[Deathwatch] Bill Walsh, football coach, 75

[Deathwatch Central <cdw@slick.org>]

NFL coaching legend dies after battle with leukemia
	
Hall of Fame coach Bill Walsh won six division titles and three Super
Bowls during his 10-year career in San Francisco.

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 Woodside home Monday morning following a long battle
with leukemia.

"This is just a tremendous loss for all of us, especially to the Bay
Area because of what he meant to the 49ers," said Hall of Fame
quarterback Joe Montana, the player most closely linked to Walsh's
tenure with the team. "For me personally, outside of my dad he was
probably the most influential person in my life. I am going to miss
him."

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.

"The essence of Bill Walsh was that he was an extraordinary teacher,"
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement. "If you gave him a
blackboard and a piece of chalk, he would become a whirlwind of wisdom.
He taught all of us not only about football but also about life and how
it takes teamwork for any of us to succeed as individuals."

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.

Many thanks to Deathwatch Central for posting this obituary