If you were a pro football fan in the 1980’s then there’s now way you couldn’t have respected what Bill Walsh did in San Francisco. He took a franchise that had been near the bottom of the barrel, and led them to three world championships. And, today, he died at the age of 75:
Bill Walsh, the professorial coach who led the San Francisco 49ers to three Super Bowl titles in the 1980s and molded the playing style of pro football as it neared the turn of the century, died yesterday at his Bay Area home after a three-year battle with leukemia.
Walsh, a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, was 75.
“In the recent or modern history of the NFL,” said Baltimore Ravens Coach Brian Billick, “no coach has been more influential and innovative than Bill Walsh.”
Walsh coached the 49ers for only 10 seasons but that was enough for him to become known as “The Genius” for his offensive wizardry. Football as it was played by Walsh’s 49ers was more poetry than brute force. His skillfully choreographed system of short, quick-hitting passes became known as the West Coast offense and was widely copied by other NFL coaches in the decades that followed
More importantly, though, he won games. And that, in the end, is what matters.
