Two huge deaths on the same day. Bill Walsh, a master among coaches. What a long, glorious career he had. A career which will live forever, for all the assistant coaches who worked with him, and since moved on to their own NFL head coaching positions. The number is 6 or 7. From those guys, spawned another group of current NFL coaches. Walsh's legacy is enormous.
I respect him for bringing credibility and Super Bowl championships to the team I worshipped as a kid, the San Francisco 49ers. A team which had been mired in mediocrity for decades. I became a fan in the 50's: Y A Tittle, Hugh McElhenney, Gordie Soltau. Before Walsh joined the Niners, he accomplished many of the same things while working for Stanford... another team I grew up with. He wasn't with Stanford for very long, but he left an indelible mark on their football program. He returned to the position of Athletic Director for a couple of years in 2004. My mother thought the world of him, probably for the same reasons I've listed.
Leukemia is taking a lot of the good people, it seems.
Wow. What a day. Two huge deaths... three counting Bergman. I guess it took something like today to rock me back towards writing. Maybe will catch up with the past months later... but today, belongs to Tom Snyder and Bill Walsh.
I have such fond memories of Snyder. First started watching him on KNBC in the late 60's, I think it was. He was different. He was bigger than life on screen. His personality ran the newscast. He bagged unmercifully on the sports guy, Ross Porter. Porter later went on to work for the Dodgers radio broadcast for many years. I always thought he was better while working for KNBC. Snyder worked with Kelly Lange on a Sunday magazine show on KNBC. They were quite a pair.
I remember when Snyder got the Tomorrow Show (another show way ahead of its time). This was well before the invention of VCRs... don't know how I stayed up so late every night, but I did. When the show was in its infancy, I once sent a floral arrangement for the little table in studio, because I thought it looked bare. It was used, and after that, NBC supplied their own flowers.
Snyder took over NY when he moved there. I followed his career at a distance. In the early 90's, he started doing a radio show, which was produced right down the hall from my place of business. Much as I wanted, I was never able to weasel into his presence.
I've read several obits for him today, and viewed some great footage on Keith Olbermann's Countdown. Details I had fogotten: smoking during his interviews, the eyebrows. I sometimes wonder if we realize how lucky we are everyday, when we are able to experience someone we really enjoy, even from afar? Many years later, when this person is gone... did we appreciate what we had when we had it? I know I did with Snyder.
When he announced his leukema in 2005, and that it was "treatable"... I knew the clock was ticking. He disappeared. Took down his website. No further information to be released.
Thanks for the memories, Tom, and thanks for the colortinis.
Two huge deaths on the same day. Bill Walsh, a master among coaches. What a long, glorious career he had. A career which will live forever, for all the assistant coaches who worked with him, and since moved on to their own NFL head coaching positions. The number is 6 or 7. From those guys, spawned another group of current NFL coaches. Walsh's legacy is enormous. 
