Steve Silverman

Bill Walsh rubbed some people the wrong way. He could be aloof and had a definite opinion of what was right and what was wrong. He was not about to compromise his beliefs just to make someone else feel comfortable.

He was not the kind of man who wanted to make others feel insecure, but he was so confident in his own beliefs that he often had that effect on those who lacked the same kind of confidence.

Walsh was the 49ers’ coach from 1979 through 1988, and in those 10 years he brought home three Super Bowl trophies and compiled a record of 102-63-1. His high standards when it came to integrity and intelligence helped him build some of the top coaching staffs in the game's history. Mike Holmgren, Denny Green and George Seifert are just a few of the coaches he influenced.

Walsh’s West Coast offense dominated the game for another decade once he left the Niners. There are few offenses that have not been touched by his proficiency and refining the offense that he learned at the knee of former Chargers coach Sid Gillman.

When Walsh was hired by the 49ers, the NFL's top coaches were the Steelers' Chuck Noll and the Cowboys' Tom Landry. Both were tough men who wanted tough teams and weren’t afraid to turn training camp into a war of attrition in order to build a unit that would pound the opposition into submission.

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Walsh, often wearing his cardigan sweater and white shoes, looked more like a country club golfer than an NFL coach. His philosophy was diametrically opposed to those NFL standards. Instead of beating his players down in training camp and practice, he wanted to preserve their strength and build them up.

The 49ers were coming off 5-9 and 2-14 seasons prior to hiring Walsh. After going 2-14 and 6-10 in his first two seasons, the 49ers won their first Super Bowl. His ability to teach the passing game and all aspects of it and then get his players to execute the plays expertly made the 49ers the NFL’s model franchise.

Close followers of the team understood Walsh knew the game and wasn’t simply a coach who excelled in the passing game. He found opponents' weak spots. That first Super Bowl came after the 49ers made their breakthrough with a 28-27 win over the Cowboys in the NFC championship game. The often repeated highlight from that game was Joe Montana’s last-minute pass to a jumping Dwight Clark along the back of the end zone. Montana faded farther back with each step and lofted the ball over the outstretched arms of Ed “Too Tall” Jones.

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Montana never thought the play would work. He was just trying ensure that the pass was not intercepted. However, the 49ers had practiced the play so many times that Montana knew he needed to execute even though he thought it wouldn’t work.

The play summed up the 49ers because they exceeded what their own limitations on the way to greatness.