Editing Bill Walsh (section)

===49ers head coach===
On January 9, 1979, Walsh resigned as head coach at Stanford, and [[San Francisco 49ers]] team owner [[Edward J. DeBartolo, Jr.]] fired head coach [[Fred O'Connor]] and general manager [[Joe Thomas (American football executive)|Joe Thomas]] following a 2–14 in [[1978 San Francisco 49ers season|1978 season]].<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/1979/01/10/archives/bill-walsh-is-named-49er-coach.html "Bill Walsh Is Named 49er Coach," ''The Associated Press'' (AP), Tuesday, January 9, 1979.] Retrieved November 20, 2020</ref> Walsh was appointed head coach of the 49ers the next day.

The 49ers went 2-14 again in [[1979 San Francisco 49ers season|1979]].  Hidden behind that record were organizational changes made by Walsh that set the team on a better course, including selecting [[1978 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team|Notre Dame]] quarterback [[Joe Montana]] in the third round of the [[1979 NFL draft#Round three|1979 NFL draft]].

In [[1980 San Francisco 49ers season|1980]], starting quarterback [[Steve DeBerg]] got the 49ers off to a 3–0 start, but after a week 6 blowout loss to the [[1980 Dallas Cowboys season|Dallas Cowboys]] by a score of 59–14, Walsh gave Montana a chance to start. On December 7 vs. the [[1980 New Orleans Saints season|New Orleans Saints]], the second-year player brought the 49ers back from a 35–7 halftime deficit to a 38–35 overtime win. In spite of this switch, the team struggled to a 6–10 finish &ndash; a record that belied a championship team in the making.

====1981 championship====
In [[1981 San Francisco 49ers season|1981]], Walsh's efforts as head coach led the team to a 13–3 regular season. The 13 wins were a franchise record at the time, and were three more than they had won in the previous three seasons combined. Key victories were two wins each over the [[1981 Los Angeles Rams season|Los Angeles Rams]] and the [[1981 Dallas Cowboys season|Dallas Cowboys]]. The Rams were only two seasons removed from a [[Super Bowl XIV|Super Bowl]] appearance, and had dominated the series with the 49ers since 1967, winning 23, losing 3 and tying 1. San Francisco's two wins over the Rams in 1981 marked the shift of dominance in favor of the 49ers that lasted until 1998 with 30 wins (including 17 consecutively) against only 6 defeats. The 49ers blew out the Cowboys in week 6 of the regular season. On ''[[Monday Night Football]]'' that week, the win was not included in the halftime highlights. Walsh felt that this was because the Cowboys were scheduled to play the Rams the next week in a Sunday night game and that showing the highlights of the 49ers' win would potentially hurt the game's ratings. However, Walsh used this as a motivating factor for his team, who felt they were disrespected.<ref>{{cite book | first=Bill | last=Walsh | title=The Score Takes Care of Itself: My Philosophy of Leadership | publisher=[[Penguin Group]] | year=2009 | page=169}}</ref>

The 49ers faced the Cowboys again in the [[1981–82 NFL playoffs#NFC Championship: San Francisco 49ers 28, Dallas Cowboys 27|NFC title game]]. The contest was very close, and in the fourth quarter Walsh called a series of running plays as the 49ers marched down the field against the Cowboys' prevent defense, which had been expecting the 49ers to mainly pass. The 49ers came from behind to win the game on Joe Montana's pass completion to Dwight Clark for a touchdown, a play that came to be known simply as [[The Catch (American football)|The Catch]], propelling Walsh to his first appearance in a Super Bowl. Walsh would later write that the 49ers' two wins over the Rams showed a shift of power in their division, while the wins over the Cowboys showed a shift of power in the conference.

Two weeks later, on January 24, 1982, San Francisco faced the [[1981 Cincinnati Bengals season|Cincinnati Bengals]] in [[Super Bowl XVI]], winning 26–21 for the team's first NFL championship. Only a year removed from back-to-back two-win seasons, the 49ers had risen from the cellar to the top of the NFL in just two seasons.  What came to be known as the [[West Coast offense]] developed by Walsh<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/31/sports/football/31walsh.html|title=Bill Walsh, Innovator of West Coast Offense, Dies at 75|last=Goldstein|first=Richard|date=July 31, 2007|work=The New York Times|access-date=January 31, 2018}}</ref> had proven a winner.

In all, Walsh served as 49ers head coach for 10 years, winning three Super Bowl championships, in the [[1981 San Francisco 49ers season|1981]], [[1984 San Francisco 49ers season|1984]], and [[1988 San Francisco 49ers season|1988 seasons]], and establishing a new NFL record.

Walsh had a disciplined approach to game-planning, famously scripting the first 10–15 offensive plays before the start of each game. His innovative play calling and design earned him the nickname "The Genius". In the ten-year span under Walsh, San Francisco scored 3,714 points (24.4 per game), the most of any team in the league.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://stathead.com/tools/tiny.fcgi?id=XECxX|title=Team Game Stats Finder - Pro Football|website=Stathead.com}}</ref>

In addition to [[Joe Montana]], Walsh drafted [[Ronnie Lott]], [[Charles Haley]], and [[Jerry Rice]], each one going on to the [[Pro Football Hall of Fame]]. He also traded a 2nd and 4th round pick in the [[1987 NFL draft|1987 draft]] for [[Steve Young (American football)|Steve Young]], who took over from Montana, led the team to Super Bowl success, and was enshrined in Canton after his playing career. Walsh's success at every level of football, especially with the 49ers, earned him his own ticket to Canton in 1993.

On January 22, 1989, Walsh coached his final game with the 49ers, the memorable [[Super Bowl XXIII]] in which San Francisco beat Cincinnati 20–16. Walsh resigned as the 49ers head coach after the game. Walsh admitted years later that he immediately regretted the decision saying that he left too soon.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Wickersham |first=Seth  |date=2013-01-24 |title=The Mag: Bill Walsh's Super Bowl road map |url=https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/8865286/former-49ers-head-coach-bill-walsh-first-book-lives-super-bowl-road-map-espn-magazine |access-date=2024-08-16 |website=ESPN.com |language=en}}</ref>