Coach built SF dynasty

Hall of Fame coach Bill Walsh, the architect of the 49ers' Super Bowl era, died Monday after a three-year battle with leukemia. He was 75.

Walsh died at his home in Woodside at 10:45 a.m. with his family at his side, a family spokesman said. In recent days, John Madden, Al Davis, Ronnie Lott and Joe Montana were among the friends with whom he visited.

Walsh, one of the Bay Area's most beloved figures, transformed the 49ers during his 10 seasons as head coach. Under his guidance, the franchise turned from laughingstock of the NFL into one of the nation's premier sports franchises.

"This is a tremendous loss for all of us, especially to the Bay Area, because of what he meant to the 49ers," Montana said. "For me personally, outside of my dad, he was probably the most influential person in my life. I am going to miss him."

Walsh's shrewd personnel and coaching decisions, coupled with his professorial appearance, earned him the nickname "The Genius."

Walsh's influence is still felt in the NFL, through his many coaching proteges and his timeless offensive system, predicated on a ball-control passing game. Walsh was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1993 after compiling a 102-63-1 career record, including 10 victories in 14 playoff games. He won three Super Bowl titles as 49ers coach.

"His legacy is not the three Super Bowls, it's not the architect of the West Coast offense or the architect of modern-day football," former 49ers owner Eddie DeBartolo said. "It was what he wanted to do with his life and his profession, which he did without trying. It just came natural."

Walsh was diagnosed with leukemia in 2004, but he kept his condition private for two years. On Nov. 10, he went public with his illness in an interview with The Press Democrat's Lowell Cohn and Bay Area sportswriter Ira Miller, two of his longtime friends.

Walsh had been in and out of the hospital for several months. He received visits from DeBartolo, as well as many of his former players, after the seriousness of his illness became known.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger visited Walsh at his home, and Sen. Dianne Feinstein spoke with him on the phone. Florida basketball coach Billy Donovan, upon being presented with the national championship trophy in April, made special mention of Walsh and his fight with cancer during a TV interview.

Walsh's last public appearance was Nov. 19 when he took part in a halftime ceremony in front of 68,367 fans in San Francisco to celebrate Jerry Rice's retirement. Rice told the crowd that he loved Walsh "with all my heart" because of the way he stuck with him through difficult times early in his career.

Walsh inherited a team in 1979 that was in a complete shambles. The 49ers had five coaches the previous four seasons when DeBartolo hired Walsh following a 15-minute interview. The 49ers went 2-14 in Walsh's first season, followed by a 6-10 campaign.

Everything clicked for the team in 1981, as Walsh's offensive innovations and his eye for talent in the draft led the 49ers to the franchise's first Super Bowl.

The 49ers won Super Bowl XVI over the Cincinnati Bengals, 26-21, at the Silverdome in Pontiac, Mich., on Jan. 24, 1982. Walsh became the first head coach of a winning Super Bowl team to wear a headset during the game.

His West Coast offense was quickly copied throughout the league. Even today, nearly half the teams in the NFL run some derivative of Walsh's scheme.

Under Walsh's leadership, the 49ers selected Montana and receiver Dwight Clark in the third and 10th rounds of the 1979 draft. The landmark 1981 draft supplied the 49ers with three starters in the defensive backfield: Lott, Eric Wright and Carlton Williamson.

Walsh's best draft -- and widely considered the best draft in the history of the NFL -- came in 1986. He made six draft-day trades, which left him with no first-round pick but nine selections in the first six rounds. Among the players he selected were receiver John Taylor, defensive linemen Charles Haley, Kevin Fagan and Larry Roberts, tackle Steve Wallace, fullback Tom Rathman and cornerbacks Don Griffin and Tim McKyer.

He also had a knack for making impact trades. His deal for defensive end Fred Dean in 1981 was the finishing touch on a Super Bowl title team. And he pulled a blockbuster trade in 1987, acquiring quarterback Steve Young from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for two draft picks.

"Bill was blessed with one of the greatest gifts you can have, which is the ability to see the future potential of another human being," Young said. "He saw in me much more than I ever saw in myself, well before I had a chance to understand it."

During his 10 seasons with the 49ers from '79 to '88, Walsh laid the groundwork for the success the organization would experience through the 1990s. He made every significant personnel decision during his time as head coach. He served as team president from '83 to '87. (DeBartolo removed Walsh as team president after the 49ers' loss to the Minnesota Vikings in the first round of the 1987 playoffs.)

Walsh was also not afraid to take chances on players who were not from premier college programs. He traded up in the first round of the 1985 draft to select Rice, who played at Mississippi Valley State.

"Bill was in a hotel room the night before a game when he saw highlights of me on television," Rice said. "Bill connected with me on some level just by watching me on TV. He had a vision about taking a chance on a guy from a small school."

Walsh was an intense coach who demanded a lot from his players -- especially his superstars. He regularly butted heads with Montana, Lott and Rice, among others. He also feuded with Clark from time to time after the latter became an NFL executive.

But the professional differences were put aside in recent years, and Walsh considered those men among his closest friends.

