Bill Walsh rules, always did, always will
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Bill Walsh passes away at the age of 75
Bill Walsh is dead and yet his legend continues to grow. Long live the king of the West Coast Offense.
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. source
When did Bill invent the West Coast Offense? Speaking to Pat Kirwan of NFL.com..
Walsh then explained to me how he was coaching in a Northern California farming town with a large population of Portuguese kids all about the same height and weight. He realized his players had to be quick and perfectly coached in order to have a chance against the bigger teams he faced.
He invented a goal-line offense in which he could simply have the quarterback yell “shift” and the linemen would become backs, the backs would become linemen, the wide receivers moved to tight end and the tight end would move to wide receiver. The opposing team would have to call a timeout or they would end up missing someone in the shift.
The most amazing thing about the discussion that night was when Bill took a napkin and not only diagramed the series of plays he developed, but he also wrote in the names of every player on the field. It had to be 50 years since he was at that high school and without blinking an eye he recalled every player. I was in awe! source
Ahh, vintage Bill Walsh.
Friendly Bill was always ready to share what he had learned. Speaking to Clark Judge of CBS Sportsline.com
The only time in my weeks of discussions that spring when we created our 6½-hour video series that I saw him get frustrated or disappointed was when we talked about the late stages of his 49ers days. His coaching days were over and all he wanted was for the young coaches to come by and ask for his knowledge. He was so inquisitive himself as a young coach that I always got the feeling he couldn’t understand why any aspiring coach wouldn’t stop by his office and keep asking questions.
Bill just seemed to know how to handle people at all times.
Yes, he was great for the game, but not because he developed the West Coast offense or saw something in Steve Young that others did not. It was because he understood its people and how to position them for results. source
Just read these great stories on Bill by Clark Judge of CBSSportsline.com.
First one about an ailing assistant coach.
He was the guy who later that season suggested the 49ers have a halftime ceremony honoring offensive line coach Bobb McKittrick when McKittrick was fighting liver cancer.
I didn’t understand the move, thinking it was premature and insensitive to McKittrick, in the middle of a battle I wasn’t sure he would lose. But Walsh was all about timing, and he thought the time was perfect to honor one of the team’s most respected and cherished assistants.
And so the 49ers did, with McKittrick leaving the locker room to appear on the field with his wife and a group of U.S. Marines. I remember thinking how poised McKittrick was and how ramrod straight he stood. I knew he was in pain. Everyone did. But he seemed grateful for the occasion and thanked everyone.
He never made it to the next season.
Afterward, I told Walsh that what he did for Bobb McKittrick that afternoon was give him one of the last great days of his life, and that I would hope that somewhere, someone would do the same for me if I were dying. source
Now a story about rebuilding the 49ers.
And that’s when it dawned on me that Walsh always, always was ahead of the curve. He had asked to see me that afternoon in 1999 because he needed an ally to help him with a painful rebuilding program that would purge the club of beloved veterans and rattle its fans.
It would also put the 49ers back on the map, but that didn’t matter at the time. Walsh needed someone to explain what he was doing and why he was doing; more, he needed someone to explain why it was good for the San Francisco 49ers.
Walsh would go on to rebuild the club a second time, stocking it with so many starters from the 2000 draft that San Francisco would make the playoffs in 2001 and 2002. It was incomprehensible to me that a team that had grown as old as it had by 1999 could rebound that quickly.
You had to be truly impressed with Bill Walsh.
“I always said that he was an artist and all the rest of us were blacksmiths pounding the anvil while he was painting the picture,” said Seattle Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren, who was Walsh’s offensive coordinator with the 49ers. “There is always more than one way to win games but that was how he chose to do it.”
Whatever you thought you knew about football quickly vanished once Professor Walsh began his lecture. His unique perspective and vision reshaped and redefined the game. source
Yeah, Bill Walsh rules, always did, always will.
There will never be another one like him, that is for sure.
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