Rough Magic: Bill Walsh's Return to Stanford Football

Special insight to the man!Bill Walsh was the Master, met him at NorthStar Tahoe Mountain Clubhouse for an autographed golf card, plus a round in the 80’s…

GoodRead. 90’s nostalgia. Lots of old niners stuff too. Lowell Cohn is an excellent writer and weaves a lot of good anecdotes into a coherent and interesting overall story.

Excellent book, Good insight into the emotional swings of a genius at work. Bought a supposedly used copy for a couple bucks and it was brand new and far as I could tell.

Rough Magic isn't a good book, unless you want surface level story telling about a Stanford football season from decades past.A far better book is Walsh's The Score Takes Care of Itself: My Philosophy of Leadership. THAT is a great book and worth the purchase.

I must preface the review by saying that I am a Bill Walsh nut. Ever since I read "Building a champion" which I consider the best sports book ever, I have tried to read every book by or about Bill Walsh. This isn't as good but is a different style of book. I thoroughly enjoyed it and read it quickly. The honesty and integrity of the man shines through. As fly on the walls go, its up there.

This man loved coaching enough to go back to where it started for him. Away from the media attention and the constant demand to be "the Genius." He went back for the Love of the Game and the Young men who play it. This was Bill Walsh's greatest hour.