Bill Walsh RIP

wow. what a day. rip.

gasp, it's true! they come in threes!

I hadn't realized his son passed on from leukemia a couple of years back as well. Being part of a family with a history of cancer on the men's side, I can guess the emotional impact pretty easily.

Man, the memories are going to be coming back today. After all the nonsense in the Tour de France my dad's going to be low. Have to call him tonight.

If I didn't have three kids underfoot, I'd be pouring a 40. Or a 49er if they made those.

RIP

Remember the Catch.

genius! most beautifulist football in the world ever. rip.

sfgate.com article has some better details and memories:

To do it, they had to shock the Dallas Cowboys 28-27 in the NFC Championship Game. They won it on Montana's scrambling 6-yard pass to a leaping Clark with 51 seconds left. The play, dubbed "The Catch," is the most celebrated moment in Bay Area sports history.

"That was a practiced play," Walsh said. "Now, we didn't expect three guys right down his throat. That was Joe who got the pass off in that situation, putting it where only Clark could come up with it."

Walsh showed his zany side two weeks later in Pontiac, Mich. Arriving before the team, he borrowed a bellman's uniform at the hotel and collected the players' bags at the curb, even holding out his hand for tips. His players didn't immediately recognize him, including Montana, who got into a brief tug-of-war with him when Walsh tried to grab his briefcase.

In Super Bowl XVI, the 49ers built a 20-0 lead but needed a memorable goal-line stand in the fourth quarter to hold off the Cincinnati Bengals and win 26-21.

Pro football in San Francisco would never be the same.

Walsh and his players were stunned by the reception they received when they returned to San Francisco. "There was a suggestion of a parade for us," Walsh said years later, "and I remember thinking that with the general fatigue I was reluctant to put the players through something that might be just a few people waving handkerchiefs on the street corner."

D:

So disappointed that this isn't about Entourage killing off my least favorite recurring character.

wtf!!

You know, I had no idea there was another Bill Walsh out there who wasn't the drummer for the Cosmic Psychos.

my aunt was dwight clark's office manger when he was director of player personel w/teh 9ers. she has a super bowl ring. i have worn it.

This is sad. A true genius in his field, who changed the game for the better.

RIP

I love this quote from the SFgate article:

"He's a very competitive guy, and he can be scathing, especially in the heat of battle. There have been times when I would have gladly split his skull with an ax. Then again, he's the greatest."

http://imgs.sfgate.com/chronicle/pictures/2006/11/11/sp_walsh_2.jpg

Here's your blast from the past -- 1979 and yes, Montana's got a mustache:

http://imgs.sfgate.com/chronicle/pictures/2004/12/17/sp_78niners.jpg

loves when plan comes together

Hahaha -- so Montana was Face, Rice was B.A., who was Murdock?

Classy guy. I remember staying up to all hours of the morning in Milan to watch the 49ers beat the Bengals in Super Bowl XXIII and being so relieved we'd come back to win at the last minute.

RIP

I am a man who draws pass patterns on his wife's shoulder

who was Murdock?

Ray Wersching

otm. if memory serves, ray wersching missed a game-tying or -winning field goal attempt against the steelers with time expiring in '84, resulting in a 15-1 season and ongoing smugness from larry csonka

gasp, it's true! they come in threes!

-- dean ge, Monday, 30 July 2007 19:27 (1 hour ago) Link

except frank butcher and bill robinson have died in the past 24 hours, too. they come in fives.

marvin zindler died too. wtf.

http://www.80stees.com/images/products/Pirates_Camps_1979-T-link.jpg

rip

xpost

Mookie, the smugness of the living members of the '72 Dolphins is one thing we can always look forward to every year as the last undefeated team heads towards its inevitable loss. What those guys don't get is if they played the '85 Bears (or any other post-'72 champ-especially the '74 Steelers) they would be slaughtered. Seriously, a time-machine gane between them and the Ravens Super Bowl team would probably result in the death of at least one Fish (preferably Csonka or Buonticonti).

