San Francisco 49ers: Ranking Every Head Coach in Franchise History | News, Scores, Highlights, Stats, and Rumors

Win-Loss Record: 8-6

Here’s one of those moments that could have changed the shape of the NFL.

Monte Clark was a well-respected player and positional coach.  He helped build the offensive line that led the Miami Dolphins to multiple Super Bowls in the early 1970s, and he was considered for multiple head coaching positions before ending up in San Francisco.

Clark also served as de-facto general manager, bringing in Jim Plunkett to play quarterback and receiver Willie McGee to catch passes.  He also helped put together a strong defensive line, which unofficially recorded 30 sacks in the first six games of the year.  The 49ers roared out to a 6-1 start, but things got rocky from there.  They recovered for their first winning season since 1972 but just missed out on the playoffs.

It was still a promising start, and it looked like the first step in a successful rebuilding project.

However, in the offseason, the 49ers were sold to Eddie DeBartolo, who brought with him general manager Joe Thomas, whom we met in the profiles of some of the coaches below Clark on this list.

Thomas’ arrival meant that Clark would have to give up his general manager duties, something he refused to do.  Clark knew Thomas, as the latter was fired as director of player personnel in Miami when Clark was a position coach there, and he refused to work with him.  Therefore, Clark was fired.

They should have fired Thomas—the 49ers stumbled to a 7-24 record and went through three head coaches over the next two seasons.

Here’s the kicker, however.  Clark was, at best, a solid, average coach.  He went to coach the Lions afterwards and finished with a 43-61-1 record in Detroit.  If the 49ers had kept Clark around, maybe he does a little better, but he’s not going to have been the one who took the 49ers to multiple championships.

Instead, forced to clean house from the disastrous tenure of Thomas, DeBartolo brought in Bill Walsh in 1979, leading to the glory years of the ‘80s.  If they keep Clark around, maybe the head coaching position’s not open in 1979.  Maybe Walsh ends up with the Oakland Raiders or New York Giants, both of whom filled head coaching vacancies that year.  Maybe one of those teams end up with Joe Montana and Dwight Clark instead of San Francisco.

Or maybe Monte Clark flames out in three years and Walsh comes over anyway.  We’ll never know.