NFL: Giddings to present Wilcox at Hall of Fame ceremonies

Richard Dunn

NEWPORT BEACH - The great fraternity of football coaching has led

Mike Giddings to the podium Saturday at the Pro Football Hall of Fame

induction ceremonies.

No, Giddings himself won’t be accepting accolades into the NFL

pantheon. He will, however, present Hall of Fame inductee Dave Wilcox of

the San Francisco 49ers.

Giddings, a former 49ers assistant coach in charge of the defense,

campaigned hard to the Hall of Fame’s Board of Directors the last few

years for Wilcox to enter the hallowed doors at Canton, Ohio.

Wilcox, an outside linebacker, asked Giddings to present him, as the

Hall of Fame inducts Howie Long, Ronnie Lott, Joe Montana and Dan Rooney

in the Class of 2000.

“I only get four minutes to talk (about Wilcox),” Giddings said. “And,

anybody who knows me, knows that’s impossible, so that’s the real test.”

Giddings was advised by longtime friend and former 49ers Coach Bill

Walsh to remember his glasses and notes. “I just plan on reading my

(script) and getting off the stage,” said Giddings, who coached Newport

Harbor High from 1982 to ‘85, compiling a 34-12-3 record and leading the

Sailors deep into the playoffs every year.

Giddings said writer Paul Zimmerman of Sports Illustrated also

campaigned for Wilcox to get the Canton enshrinement. Another time, while

playing golf with Dick Butkus, Giddings asked the Chicago Bear

linebacking legend about Wilcox and Butkus responded: “Name me a better

one?”

Giddings said Wilcox and Butkus were probably the two most dominating

linebackers in the NFL during the same period of time that the league has

ever seen.

“Lawrence Taylor’s great, but he didn’t manhandle players the way

Butkus and Wilcox did,” Giddings said. “They just growled and through

them around. But off the field Dave was the nicest human being you’d ever

meet.”

Presenting Wilcox to the crowd in Canton and the live ESPN2 television

audience is “a huge highlight in my coaching career,” said Giddings, who

owns and operates a pro football scouting service in Newport Beach, a

practice he has maintained since 1977.

“I had Wilcox from 1968 (as a rookie NFL coach) through 1973 and he

made the Pro Bowl every year. He was an absolutely dominating outside

linebacker ... he’s shy, but he’s the toughest (player) I’d ever seen on

the field.”

Giddings said that if the 49ers were winning at halftime, opponents

would essentially stop running plays at Wilcox and cornerback Jimmy

Johnson.

“I’ve made a living in the NFL since 1968, and in those 32 years I’ve

never seen the likes of him,” Giddings said of Wilcox, a durable player

who missed only one game in his entire 11-year NFL career.

Wilcox, who made the Pro Bowl seven times from 1967 to ‘74, played in

two NFC Championship games for San Francisco, both losses to Dallas in

1970 and ’71.

A left linebacker in his glory years, Wilcox (6-foot-3, 241 pounds)

was an offensive guard and defensive end at the University of Oregon. In

1964, he became the first defensive lineman in Hula Bowl history to earn

outstanding lineman honors.

Out of Oregon, Wilcox was drafted by the 49ers (the 29th player taken

overall) and the Houston Oilers of the young American Football League

(46th player overall). He opted for the more established 49ers and

converted to outside ‘backer, a position in which Wilcox earned the

nickname “The Intimidator.”