Dick Nolan, 75; coached NFL’s 49ers and Saints

Dick Nolan, former coach of the San Francisco 49ers and father of current coach Mike Nolan, died Sunday, the 49ers said. He was 75.

The senior Nolan, a former NFL defensive back who also coached the New Orleans Saints, had been in declining health with Alzheimer’s disease and prostate cancer for several years. He spent the last few months at an assisted-care facility in the Dallas area, near his longtime home with his wife, Ann.

His son had missed practice with the 49ers on Friday and Saturday, traveling to Texas to be with his father. Team spokesman Aaron Salkin said Mike Nolan would coach the 49ers tonight when the team plays the Seahawks in Seattle.

Dick Nolan played nine NFL seasons before becoming a coach, assisting Hall of Famer Tom Landry in Dallas and compiling a record of 71-85-5 in nearly 11 seasons with San Francisco and New Orleans. He led the perennially downtrodden 49ers to 56 wins, three division titles and two conference championship games in eight years.

The Nolans were only the fifth father and son to become NFL head coaches, and the first to coach the same team since Bum and Wade Phillips, now the Dallas Cowboys coach, both coached the Saints.

Mike Nolan persuaded the NFL to allow him to wear dress suits on the 49ers’ sideline last season partly in tribute to his father, who always dressed smartly.

“My father always projected an image of authority, and I wanted to honor him -- the way he lived his life and his whole career as a coach,” Mike Nolan said.

Born in Pittsburgh and raised in White Plains, N.Y., Dick Nolan played college football at Maryland and had a solid NFL career, mostly as a hard-hitting safety, with the New York Giants, Chicago Cardinals and Dallas Cowboys.

“He made himself into not just a good player, he was an extraordinary player,” former teammate Frank Gifford told the New York Daily News earlier this year.

“He didn’t have the physical talent to do it all,” he said. “He just willed himself. He was smart. He was tough -- as good as [it] comes in that respect.”

After retiring as a player in 1962, Nolan spent six seasons as an assistant to Landry, his longtime friend and former teammate with the Giants.

The 49ers hired him in 1968 to take over a franchise that had made only one playoff appearance in its 18 NFL seasons.

San Francisco had a 7-6-1 record in his first season and went 4-8-2 in the second before breaking through in 1970, compiling a 10-3-1 mark and winning its first playoff game at Minnesota before falling to Dallas in the NFC title game.

The 49ers made playoff appearances in 1971 and 1972, losing to the Cowboys both times.

But the 49ers slumped to three consecutive losing seasons after their playoff appearances, and the same fans who once hailed Nolan as their savior booed the team and cheered for Nolan’s departure.

“That was the toughest time, but that’s the life of a coach,” Mike Nolan said. “My dad never took it personally, and he didn’t take it personally when it happened again in New Orleans.”

Nolan coached the Saints from 1978-80, going 15-29 with the perennially downtrodden franchise, which fired him after the Saints lost the first 12 games of the 1980 season.

In addition to his son and his wife, Nolan is survived by five other children.

Funeral arrangements are pending.