R.I.P. Bill Walsh

[j555]

Very sad news...

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...G57LR8OK21.DTL

[BowToYourSensei]

holy [censored], just heard this

R.I.P.

[Needle77]

WFAN Just reported this. Football lost a good one today.

RIP

[tuq]

Man this sucks. He was part of my youth - Niners dynasty, Walsh on the sidelines, Madden and Summerall calling all those huge games on CBS - usually some combination of the Niners, Redskins, and Cowboys. Very sad.

[Sluss]

Yeah, tough one. He was doing really poorly the last few months. He really fought it with everything he had.

[JohanCruyff]

saddest death in a long time. I will have the memories forever.

[offTopic]

[img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

I was a fan when he came to Stanford because I think most young kids think handing off is boring and Stanford actually threw the ball.

When he came to the Niners, I thought he was going to snag Guy Benjamin and they were going to lead them to the promised land [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img].

Loved the press conferences early in the week when they were going to play some crap team like Tampa and Walsh would say, "Oh, they're very capable of causing us problems..." and the writers laugh at him.

And who can forget dressing up as a bellhop before SB XVI to keep the team loose?



RIP Bill.

[RickAstleyFan]

Dang, I heard he was sick but...

[Double Eagle]

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. Upon hearing the news of his passing I began thinking about all of the great memories he and his teams provided me. They include:

- Week 6, 1981. The young Niners, with the newly acquired Fred Dean wreaking havoc, steamroll the visiting Cowboys 45-14. When the game doesn't even get a mention on the Monday night football highlight package, Walsh rips Howard Cosell and the "NFL elite" for slighting his upstart team. He was serving notice that his team, the laughingstocks of the league just two years earlier were going to be a force to be reckoned with.

- 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.

- Super Bowl XVI. The sight of Walsh hugging Eddie Debartolo and sobbing openly after the Lombardi trophy was presented was something that will always stay with me. Clearly this was the culmination of a lifetime in football, and a moment that even a few years earlier he had all but given up hope of experiencing.

- Week 2, 1987. The Niners score on the last play of the game vs the Bengals after an unbelievable coaching gaffe by Sam Wyche. A giddy Walsh literally skipped off the field sporting a smile as big as the Cheshire cat.

- NFC Championship game, 1988. The Bears had defense had manhandled the Niners in a Monday night game earlier in the year, so Niner fans were not optimistic when they heard that the wind chill temperatures for the game would be somewhere around -30F or so. Walsh's game plan on offense was perfect and the defense made Jim McMahon look horrible as the "finesee" team destroyed Chicago in an easy 28-3 win. After 3 years of playoff disappointments, this was probably the most surprising (and satisfying) win of the Eighties for the Niner faithful.

- Super Bowl XXIII - Looking at and listening to Walsh after the game, which featured yet another last minute comeback drive, I could tell that this was probably his last game as coach and was filled with a sense of dread and sadness. As one who remembered how hopeless our team was prior to his arrival, it wasn't clear if the team's success would continue without him. Luckily his system (both on and off the field) survived him, and the Niners would add two more championships and a decade of continued success as a direct result of his ten years in scarlet and gold.

I am sad today to think that he is gone, but happy to remember a man who brought me so much joy.

[moayer]

bill walsh revolutionized the game of football