day when legendary San Francisco 49ers quarterback Joe Montana visited Kardinia Park in 1990.

As Bews detailed in his post, the backstory to the Montana visit was quite amusing.

The day before ‘Joe Cool’ came to the Cattery, Geelong played Hawthorn at Waverley Park in a rematch of the 1989 Grand Final.

The Cats players were commiserating in their change rooms after a suffering an embarrassing 115-point hiding (the final score was 28.24 to 11.11) when they were told that Montana wanted to pay them a visit.

They all thought it was a joke. After all, it was March 31, which meant the following day was April Fool’s Day.

Nevertheless, Bews and a few of his teammates turned at Kardinia Park on Sunday, April 1.

Having been told Montana was in Geelong, Eddie McGuire, then a sports reporter with Channel 10, also came along, as did Geelong Advertiser photographer Reg Ryan.

To their immense delight, they had not been fooled.

Montana, who was making a documentary with his wife, arrived at Kardinia Park and was soon decked out in Cats gear and escorted out on the field to try and learn the art of Australian Rules.

49ers legend Joe Montana posts with a group of Geelong players

Montana’s visit was a real coup for the club.

After all, he had only recently led the 49ers to consecutive Super Bowl wins, taking his career tally to four Super Bowl victories.

Not only that, Montana was then the highest-paid NFL player and had been voted the NFL’s MVP in each of the previous two seasons.

As Bews wrote, Montana’s visit was “very humbling”.

For those few Geelong players who turned up that day, it remains one of the highlights of their sporting lives.

Cats players, Joe Montana and Eddie McGuire, who was then a sports reporter with Channel 10