Bill Walsh (NFL)
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Bill Walsh (born November 30, 1931) is a former American football head coach of the San Francisco 49ers and Stanford University. He has a home in Pacific Grove, California.
Walsh attended San Jose State University in San Jose, California, and his first coaching appointment was with Washington Union High School in Fremont, California. He would later serve as an assistant coach under Paul Brown with the Cincinnati Bengals and Tommy Prothro with the San Diego Chargers.
Walsh also had two separate tenures as head football coach at Stanford, from 1977 to 1978 and from 1992 to 1994.
In 1979, Walsh was appointed head coach of the San Francisco 49ers, and under him the 49ers won Super Bowl championships in 1982, 1985 and 1989. Walsh served as 49ers head coach for twelve years and during his tenure he and his coaching staff perfected the style of play known popularly as the West Coast offense. He was responsible for drafting Joe Montana, Ronnie Lott, Charles Haley, and Jerry Rice. Walsh's successes with the 49ers were rewarded when he was elected to the Professional Football Hall of Fame in 1993.
Many of his assistant coaches went on to be successful coaches in their own right, including Mike Holmgren, George Seifert and Dennis Green.
Walsh served the 49ers as Vice President and General Manager from 1999 to 2001 and was a consultant to the team for three years afterwards. In 2004, Walsh was appointed as special assistant to the athletic director at Stanford.
Bill Walsh is also the author of several books, is active as a motivational speaker, and taught classes at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.