Sports Byline USA Insight
The passing of Bill Walsh means different things to different people. To the players who played for him, it will be a time of reflection and realization of how fortunate they were to play for such an innovative, pioneering coach. To all the assistant coaches he mentored, there will be appreciation for being able to watch and learn from Walsh’s creative play calling and unique game planning. And, for me, it will be an appreciation of thirty years of talks, laughs, debates and friendship.
Walsh was a complex person, but he also was consistent in his complexity. In my personal, as well as professional life, I’ve always tried to understand a person not just for what they do, but more so for why they do it. Therefore, my appreciation and understanding of Walsh has been one of the most enjoyable aspects of my life and career. He was like a Rubik’s Cube: always changing, always challenging you, and always hiding his true emotions from view. He was the most mentally oriented person I’ve known.
In trying to understand “why” Walsh was all these things, the answer is simple and typical of “why” we’re all the way we are and “why” we do the things we do. It’s because of our past, our upbringing and the experiences we’ve had along life’s path. I know very little about Bill’s childhood or his early days. I picked up the Walsh life story in 1977, when at the age of 45, he became the head coach at Stanford. In 1977, I came to San Francisco as a television sportscaster and also became the host and play-by-play voice of the weekly Stanford television football show. I later became the radio play-by-play voice of the Cardinal. Bill and I were thrust together, and thus started a friendship that was based not on the number of times over the years we spent together, but the quality of those times. Walsh’s two years at Stanford and his early years as the coach of the San Francisco 49ers gave me an understanding of him that led to an enrichment of my life and the witnessing of sports history never to be duplicated in style and success again.
From thirty years of friendship, let me share some insights. His “football genius” came from his analytical and inquisitive mind, his failure to achieve on field success as a player, his exposure to other “football geniuses” such as Al Davis, Sid Gilman and Paul Brown, his passion for football, his drive for success, and his fear of failure. I’ve always felt that it was Walsh’s fear of failure, more than anything else, which drove him to his ultimate successes. The fact that out of jealousy Paul Brown didn’t pick him as his successor when Brown retired from the Cincinnati Bengals, and that he didn’t get the head coaching job with the San Diego Chargers after coach Tommy Prothro left, especially after developing Dan Fouts into a Hall of Fame quarterback, left a deep seething and fear of failure in Walsh that drove him fanatically to succeed.
Walsh confided in me that getting the Stanford head-coaching job saved his coaching career, and his sanity. It was the launching point for all his successes and the greatness to follow. For Walsh, Stanford was a laboratory to test ideas, motivational and organizational skills, and creative play calling and game plans in a football atmosphere pretty much devoid of the politics he had endured in the NFL as an assistant coach. Also at Stanford, he was able to prove to himself that you can take academically oriented football players and win against more talented, powerful teams. I came to appreciate early what I think is Walsh’s greatest coaching skill: he always dictated the tempo of the game; he was proactive, not reactive to the opponent. His formula was simple, whether at Stanford or in the NFL. Players playing in unison, plus a creative game plan that dictated the tempo of the game to the opponent, minus any major mistakes, equaled victory and success.
Stanford also offered Walsh something equally as important as a head coaching opportunity. It offered him an atmosphere that cultivated his over riding desire to be a teacher as well as a football coach. Stanford’s academic stimulation in business, politics, science, and medicine, along with access to the great minds on the campus in those fields, gave him not only the perfect football-academic environment he relished, but also allowed him to grow and prepare for his next challenge, the NFL.
Walsh’s path and entry back into the National Football League as head coach of the San Francisco 49ers is poignant and fascinating. It’s a story for a later time and after a good bottle of wine, which Walsh could always enjoy. I can say, the marriage of Ed DeBartolo Jr. and Bill Walsh was kismet. Walsh may or may not have gotten a head coaching chance from another owner in the NFL, but I can say with assurance that DeBartolo would not have won five Super Bowls had it not been for Walsh. In fairness, Walsh wouldn’t have been able to build the 49er dynasty had it not been for DeBartolo’s willingness to spend whatever it took to get good players, his matching commitment with Walsh in creating the best organization in football, and DeBartolo’s desire to make his team also his family. DeBartolo and Walsh may have been complete opposites in many respects, but they were equal in their commitment to winning with class. Their professional marriage was fortuitous for both of them.
Much can be said of Walsh’s ten years as coach of the 49ers, his success in winning three Super Bowls and being the architect of the two Super Bowl winning teams coached by George Seifert. Time and space doesn't allow me to share all insights and stories. Suffice it to say, the conversations and moments shared with Bill over thirty years leaves me smiling and thankful that we came into each other’s life. I won’t miss him because like his players, coaches and all he touched, he left me with too many wonderful thoughts and life lessons that there’s no room for sadness and loss. Like Bill dictating the tempo of the game, I prefer to think and to remember the conversations, laughs and lessons learned than to think of the loss. That’s what thirty years of friendship with Bill Walsh taught me.
I’m Ron Barr.
Ron Barr is an Emmy award winning writer and the host of the nationally and internationally syndicated sports talk show, Sports Byline USA.
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