My heart goes out to his family.
Wonderful obit is here. I pasted some snippets below.
http://www.contracostatimes.com/news/ci_65...?nclick_check=1QUOTE
Bill Walsh dies
By Dave Newhouse
MEDIANEWS STAFF
Article Launched: 07/30/2007 12:08:25 PM PDT
Bill Walsh, who lifted the 49ers to greatness and his stagnant coaching career into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, died Monday from the effects of leukemia. He was 75.
"He was the finest coach who ever coached football," said Bill Ring, who played running back and coached for Walsh. "His ability to game plan, to strategize, he was ahead of the curve."
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"He was a team builder," said Randy Cross, an offensive lineman on Walsh's three Super Bowl champions. "There's only one person in my lifetime who was like that in building a team, Red Auerbach (of the Boston Celtics)."
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"Football's a very physical game, blacksmiths pounding the anvil," said Mike Holmgren, the Seattle Seahawks head coach who was a 49ers assistant under Walsh. "Bill approached it differently. He recognized the toughness, but he always said, 'Let's think outside the box.' He saw it as an artist."
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"One of the most fitting things you can say about Bill," noted Cross, "and he'd blush if you said it, was that he was completely colorblind. He knew talent."
Walsh initiated the Black Coaches Summer Program at the 49ers training camp, inviting college coaches not only to observe how Walsh ran things, but letting them coach the 49ers. The program later was adopted leaguewide. Current NFL head coaches Herman Edwards, Lovie Smith and Marvin Lewis went through Walsh's program.
"Marvin Lewis mentions that to me every time I sit down to talk to him -- every time," said Cross, now an NFL television commentator. .
"I was the first black executive of the 49ers, and one of the first in the NFL," said former 49ers receiver R.C. Owens, who became their training camp director and alumni coordinator under Walsh.
"Bill was a contemporary," said Owens, "very honest, straightforward, concerned. But he was concerned about blacks and whites. It wasn't 'you' or 'them.'
"One summer, I had a family problem and needed to leave training camp. Bill told me to take as much time as I needed. When I had my (kidney) transplant, he was there. When I needed a loan to buy a house, I wanted to go to the front office. Bill said, 'I'll give it to you.'
"I was able to pay him back, but he didn't hesitate," said Owens. "I told him, 'I love you, Bill.' He said, 'I love you, too.' That's not the Walsh you think of, but that's his other side."
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Walsh's personality was as complex as he was...And when the 49ers arrived for their first Super Bowl in freezing Michigan weather in January 1982, Walsh greeted them at the hotel disguised as a bellhop and continued the charade until they recognized him.
Walsh had a sense of humor, but he knew misery as well. Geri, his wife of 50-plus years, suffered a debilitating stroke that required around-the-clock nursing care at their Woodside home, even before Walsh contracted leukemia. His oldest of three children, Steve, a onetime KGO reporter, died of AIDS, according to the father
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"Bill was the brains, but people thought he was a cutthroat. He had a big heart, but he was afraid to show it. He touched the lives of many people, helped a ton of people. He was always looking out for the underdog."
No one knows that better than former 49ers tight end Eason Ramson, whose drug addiction spun his life into poverty and prison. Walsh never gave up on him.
"When I was in prison, my mother passed," said Ransom. "My sister called Bill and said, 'I know you're Eason's coach.' And Bill said, 'No, I'm more than a coach. I'm a friend.' He offered financial help and other help. He wrote me in prison, and then came to visit me in prison."
Ransom feared a long imprisonment when Walsh intervened.
"I was facing 'three strikes' when Bill wrote to the judge and said I was worth saving," he said.
Ransom got out of prison, cleaned up his life and now helps troubled youth turn around their own lives.
"Bill donated money to this cause, volunteered his services," said Ransom. "He was just a coach. He didn't have to do anything. Jerry Rice was to be an emcee for one of my fundraisers, but it fell through. I was panicky and called Bill. He said, 'We're a team.' He showed up with Ronnie Lott."
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As leukemia worked its way into his body, and before he made his illness public, Walsh was asked what he'd like written on his tombstone. He paused for 10 seconds with that faraway, contemplative look.
"He lived a full life," he said finally. "He loved others, and others loved him."
