I regret to inform everyone that Bill Walsh has passed away after his battle with leukemia. I have to run out for an hour or two, but feel free to use this as an open thread to discuss this great man.
Niners Nation offers it's deepest sympathy and condolences to his family and 49ers fans everywhere. More to come later.
EDITOR'S UPDATE: 1:25PM - I'm going to put together a more complete write up tonight, but feel free to link to any stories or just post your thoughts here. I'll post links on the main part of the story as I see them.
The Chronicle with a great piece
ESPN writeup and retrospective
Jeremey Green: Walsh was a master talent evaluator
Mark Kreidler: Walsh a treasure in Bay Area
EDITOR'S UPDATE: 2:30PM - Here are some more links reflecting on the life and career of Bill Walsh. Also, at espn.com on the top right where they are posting stories, they have a link to a pop-up window with a photo tribute worth checking out. In spite of my recent displeasure with Sports Center, I'd expect a quality retrospective.
Ivan Maisel with a fun story about Walsh
Ray Ratto's thoughts on Walsh over at CBS Sportsline
Clark Judge: Walsh a genius? When it came to managing people, label might have fit
Ira Miller: Walsh's impact on NFL to be felt for years to come
49ers Official Release with quotations from prominent individuals
Waggle Room, the SB Nation golf blog, has their own interesting take on Walsh who became a mentor to Tiger Woods, a fellow Stanford guy. Thanks to Stuart Mulligan for this piece.
For the Stanford fans out there, a cool little piece about Jim Harbaugh spending some time with Bill Walsh after he was Harbaugh was hired as head coach.