It’s a big weekend for the McVays
Ex-49ers exec excited to watch his grandson coach the L.A. Rams
John McVay’s favorite spot is not necessarily the back deck that overlooks the glistening jewel that is Folsom Lake, sometimes flanked by wife Susan, whom he refers to as “my queen.”
No, McVay’s heavenly haven is in the basement of his Placer County home.
“Come on,” McVay tells me excitedly the other day, “let’s go check out the ‘I love me’ room!” So we go. There, the energized 88-yearold McVay is a boy again. He’s as giddy as someone parading pals to peek at his new football cleats and gear.
The retired 49ers front- office guru executive from the 1980s and into the ‘90s scans the Super Bowl team photos, the autographed images from Bill Walsh, his moments as head coach with the New York Giants and his Ohio roots as a player and young coach. This is seven decades of gridiron glory, a thrill ride through memory lane.
And then McVay pauses at a photo of a receiver in a Miami of Ohio jersey, placed next to an image of McVay during his Miami playing days as a team captain and center. The color shot is of Sean McVay, now the wunderkind coach with the Los Angeles Rams.
The images of young McVay in 1952 and young McVay in 2007 connects generations of family and the game that binds them.
“Just amazing what Sean has done,” McVay said. “I go around bragging, ‘I’m his grandpa!’ He’s made me famous again. Thank goodness. I was getting bored!”
McVay speaks like a proud
papa, and who could have imag- ined such a die-hard 49ers guy could wind up rooting for the Rams?
McVay described how he nearly jumped out of his skin in this house during the NFC Championship game, the Rams prevailing over the Saints in overtime, thus affording Sean a chance to become the youngest coach to win a Super Bowl. He’s all of 33.
“I wasn’t as composed as Sean was during that game, because he’s just so darn cool,” McVay said. “I was a nervous wreck.”
McVay flew to Atlanta on Thursday for a closer view of unfolding history. Super Bowl LIII is Sunday, in the same state in which Sean McVay got his football start.
McVay saw Sean quarterback a team to a Georgia state championship in 2003. He has taken keen interest in his grandson’s meteoric rise since. Sean is one of the Super Bowl’s most compelling story lines this week, the pup going against the grizzled old dog in the Patriots’ snarling Bill Belichick, in his ninth Super Bowl since 2001.
“Sean absolutely idolizes Belichick, too,” McVay said. “They’re both no-nonsense guys, both very good at what they do. What Bill has done is magical. What Sean is doing is special, too.”
McVay added, “Sean didn’t coach in high school or college like a lot of coaches do to get their start, but he had eight years of NFL coaching experience when the Rams hired him. I’m so proud of him. His parents ( Tim and Cindy) are proud, and they should be. Sean’s the product of their hard work.”
Sean said during Super Bowl Media Day he hopes to accomplish “any part” of what McVay did. He also said his grandfather was the “unsung hero” to the 49ers’ dynasty.
To be sure, John McVay holds a unique place in football history. He coached in Ohio a high school standout stopper in Alan Page, who went on to have a Hall of Fame career with the Vikings. When he was a captain at Miami of Ohio in the early 1950s, the coaching staff included Woody Hayes and Ara Parseghian, who went on to coaching fame at Ohio State and Notre Dame.
John McVay coached Dayton from 1965-72 and then became the coach and general manager of the Memphis Southmen of the World Football League. One of his prized photos includes standing behind three Miami Dolphins stars the team signed in 1975 — Larry Csonka, Jim Kiick and Paul Warfield.
McVay went 24-7 with Memphis but the WFL didn’t last long, felled by financial misery. McVay landed with the Giants in the NFL as an assistant and later became head coach.
McVay in 1978 brought in Walsh, then coaching at Stanford, to run an offensive clinic. They became friends, discussing football by the hour over bottles of brew. McVay was ultimately undone that season by one of the infamous plays in football history.
The Giants only needed to run out the clock to secure a late-season victory over the Eagles in the Meadowlands. A handoff, called by the offensive coordinator, was botched. It was scooped up and returned for a touchdown by Herman Edwards, giving the Eagles the most improbable of victories.
That was the beginning of the end in New York for McVay, whose contract was not renewed. Eddie DeBartolo Jr. hired Walsh away from Stanford before the 1979 season.
McVay knew DeBartolo from when the youngster was a college student at Dayton, and they continued to network.
“I called Eddie to congratulate him on hiring Bill and told him he was a great coach,” McVay recalled. “He asked what I was doing after the Giants, and I said I didn’t know. He said, ‘ Why don’t you come out here and join us?’ I was on the first plane to San Francisco.”
During the 1979 NFL draft, Walsh was perplexed as to why Joe Montana was still available in the third round. More networking.
Walsh had McVay reach out to any contacts he might have at Notre Dame to get the skinny. On that Notre Dame staff was Jim Gruden, who told McVay simply, “Just take him.”
Montana quarterbacked the 49ers to four Super Bowl victories.
McVay in various front- office roles had his fingerprints on each of the 49ers’ five Super Bowl winners, with an eye for talent and people skills that never went away.
Walsh said years later, “It’s quite possible that the 49ers would not have won five Super Bowls had it not been for John McVay.”
Former 49ers center Randy Cross once said of McVay, “John was the glue to our organization.”
McVay said, scanning the 49ers photos on the walls, “Fun times.”
Then, we left the room. McVay climbed the stairs, his thoughts back on his grandson with a prevailing theme, “Go Rams!”
‘Sean didn’t coach in high school or college like a lot of coaches do to get their start, but he had eight years of NFL coaching experience when the Rams hired him. I’m so proud of him.’ — John McVay on his grandson, Sean, head coach of the Rams