End of an Era for 49ers

There was a changing of the guard in the white collar department of the San Francisco 49ers on Wednesday, when The Genius passed the football to, well, The Rookie.

Bill Walsh stepped down from his role as general manager and his hand-picked successor, Terry Donahue, took over as the lead front office man of one of the NFL’s most storied and successful franchises.

Donahue, a former UCLA coach, has served as Walsh’s understudy for the last two years as the 49er director of player personnel, his first NFL job. He was introduced to a standing-room-only crowd of reporters, photographers and cameramen by John York, who owns the 49ers with his wife, Denise DeBartolo York.

“Make no mistake, we have a vision, we have a goal,” Donahue said. “Our goal is to win, to win a world championship, then to win world championships.”

On the surface, it may be a tall order. The 49ers are accustomed to winning, but since they were 4-12 and 6-10 the last two seasons, they might have forgotten how--or at least fallen out of the habit.

In any event, Donahue’s rise to replace Walsh represents a new, younger direction for the 49ers. Walsh is 69, Donahue 56. At the same time, it is designed to stay true to the progressive plan Walsh put into place when he came back as general manager 27 months ago.

Donahue’s news conference at the team headquarters was carefully orchestrated to show that the chain of command was kept intact.

York joined Donahue on the dais, but not Walsh, a move that kept the focus on Donahue instead of his mentor.

Walsh, Coach Steve Mariucci and director of football operations John McVay sat in the first row, facing the raised stage and holding the full-color, 24-page, bound Donahue press information booklet. Peter Harris, the 49er president, watched from the hallway.

Walsh was covered in a two-page press handout.

If Donahue seemed confident in his new assignment, Walsh seemed relieved.

“I’ll still be here full-time, but nothing that won’t keep me from playing a lot of tennis,” he said.

Staying on as a consultant, he said his first move will be to take the next month off. York says Walsh’s actual role will be decided sometime in June.

As for Donahue, his first moves will be to try to re-sign quarterback Jeff Garcia and to follow Walsh’s mission of navigating the 49ers through the murky waters of salary cap issues and free agency.

“Before you become a champion, you have to become a contender, and we feel we’re very close to becoming a contender,” Donahue said.

“The business of the 49ers is to win world championships. That rich tradition we have was built with a process. We are in a new process now.”

The winningest coach in UCLA and Pacific 10 Conference history, Donahue is well suited to his new job, Mariucci said.

“He’s been there, done that,” he said. “Ex-coaches, they tend to see things the way you do.”

Donahue didn’t have to field questions about whether he had given up any notion of coaching again, although the 49ers had prepared how to respond to such a query in their pre-news conference practice sessions. Although Donahue said that he could never say never, he intends to hold his general manager’s job for a long time. He signed a four-year contract.

The outgoing general manager said he will not hold back as a consultant.

“The biting-my-tongue era has passed,” Walsh said.

Meanwhile, on the first day of his job, Walsh’s successor said he wasn’t intimidated by following the man who became known as The Genius.

“I’m supremely confident in myself,” Donahue said. “I’ve been in some big arenas before myself and I’ve survived.”