Bill Walsh Dead

[Muskie]

Per Profootballtalk.com (http://www.profootballtalk.com/rumormill.htm)

BILL WALSH PASSES ON

Hall-of-Fame head coach Bill Walsh, whose West Coast offense made a mediocre at best 49ers team into a dynasty in the 1980s, has died at age 75 of leukemia.

Walsh led the 49ers to three Super Bowl championships, retiring after the team won Super Bowl XXIII. He moved on to other things, working as a broadcaster, coaching at Stanford, and returning to the San Fran front office, but those years as the head coach of the Niners always were the brightest lights of his football resume.

Walsh has been battling leukemia for a while. We received word of his passing from KGO-TV in San Francisco.

[Benxman]

Before his stint with the 49rs, Walsh was the Bengals offensive coordinator under Paul Brown. They used some of the so called "West Coast offense" then. It wouldn't surprise me if PB had input into the creation of that offense. Unlike his son Mikie, PB was a brilliant football mind. He was an excellent judge of football talent, but the biggest mistake he ever made was elevating Tiger Johnson to Head Coach of the Bengals instead of Bill Walsh. Both Tiger and Walsh proved him wrong on that one.
regards,
Benxman