Some quotes:

This is just a tremendous loss for all of us, especially to the Bay Area because of what he meant to the 49ers," said Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Montana. "For me personally, outside of my dad he was probably the most influential person in my life. I am going to miss him."

"Bill was blessed with one of the greatest gifts you can have which is the ability to see the future potential of another human being. It just so happened that football was his expertise. He saw in me much more than I ever saw in myself well before I ever had a chance to understand it. That is the ultimate compliment to the word coach. There's nothing more a coach should be than to see the full potential of a player unfolded. I am eternally grateful to Bill Walsh ." - Steve Young

“His Hall of Fame coaching accomplishments speak for themselves, but the essence of Bill Walsh was that he was an extraordinary teacher. If you gave him a blackboard and a piece of chalk, he would become a whirlwind of wisdom. He taught all of us not only about football but also about life and how it takes teamwork for any of us to succeed as individuals. He helped the league on many important initiatives, from improving opportunities for minorities in coaching and the front office to our executive training and international development programs. Bill Walsh was a mentor to me and many others. He revolutionized the game with his ‘West Coast Offense’ and will always be remembered as one of the most influential people in NFL history.” - Roger Goodell

“Bill Walsh’s skills, leadership and amazing wit helped change the direction and style of America’s greatest sport. His various contributions became a major ingredient in the catalyst that unified our Nation’s most diverse and unique community at a time when it needed it most. He loved San Francisco and the Bay Area enthusiastically returned the affection. “- Carmen Policy

"What really made Bill special is that he understood that the game was bigger than him. His genius was not centered around Xs and Os, it was centered around his ability to create a platform that made the game inclusive to others. He will forever be cemented with the likes of George Halas, Paul Brown and Vince Lombardi as the best ever." - Ronnie Lott

i feel very old right now

Just got off the phone with my dad -- turned out he hadn't heard, so I broke the news. But he took it in stride -- he knew Walsh was fighting leukemia and had had a rich life, so he looked at it the right way, same as you can for Bergman and Snyder, say.

Says he remembers pulling into Bremerton on the Pollack and hoping he'd be able to see some of a certain 49ers/Cowboys game on the TV -- he missed the first half but caught the rest and so was able to see the Catch as it happened. Not bad at all.

wow, is all that i can say. i was never a niners fan or a west-coast offense fan -- quite the opposite, in both cases -- but there's no denying the tremendous impact both had upon football up until today.

of course, none of the above is personal against walsh -- i had no beef against HIM. further, walsh deserved much credit for knowing what talent he HAD and tailoring his coaching scheme to make the best use of it.

so RIP then ;__;

Say what you want about the west coast offense (which I can't stand) what I respect about Walsh was that he was the first to treat his players as true colleagues and partners in the enterprise that was winning the football game. The coach will call the plays, the players will execute, if both do it right, the team should win. It brought football out of the age of the fire-breathing Halas or Lombardi type who treated their players like interchangeable serfs.

Some wondrous weirdness:

He was the rare coach who could mix up his pitches. Walsh had fastballs, curves and change-ups. One minute he's Vince Lombardi, fire and brimstone and bad words. Next minute he's prancing through the locker room wearing football shoes and black tights with a wide-receiver towel tucked in the front, lampooning the ultra-tidy Jerry Rice.

To warn his players about the dangers of night life before a road trip to Los Angeles, Walsh introduced them to a pimp, a prostitute and a drug dealer, played, in full costume, by assistant coaches Bob McKittrick, Sam Wyche and Ray Rhodes.

Let's hope Rhodes wasn't the prostitute. Then again, Wyche has a great face for radio too.

i do not know how any one could hate the so called west coast offense when the 9ers we running it. you really didnt like seeing jerry rice sailing 75 yards like there was no defense? montana operating on a higher plain? didnt like a team passing way more than it ran? you didnt appreciate the utter dominance? the intelligence? the creativity? the beauty? really?

Some more remembrances. I do like this:

Fahnhorst, a teammate of Reynolds', said, "I hope when I die, you can look back and say I've influenced as many people as he did, which is a tough feat. He was a great man. We had some battles. I'd love to tell you the last thing he told me, but I can't. It was funny, I can tell you."

