[lymnCymment]

http://www.kansascity.com/sports/football/story/211838.html

Former 49ers coach Bill Walsh dies

By RANDY COVITZ

The Kansas City Star


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Taking quarterback Joe Montana (left) in the third round of the 1979 draft may have been Bill Walsh’s best move.



Bill Walsh’s genius wasn’t limited to offense.
Walsh, who died on Monday at age 75 after a battle with leukemia, may have created the West Coast offense and mentored Hall of Fame quarterbacks Joe Montana and Steve Young.
But it was his meticulous detail to all phases of the game that helped him win three Super Bowl titles with the San Francisco 49ers and a spot in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
“Certainly he was renowned for his exploits on offense,” said Lynn Stiles, the Chiefs’ vice president of football operations and former 49ers assistant coach, “but way back when, if you look at his past career, he was a defensive coach, too.
“The combination allowed him to have such a well-rounded knowledge of the game. He understood how to attack coverages, and he really understood game-day adjustments.”
Walsh took over a moribund San Francisco franchise that had gone 2-14 before his arrival in 1978, and through shrewd drafting of players such as Montana in the third round of the 1979 draft and wide receiver Jerry Rice with the 28th overall pick of the 1985 draft — fashioned a 102-63-1 record with the 49ers, winning 10 of his 14 postseason games, including the three Super Bowls.
While Montana and Rice got most of the headlines, Walsh took pride in his ability to recognize and assemble defensive talent such as Ronnie Lott, Fred Dean, Jack “Hacksaw” Reynolds and Charles Haley, whose units dominated the league in the 1980s.
Walsh didn’t neglect special teams either.
Stiles, the special-teams coach in 1988, Walsh’s final season as 49ers head coach, will never forget a sideline encounter with Walsh during San Francisco’s 20-16 win over Cincinnati in Super Bowl XXIII.
Because of an errant snap, the 49ers missed a chip-shot field-goal attempt, and Walsh sauntered over to Stiles.
“He said something, very calm, cool and collected, like ‘Maybe we need to work a little bit more on our snap, our hold and our kick,’ ” Stiles recalled. “That’s an example of how subtle he was and how he could cut to the quick.
“And, yes, he was right. All that practice time we had, and in the Super Bowl we get a bad snap. But that’s how he would handle situations.”
One of Walsh’s later regrets was he walked away from the 49ers after the 1988 season at age 57. The 49ers, under George Seifert, repeated as Super Bowl champion in 1989 and won a fifth title in 1994.
“(Seifert) took Bill’s blueprint completely,” Stiles said. “Same players. Not to take anything away from George, but essentially if Bill could have stayed there another year, we could have won another championship under his direction. But there wasn’t anything more for him to prove because he had already established his legacy.”
That legacy included a lineage of coaches throughout the league. There are 14 current NFL head coaches who either worked for Walsh or are second- or third-generation in the Walsh coaching tree. Six coaches in the Walsh tree have coached Super Bowl winners: Seifert, Mike Holmgren, Mike Shanahan, Tony Dungy, Jon Gruden and Brian Billick. Andy Reid, Dennis Green, Marvin Lewis, Steve Mariucci and Jack Del Rio also are from the Walsh coaching tree.
Among Walsh’s innovations were the laminated game plans coaches carry on sidelines and the practice of scripting the first 15 plays of a game.
“You can go through this league and almost every corner of every team is touched by Bill Walsh,” said Eddie DeBartolo, former 49ers owner. “I’m talking about head coaches to coordinators to sons to cousins. I tried to sit down and do his family tree of football once and I just quit.
“No one, and I mean no one, has put a mark and touched pro football in the way that Bill Walsh has. Calling him an icon isn’t even doing him justice.”
Walsh didn’t become a head coach in the NFL until he was 47 years old. He was a Cincinnati Bengals assistant for seven seasons under legendary coach Paul Brown but was passed over in favor of Bill “Tiger” Johnson when Brown retired in 1975. A bitter Walsh subsequently resigned and spent time as an assistant at San Diego and was head coach at Stanford for two seasons before the 49ers hired him.
Walsh got his comeuppance against Cincinnati. His 49ers went 5-0 against the Bengals, including two Super Bowls.

[PolPitasc]

Bech, you computer unsavy man, you didn't see the other posts involving this?

God bless you cheetos lover.

[shihoodiacarf]

I saw him during the Rams glory year....Young was on the sideline, L. Phylips was on the roster and he was very large and generated a lot of excitement when he left for the players bus. He was about 10 feet away. Waved at the crowd and got on the bus as I had seen 49ers players do three times. WHAT a COACH.

[lagunaEl]

Bech, you computer unsavy man, you didn't see the other posts involving this?

God bless you cheetos lover.

No I didn't....honestly. I thought I was on the cutting edge.

[BGThomasis]

No I didn't....honestly. I thought I was on the cutting edge.

Bech? Cutting edge?

[excholza]

Bech? Cutting edge?

one could wish.