[CBFF] NBR - Bill Walsh dead at 75

[Kenny Claxton]

He coached circles around alot of coaches. RIP.

On 7/30/07, Jerry Madsen <jerrywm at gmail.com> wrote:
> Walsh dead at 75
> NFL coaching legend dies after battle with leukemia
> Posted: Monday July 30, 2007 3:19PM; Updated: Monday July 30, 2007 4:00PM
>
> Hall of Fame coach Bill Walsh won six division titles and three Super
> Bowls during his 10-year career in San Francisco.
>
> John Burgess/SI
>
> SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Bill Walsh, the groundbreaking football coach
> who won three Super Bowls and perfected the ingenious schemes that
> became known as the West Coast offense during a Hall of Fame career
> with the San Francisco 49ers, has died. He was 75.
>
> Walsh died at his Bay Area home early Monday following a long battle
> with leukemia, according to Stanford University, where he served as
> coach and athletic director.
>
> Walsh didn't become an NFL head coach until 47, and he spent just 10
> seasons on the San Francisco sideline. But he left an indelible mark
> on the United States' most popular sport, building the once-woebegone
> 49ers into the most successful team of the 1980s with his innovative
> offensive strategies and teaching techniques.
>
> The soft-spoken native Californian also produced a legion of coaching
> disciples that's still growing today. Many of his former assistants
> went on to lead their own teams, handing down Walsh's methods and
> schemes to dozens more coaches in a tree with innumerable branches.
>
> Walsh went 102-63-1 with the 49ers, winning 10 of his 14 postseason
> games along with six division titles. He was named the NFL's coach of
> the year in 1981 and 1984.
>
> Few men did more to shape the look of football into the 21st century.
> His cerebral nature and often-brilliant stratagems earned him the
> nickname "The Genius" well before his election to the Pro Football
> Hall of Fame in 1993.
>
> Walsh twice served as the 49ers' general manager, and George Seifert
> led San Francisco to two more Super Bowl titles after Walsh left the
> sideline. Walsh also coached Stanford during two terms over five
> seasons.
>
> Even a short list of Walsh's adherents is stunning. Seifert, Mike
> Holmgren, Dennis Green, Sam Wyche, Ray Rhodes and Bruce Coslet all
> became NFL head coaches after serving on Walsh's San Francisco staffs,
> and Tony Dungy played for him. Most of his former assistants passed on
> Walsh's structures and strategies to a new generation of coaches,
> including Mike Shanahan, Jon Gruden, Brian Billick, Andy Reid, Pete
> Carroll, Gary Kubiak, Steve Mariucci and Jeff Fisher.
>
> Walsh created the Minority Coaching Fellowship program in 1987,
> helping minority coaches to get a foothold in a previously lily-white
> profession. Marvin Lewis and Tyrone Willingham are among the coaches
> who went through the program, later adopted as a league-wide
> initiative.
>
> He also helped to establish the World League of American Football --
> what was NFL Europe -- in 1994, taking the sport around the globe as a
> development ground for the NFL.
>
> Walsh was diagnosed with leukemia in 2004 and underwent months of
> treatment and blood transfusions. He publicly disclosed his illness in
> November 2006, but appeared at a tribute for retired receiver Jerry
> Rice two weeks later.
>
> While Walsh recuperated from a round of chemotherapy in late 2006, he
> received visits from former players and assistant coaches, as well as
> California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sen. Dianne Feinstein.
>
> Born William Ernest Walsh on Nov. 30, 1931 in Los Angeles, he was a
> self-described "average" end and a sometime boxer at San Jose State in
> 1952-53.
>
> Walsh, whose family moved to the Bay Area when he was a teenager,
> married his college sweetheart, Geri Nardini, in 1954 and started his
> coaching career at Washington High School in Fremont, leading the
> football and swim teams.
>
> Copyright 2007 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material
> may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
>
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