Leukemia 2, Legends 0. Bill Walsh passed today away after a long battle with leukemia. Legendary television and radio broadcaster Tom Snyder also died of leukemia complications in the past 24 hours. Everyone knows about Walsh's achievements as a coach with the Niners and Stanford, and everyone knows about his vast, successful "tree" of coaches throughout the NFL. What impressed me most about Walsh was the way his former players and assistant coaches still think of him as a father figure. His profile on HBO's Real Sports revealed that he was a great innovator (though some, like Michael Lewis, would argue) as well as a great person.
Hopefully Mike Nolan (connected to Walsh through Billick) can return the Niners to their former greatness. It just seems right to be afraid of that uniform.
4 Responses:
Wow. And unfortunately what he's probably known for most of all by many current fans of the NFL is his string of Coors Light press conference commercials. The man was an offensive genius and was the perfect coach for Joe Montana.
Much of the credit due to Coryell in S.D. goes to Walsh since the Chargers won ZERO SBs and Walsh won three. That being said, Walsh made it work and the Niners were damn good for over a decade.
Maybe I read too much Dr. Z, but you can't really be comparing the "Air" Coryell "West Coast" offense to the Walsh "West Coast" offense, can you?
Shamelessly stolen from Wikipedia. Coryell first developed timing-based passing, though not with the level of sophistication achieved by Walsh.
The term "West Coast Offense," as it is now commonly used, derives from a 1993 Bernie Kosar quote, publicized by Sports Illustrated writer Paul Zimmerman (or "Dr. Z"). Originally the term referred to the "Air Coryell" system used by two west coast teams beginning in the 1970s, the San Diego Chargers and Oakland Raiders. However, a reporter mistakenly applied Kosar's quote about the Air Coryell system to the 1980s-era attack of Walsh's San Francisco 49ers. Initially, Walsh resisted having the term misapplied to his own distinct system, but the moniker stuck. Now the term is also commonly used to refer to pass-offenses that may not be closely-related to either the Air Coryell system or Walsh's pass-strategy.
Original West Coast Offense: Air Coryell
Kosar used the term to describe the offense formalized by Sid Gillman with the AFL Chargers in the 1960s and later by Don Coryell's St. Louis Cardinals and Chargers in the 1970s and 1980s. Al Davis, an assistant under Gillman, also carried his version to the Oakland Raiders, where his successors John Rauch, John Madden, and Tom Flores continued to employ and expand upon its basic principles. This is the "West Coast Offense" as Kosar originally used the term. However, it is now commonly referred to as the "Air Coryell" timed system, and the term West Coast Offense is usually instead used to describe Bill Walsh's system.
The offense uses a specific naming system, with the routes for wideouts and tight ends receiving three digit numbers, and routes for backs having unique names. For example, a pass play in 3 digit form might be "Split Right 787 check swing, check V". (see Offensive Nomenclature). This provides an efficient way to communicate many different plays with minimal memorization.
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