"He always had a connection with his players," Rice said. "He knew exactly how to use everybody, like John Taylor and Joe Montana and Ronnie Lott. I remember one time, I had over 200 yards and three touchdowns, and he called me into his office. I thought he was going to give me a pat on the back. But he told me, 'I need more out of you.' I found out he called Lott and Montana and those guys into his office and told them the same things. He was an excellent motivator."

Former running back Roger Craig also speaks of Walsh's skills as a motivator. After the 1984 season, Walsh approached Craig and said, the team "needs 1,000 yards out of you next season." Craig said he didn't know if Walsh meant rushing or receiving, so he did both. In 1985, Craig became the first player in league history to gain 1,000 yards rushing and receiving in the same season.

"When we were down, he would find a way to bring us up," Craig said. "And when we were too high on the hog, he knew how to bring us down. He was a mastermind at dealing with people."

Walsh logged more than 100 bouts as an amateur boxer. His affinity for the sport was apparent in many of his meetings, during which he used examples from boxing to get his points across to the team.

"He would tell us that sometimes the opponent will land a punch here and there and it might make us a little wobbly, but any true champion will keep fighting," Craig said.

Although his teams were often thought to play "finesse football," they were also incredibly tough-minded. In one of the 49ers' more memorable playoff games, they blasted the Chicago Bears 28-3 in brutal 26-below-zero conditions in the 1988 NFC Championship game.

From 1981 to Walsh's final season as coach in 1988, the 49ers established an identity of being particularly tough-minded on the road. During that time, the 49ers had a .762 win percentage on the road, as opposed to a .661 percentage at home.

"We spoke of it, addressed it, we discussed it week after week after week, even before the season started," Walsh told The Press Democrat in 2003. "It was 50 of us against 50,000 of them. I used axioms and experiences I read about in warfare, where troops were backed up and they had nowhere to go. We went in with a vengeance. All we had was each other."

Walsh, tough and ruthless when it came to piecing together his football team and making personnel decision, had a deft touch when it came to managing the psyche of his team.

When the 49ers qualified for their first Super Bowl, Walsh arrived at the 49ers' team hotel before his team. He borrowed a porter's uniform and served as bellman, inconspicuously helping players with their luggage when they got off the bus for their weeklong stay in the Detroit suburb.

"They couldn't believe I was dressed as a bellman," Walsh said later. "Even when I took my hat off, they didn't believe me."

The 49ers won that Super Bowl, just two weeks after the landmark victory over the Dallas Cowboys in the NFC Championship when Clark and Montana hooked up for "The Catch." Walsh's coaching genius was on display during the 49ers' 13-play, 89-yard drive that produced the 28-27 victory over the Cowboys. While everyone figured the 49ers would pass the ball, Walsh decided to maintain a balanced offensive attack. The 49ers ran the ball five times on the drive for 45 yards.

The 49ers were faced with a third-and-3 from the 6-yard line when Walsh called "sprint right option." Although Walsh had Montana practice throwing a pass at the back of the end zone to Clark during training camp that season, it had never worked out that way during a game.

Montana was always able to get the ball to the first option, receiver Freddie Solomon, at the front right corner of the end zone. But when Solomon slipped, Walsh's coaching paid off. Montana lobbed the ball to the back of the end zone, where only the 6-foot-5 Clark could make the catch. That play is seen as the defining moment of the 49ers' franchise.

Under Walsh the 49ers also won Super Bowls over the Miami Dolphins (XIX) and Cincinnati, again (XXIII).

He retired from NFL coaching after his final Super Bowl victory, highlighted by Montana's 10-yard scoring pass to Taylor in the closing seconds on Jan. 22, 1989, against, fittingly enough, the Bengals.

Walsh would often say he resigned too soon. He reiterated his regret to Sports Illustrated's Michael Silver in March.

"I should have continued to coach," Walsh said. "If I could've taken a month off, or something, to get away . . . but I had all the other jobs. I couldn't leave. The draft was coming, and I was the general manager. So I didn't see any place to go. I should've turned it over to other guys and taken off. It would've been all right. Of course it would have. But I didn't do it."

Walsh endorsed his defensive coordinator, George Seifert, to be his successor. The 49ers won the Super Bowl in Seifert's first season. Seifert won another NFL championship after the 1994 season with Young at quarterback and Rice as the star receiver.

Walsh began his pro coaching career with the Raiders in 1966. He moved to the expansion Bengals in 1968, serving under legendary coach Paul Brown for seven seasons as an offensive coach.

After Brown stepped down following the '75 season, Walsh was devastated to learn Brown had hand-picked Bill "Tiger" Johnson to be the Bengals' next head coach. Johnson lasted fewer than three full seasons, stepping down five games into the '78 season with a 18-15 record.

The episode was a turning point in Walsh's career. In a 1999 interview with the Cincinnati Enquirer, Walsh said it worked to his advantage to be passed over for the head-coaching job.

"Who's to say what happened to Tiger wouldn't have happened to me?" Walsh said. "I don't think I was at the maturity level, yet."

