Posted by Oakland Tribune on April 25, 2009, 1:09 pm, in reply to "Re: Service April 18th; "It was Billy Wilson Day in Dec 1957""
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Going home to salute an old 49er
Dave Newhouse
Oakland Tribune columnist
4/22/2009
Thomas Wolfe and Gertrude Stein moved as one on the dance floor, philosophically. Wolfe learned "You Can't Go Home Again." Stein discovered "There's no 'there' there." And neither dance partner stepped on the other's toes.
These literary giants both wrote about having roots, and in returning to these roots years later — in Stein's case, Oakland — there were few reminders of what they had left behind.
I grew up in Menlo Park, but that was a long time ago. Returning there now, it feels odd, as if I'm out of place, a stranger in familiar surroundings. That part of my life is gone.
But I went back home Saturday, or close to home — Redwood City — to attend the memorial service of Billy Wilson, the San Francisco 49ers tight end of the 1950s who died Jan. 27 at 81.
The service was held at the 49ers' old training facility, another reminder of the past. Three 49ers in the Pro Football Hall of Fame — Hugh McElhenny, Y.A. Tittle, Steve Young — were there. Other former 49ers present: Gordy Soltau, R.C. Owens, J.D. Smith, Len Rohde, Clyde Conner and Bill Ring. All seniors except for Ring and Young, who held an infant daughter.
As a youth, I watched many of these men practice at Menlo College. I even threw passes to Soltau, my 49ers hero, on camera day as the team photographer clicked away. But the 49ers abandoned Menlo College years ago. They practice now in Santa Clara.
"My father never said anything bad about anyone to me," said Wilson's son, Wynn, "and I never heard anyone say anything bad about my father."
"A humble hero," added Wilson's daughter, Tracy Anderson.
Soltau, Wilson's bookend end in San Francisco before the split receiver era, was master of ceremonies Saturday. Soltau was All-Pro in 1952, Wilson in 1955 and 1957. Gordy and Billy, the 49ers' forerunners to Jerry Rice and John Taylor.
"The Tittle-Wilson combination became the scourge of the NFL in the '50s," Soltau told the gathered throng of 200.
Wilson led the NFL three times in receiving. He played in six Pro Bowls and was the Most Valuable Player in the 1955 Pro Bowl, catching 11 passes for 157 yards and a touchdown.
Tittle recalled the first time he threw a pass in Wilson's direction — only Tittle was throwing the ball away over a fence at Menlo College. Wilson dove over the fence and caught the ball.
"My god, what have we got here?" Tittle wondered aloud.
What the 6-foot-4, 187-pound Wilson, nicknamed "Goose," didn't have was speed.
—'Billy, how did you get so good? I'm faster than you are,' Tittle once asked Wilson. "He wasn't fast, but he had spirit, hands, great moves, and he was one of the greatest competitors."
Wilson is a bona fide Pro Football Hall of Fame candidate, but with nobody to champion his cause. After Paul (Dr. Z) Zimmerman of Sports Illustrated named Oakland Raiders tight end Dave Casper and 49ers linebacker Dave Wilcox to his All-Century Team, they made the Hall in Canton, Ohio.
Bill Walsh pushed hard for Wilson's induction, but Walsh has left us. So has Wilson, but not the memories. Watching a 10 a.m. Sunday 49ers' telecast from back East in my pajamas, Wilson caught a long pass from Tittle and jumped over a tackler to complete his touchdown romp. My boyhood home now is shingled. Nothing ever stays the same.
Except, that is, Wilson's sterling image as the consummate gentleman.
"Never has there been a more loyal person," Tittle said. "Billy never even said a bad word about coaches, and we all say something about coaches."
"You wanted to be his friend," said George Clark, Wilson's basketball teammate at San Jose State.
Wilson was a 49er from 1951 to 1960, then remained with the organization his adult life as an assistant coach and scout. No 49ers player ever had a longer run with the club, which speaks volumes about the man's character.
After the memorial service ended, I passed on the reception and went to see my mother in a Woodside care home. She is 97 and bedridden, gets around in a wheelchair, and her mind often confuses the past and present. But she does have a healthy appetite.
Joining us was my sister, who took over my late father's secondhand clothing store in Palo Alto and converted it into a fashionable women's boutique known by her first name of Phyllis.
We had a nice visit, but it's hard thinking of your mother as pert and beautiful, as she was most of her life, and seeing her now, still pretty, but old, helpless and dependent on others.
Driving back to Oakland late Saturday afternoon, I was reminded again that all I ever go home for, really, are those memories.
May I have the next dance, Gertie?
Here's a link with more about Billy Wilson's memorial with photos:
NFL Alumni NoCa
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