Let's hope Rhodes wasn't the prostitute. Then again, Wyche has a great face for radio too.

I'm just trying to imagine McKittrick as a pimp. And it ain't workin'

I think McKittrick also has succumbed to cancer, unfortunately. But I didnt mention him because I don't remember what he looked like.

And O'Shea-I said I didn't like the offense, I never said I didn't respect it. Great creativity if done right, but it's like a running offense, just with short forward passes. I like a more vertical passing game-remember that every "West Coast offense" doesnt have the aeshtetic that the 49rs did.It has a lot to do with the personnel. Case in point-the Paul Hackett era Jets. If you had to live through that, you'd hate the West Coast Offense too.

McKittrick looked like Patrick Stewart, and it's been something like 5 years since he died.

Seifert was always my man because his run was right when I grew up, but damn, could Walsh draft players. If he had stayed on as a GM-type, the 9ers would probably have at least another Super Bowl.

Walsh actually regretted leaving coaching when he did, he says he should have stayed on longer.

"i do not know how any one could hate the so called west coast offense when the 9ers we running it. you really didnt like seeing jerry rice sailing 75 yards like there was no defense? montana operating on a higher plain? didnt like a team passing way more than it ran? you didnt appreciate the utter dominance? the intelligence? the creativity? the beauty? really?"

that shit was before my time so i cant really speak on it but it sounds pretty boring imo

r.i.p. tho~

NO IT WAS EXCITING SRSLY JERRY RICE RUN V FAR CRAZY THINGS HAPPENED

i dunno maybe it's just cuz all those olde-tymey clips look all scratchy and washed out, it is depressing

(tbh tho i hate beauty and creativity and just want to see dudes get hit)

"i do not know how any one could hate the so called west coast offense when the 9ers we running it. you really didnt like seeing jerry rice sailing 75 yards like there was no defense? montana operating on a higher plain? didnt like a team passing way more than it ran? you didnt appreciate the utter dominance? the intelligence? the creativity? the beauty? really?"

well, i'll grant that the west-coast/bill walsh offense was intelligent and creative -- and such intelligence and creativity is walsh's real contribution to NFL coaching. this excellent old-timey sports illustrated article spells out quite nicely just how & why walsh came to develop his offensive scheme (close to the bottom of the article) in the early 70s as an assistant coach with the bengals. walsh also admitted -- very frankly! -- that had he had a QB at that time with a stronger arm then he would've devised his offense based around THAT fact. the story itself is interesting not just as an example of walsh's creativity and intelligence, but about how improvisions can end up having a profound effect at some point.

as for beauty, that's in the eye in the beholder. i just LIKE old-school smash-mouth football more than more airborne-based attacks generally, and as far as airborne schemes go i prefer QBs who could whip the fucker far down the field more than the "dinky" slant and screen passes anyway, i've kind of softened my dislike for the west-coast offense b/c that's basically the scheme run by my 2 favorite teams/QBs -- the jets (chad pennington) and the eagles (donovan mcnabb & jeff garcia as his sub last year) -- and, well, when it's well-done, well-matched & well-calibrated to a team's personnel it just WORKS. when it's implimented in a ham-handed or poorly-thought out way, though, west-coast offenses can suck just as bad and are painfully boring to watch as any other offensive scheme done poorly (as someone mentioned upthread re the jets' offenses under the unlamented paul hackett).

anyway, none of this should be interpreted as disrespectful to bill walsh. RIP bill walsh.

Walsh's 49ers were the first and last football team I rooted for. Once he and Montana were gone and then all the salary cap rules came into play and everything I just lost interest. Dynasties that keep their great players are fun. Parity and the Patriots are not.

Anyone else completely incapable of running any Madden offense but the West Coast?

"i dunno maybe it's just cuz all those olde-tymey clips look all scratchy and washed out, it is depressing"

No, what's depressing is someone calling the 80's Niners "olde-tymey". And I'm only 37.

haha cankles is like not even legal to drink dude don't sweat it