By By SCOTT NOVAK / Niles Daily Star
He will be forever known as the coach who won three Super Bowls with the San Francisco 49ers and the engineer of the "West Coast offense."
On Monday, Hall of Fame coach Bill Walsh, 75, died at his Bay Area home following a lengthy battle with leukemia.
Walsh was 47 years old when he became the head coach of the 49ers, a position he held for just 10 years.
But in those 10 years, he amassed a record of 102-63-1. He won six division titles, and the 49ers won 10 out of 14 playoff games.
He was named the Coach of the Year in the NFL twice (1981 and 1984).
As general manager of the 49ers, San Francisco won two more Super Bowls with former assistant coach George Seifert on the sidelines.
Walsh, nicknamed "The Genius," was diagnosed with leukemia in 2004, but did not make it public until November of 2006. He underwent months of treatment and blood transfusions.
According to a pair of area football coaches, Walsh will also be known for the "coaching tree" he leaves behind.
Among those assistants who have gone on to become NFL head coaches are Seifert, Dennis Green, Mike Holmgren, Sam Wyche, Ray Rhodes and Bruce Coslet.
Tony Dungy, the head coach of the defending Super Bowl champion Indianapolis Colts played under Walsh.
Others with ties to Walsh in the coaching ranks include former Detroit Lions coach Steve Mariucci, Andy Reid, Mike Shanahan, Brian Billick, Jon Gruden and current USC head coach Pete Carroll.
"He definitely changed the whole game around to passing," Brandywine coach Terry Borr said. "I am a Lions fan, so I remember when Eddie Murray missed a kick back in 1984 when they played San Francisco in the playoffs.
"I think he will be remembered for the coaching tree that he created. He will be remembered for his creativity and the way he analyzed the game," Borr added.
Dowagiac coach Mike Stanger agreed with Borr on both points, adding that he was a thinking man's coach.
"Even for the regular people, he made football more than just about guys beating up on each other," Stanger said. "He brought the game to a different level. You look at the list of people who worked under him and I think that says a lot about him."
Stanger went on to say that he will always be remembers for winning those Super Bowls and for "revolutionizing" the game of football. He also noted that he was one of those coaches, like a Dungy, who was able to get the most out of his teams without screaming and yelling all the time on the sidelines.
"He had a great way of looking at the game," he said, "that even non-football fans could appreciate."
Walsh meant more to football than just a guy on the sidelines that won a bunch of games.
In 1987 he initiated the Minority Coaching Fellowship program, which helped coaches like Tyrone Willingham and Marvin Lewis get a chance to coach. The NFL would later adopt his program league wide.
He also had a hand in establishing the recently defunct World League of American Football, which was later known as NFL Europe.
Walsh gets credit with creating many of the things that coaches use today, like scripting plays or having a laminated sheet of plays that coaches use on the sidelines.
"A lot of the things he did are still being used," said Mark Staten, tight ends coach at Michigan State University. "We still use a lot of his terminology. I would say without a doubt that Bill Walsh has affected every offensive coordinator.
"There is a little bit of "West Coast offense" in everybody's offense," he continued. "Everybody does that now (scripting plays). What I love about football is the mental aspect of the game. He made it a chess game. That's why we spend hours watching film trying to find those little niches that will help us win games."
Walsh left the 49ers in 1989 following his third Super Bowl triumph. He said at the time he was burned out. He eventually would admit to regretting his decision not to coach longer.
Still, he worked for three years at NBC as a broadcaster and then returned to coaching at Stanford. He left coaching again to move into the 49ers front office, where he stayed until 2001.
Wife Geri and two children, daughter Elizabeth and son Craig survive Walsh.
Son Steve died of leukemia in 2002 at the age of 46.