R.I.P. Bill Walsh

[Bill Murphy]

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It's possible only those of us old enough to have been Niner fans prior to his arrival in San Francisco can appreciate how incredible he was.


- NFC Championship game 1981 - Of course there was The Catch, but the play that goes overlooked is the tackle that Eric Wright made on Drew Pearson as the Cowboys tried to come back in the waning seconds of the game. If Wright doesn't grab Pearson by the back of the jersey and pull him down, maybe the history of football in the Eighties is quite different.



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Absolutely goddamn right. The Wright tackle might be the most overlooked play in the history of team sports. I've almost never seen, read or heard it mentioned; it often doesn't even make rebroadcasts of the game.

The first Niners game I remember is the '72 Divisional where Staubach got two TD's in the last 2:02 to beat 'em 30-28. And of course they'd lost the previous two NFC Championship games to Dallas, as well.

Then they were [censored], winning only four games in the two seasons before he was hired, then two his first year, then 6-10.

Then Walsh takes a 3rd round QB, three rookie DB's, a discarded Hacksaw Reynolds & disgruntled Fred Dean, and a bunch of no names and wins the [censored] Superbowlament! Never forget that goal line stand (Dan Bunz FTW) or Ray Wersching's 'pooch' kickoffs.

Amazing coach, organization planner, game manager & personnel evaluator & developer. Maybe the best combined overall at these things of any coach in any sport. Enormous influence on & off the field; no point in repeating what's being written everywhere, though he deserves extra credit for starting the Minority Coaching Fellowship.

The Colts brought him in to look at Manning & Leaf in '98. After a little while he said "Manning, and it's not close".

I knew this was coming soon, but reading all the anecdotes (and be sure ya'll read "The Blind Side" who haven't yet), and thinking about all those great slugfests in the '80s against the Bears, Giants & Redskins plus the Supes, brought a lump up, no question. RIP.

[TheNoodleMan]

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The Colts brought him in to look at Manning & Leaf in '98. After a little while he said "Manning, and it's not close".


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Documentation of this?

[andyfox]

Great, great coach, seems like he was also universally well-liked. I remember the year of the NFL strike/lock-out whatever it was, and he ran a wishbone against Parcells. Parcells gave him a "WTF?" look and Walsh smiled and shrugged. That plus the bellhop outfit plus the minority coaching deal he put together showed me that, despite the fact that he was called "genius" he was a good guy who knew his place in life. RIP indeed.

[BJLTNYK]

At first I was only mildy affected by this not aware of how big an impact he had. Today at work(I'm interning at ABC Sports this summer) I watched just about every coach in the NFL and various players talking about what an amazing loss this was for the football community and how big an impact he had on the game. The way that he handled himself, players, created imaginative offensive and defensive schemes, created the idea of the redzone...it was all just really moving to listen to.

RIP Bill..you will be missed

[RedBean]

[ QUOTE ]
The Colts brought him in to look at Manning & Leaf in '98. After a little while he said "Manning, and it's not close".


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Actually, prior to the draft, he suggested the Colts take a defensive player, and draft Griese in the second round.

[RacersEdge]

Interesting how he got the WC offense started in Cincy originally with a QB named Virgil Carter who couldn't really throw deep - and that he favored his ex_QB at Stanford over Montana in 1979.

[bigbabyjesus]

Thanks for the championships Bill Walsh, R.I.P.

[Double Eagle]

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Interesting how he got the WC offense started in Cincy originally with a QB named Virgil Carter who couldn't really throw deep - and that he favored his ex_QB at Stanford over Montana in 1979.

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Steve DeBerg was the starting QB in 1979, and he played at San Jose State, not Stanford. DeBerg had a very good grasp of Walsh's offense, but had a below average arm and tended to throw the big interception late in games. Kind of a weird situation occured in the third week of the 1980 season, when DeBerg developed laryngitis and wasn't able to properly make the snap count at the line. The Niners got permission from the league to mount a loudspeaker to the back of DeBerg's shoulderpads. At one point during the game the Niner's had the ball deep in Jets territory and DeBerg came running off the field with his helmet in his hands gesturing that the speaker system wasn't working. In came the much more mobile Montana who promptly ran a naked bootleg 20 yards for the score. After the game Walsh admitted that the speaker failure was faked and that exact scenario had been planned for in advance, kind of Walsh's way of letting Montana experience success without putting any pressure on him.

Montana took over the starting job for good midway through the 1980 season and DeBerg was traded to the Broncos that offseason (where he became the guy that John Elway replaced.) Guy Benjamin, who did QB for Walsh at Stanford, was Montana's backup during the Superbowl season in 1981.

[legend42]

I'm sure this will be mentioned in the subsequent stories, and probably already has been, but if you were to make a family tree of all Walsh's protege's and assistants, it would encompass a huge percentage of the current NFL coaching staffs.

[dontmesswithme]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm sure this will be mentioned in the subsequent stories, and probably already has been, but if you were to make a family tree of all Walsh's protege's and assistants, it would encompass a huge percentage of the current NFL coaching staffs.

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Credit Wikipedia: