Breaking -Ex 49er Coach Bill Walsh Has Died...

[DemocratSinceBirth]

Sad...

[driver8]

1. Oh man...Tom Snyder, Ingmar Bergman, and now Bill Walsh.

Not a good day.

I didn't realize that Bill Walsh had leukemia.

[lapfog_1]

2. Possibly one of the greatest football coaches in history

and certainly one of the most cerebral.

I was a huge fan of the 49'ers when he was coaching them (of course, having Joe Montana, Jerry Rice, and Steve Young didn't hurt either).

Sad day today... Walsh, Tom Snyder, Ingmar Bergman.

[Blue_Tires]

4. a big innovator

and his coaching 'tree' has also spawned some influential legends...

[Gregorian]

3. OMG. And there's more bad news for me.

I was good friends with his son, Steve.

Now that I've done some research, I just discovered his son died in 2002.

Man, what a kick in the teeth.



This whole day has been shit for me. I'm so sad. Crap!

[Kadie]

5. SFGate: Former 49er head coach Bill Walsh dies

Former 49er head coach Bill Walsh dies
Tom FitzGerald, Chronicle Staff Writer

Monday, July 30, 2007


(07-30) 12:33 PDT -- Bill Walsh, the imaginative and charismatic coach who took over a downtrodden 49ers team and built one of the greatest franchises in NFL history, died Monday morning at his home in Woodside at the age of 75, after a long struggle with leukemia.

A master of using short, precisely timed passes to control the ball in what became known as the West Coast offense, he guided the team to three Super Bowl championships and six NFC West division titles in his 10 years as head coach.

The 49ers had been wrecked by mismanagement and unwise personnel decisions under former general manager Joe Thomas when owner Ed DeBartolo Jr. cleaned house in 1979. Walsh, who had led Stanford to two bowl victories in two seasons as head coach, took a 49ers team that had finished 2-14 in 1978 and built a Super Bowl champion in just three years. It was one of the most remarkable turnarounds in professional sports history.

His teams would win two more Super Bowls (following the 1984 and 1988 seasons) before he turned the team over to George Seifert, who directed the 49ers to two more championships ('89 and '94). Walsh set the foundation for an unprecedented streak in the NFL of 16 consecutive seasons with at least 10 wins.

more...
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/07/30/BAG57LR8OK21.DTL




:cry:

[TahitiNut]

6. A great coach ... one of the greatest in NFL history.

Besides coaching one of the top teams in history, his influence on coaching throughout the NFL (the "Walsh system") was virtually unmatched.