Walsh spent one season as a San Diego Chargers assistant before earning his first college head-coaching job at Stanford in 1977. The Cardinal compiled a 17-7 record and captured two victories in bowl games before DeBartolo hired him to run the 49ers after an interview that lasted 15 minutes.

After his historic run with the 49ers, Walsh returned to coach Stanford in 1992. He promptly led the Cardinal to a 10-3 record, including a New Year's Day victory over Penn State in the Blockbuster Bowl. But he stepped down after three seasons with a 17-17 record.

"I love the game of football," Walsh said upon announcing his resignation in November 1994. "It's been my entire life. I've thrived on it and thoroughly enjoyed it. But the job of head coach is an exhausting job. It's for, at this stage of my life, another person to do. I think it's quite natural to retire."

Although he never returned to the sideline, he again served an important function with the 49ers.

Walsh was named 49ers vice president/general manager in January 1999, and was entrusted with the demands of handling the organization's messy salary-cap problem after the departures of team president Carmen Policy and Clark, the director of football operations.

Under Walsh's direction, the 49ers made the quarterback transition from Young to Jeff Garcia. After two poor seasons, the 49ers were back in the playoffs as NFC West champions in 2001 with a 12-4 record.

Walsh became enamored of Garcia while watching him play for San Jose State against his Stanford team. Walsh said he made calls around the league, but no NFL team wanted Garcia.

Garcia played five seasons in the Canadian Football League. Walsh took advantage of his position of power to sign Garcia to a 49ers contract. Garcia ended up being named to the NFC Pro Bowl team three times with the 49ers.

Walsh stepped down from his position with the 49ers in May 2001, allowing Terry Donahue to take over as general manager. Walsh then served several seasons as a paid consultant to the 49ers.

Throughout his career, he was known as an innovator. Even in the semi-retired life, he viewed football with a critical eye. He was watching the 49ers practice one day when he saw something familiar. He told a person with whom he was standing, "See that drill? I invented that 20 years ago." When Walsh was told it was a good thing his drill is still being practiced, Walsh shook his head in disgust.

"Not at all," he said. "The game has changed a lot in 20 years. That drill should've changed, too."

There was speculation in January 2003 that Walsh would become head coach of the 49ers after new owner John York fired Steve Mariucci. Walsh dealt with those rumors with a keen sense of humor. He quipped that he planned to wait a couple years until Candlestick was equipped with better wheelchair access to the playing field before taking on that task.

But Walsh certainly did not slow down much. He was hired as special assistant to the athletic director at Stanford in 2004. A year later, he was named interim athletic director after Ted Leland stepped down to take a job at the University of the Pacific.

Walsh was instrumental in establishing the World League of American Football, later known as NFL Europa, in 1994. He served the league as a consultant and representative.

One of Walsh's more important contributions to the sport was his creation of the Minority Coaching Fellowship, a program that produced Bengals coach Marvin Lewis and college coach Tyrone Willingham, among others.

"What really made Bill special is that he understood that the game was bigger than him," Lott said. "His genius was not centered around X's and O's. It was centered around his ability to create a platform that made the game inclusive to others."

Walsh's coaching tree is an impressive list. Seifert, Mike Holmgren, Sam Wyche, Ray Rhodes, Dennis Green and Brian Billick all served roles under Walsh with the 49ers.

"I owe Bill Walsh a great deal," Holmgren said. "Over the years we kept in contact and if I have a question I might ring him up and listen to what he had to say, and he'd straighten me out."

Current head coaches Mike Shanahan, Gary Kubiak, Jon Gruden and Jeff Fisher were also greatly influenced by his teachings. Shanahan never coached for Walsh, but he watched a lot of film of Walsh installing his offense while Shanahan was a 49ers assistant under Seifert.

Shanahan said he got to know Walsh during that time.

"His career speaks for itself," Shanahan said. "Not only the three Super Bowls, but the innovations that he brought to the game, the West Coast offense and all the intricacies that go along with it."

Holmgren interviewed with Walsh for the job of 49ers quarterbacks coach in 1986. What he remembers most about his first meeting with Walsh is that he spoke very little about X's and O's.

"We talked a little football, but a lot about family and things other than football," Holmgren said.

Walsh hired Holmgren, who would eventually become offensive coordinator in 1989 under George Seifert. Holmgren has since become one of the league's most successful head coaches, leading the Green Bay Packers and Seattle Seahawks to the Super Bowl.

"The couple of days I was there (interviewing) I probably talked to everybody on the staff that was there. Then I really didn't hear from them for a couple of weeks. Then, all of a sudden, he phoned. And it really changed my coaching life."

Walsh, one of the most influential figures in professional football history, had that affect on a lot of people during his life.

When he knew he wasn't going to live much longer, Walsh made arrangements, along with his two living children, for the care of his wife, Geri, who suffered a stroke seven years ago. She has been largely debilitated since.

Their two surviving children are Craig and Elizabeth. Their oldest son, Steve, died at 46 in 2002.

You can reach Staff Writer Matt Maiocco at 521-5492 or matt.maiocco@pressdemocrat.com