Robert 'Pink' Erickson: 1924-2004; Father of NFL coach steeped in game
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Robert "Pink" Erickson, who won a lot of games as a football coach and raised a son who won even more, has died at age 79.
Mr. Erickson died Thursday at an Everett hospital. He had been in failing health in recent years and had undergone a six-way heart-bypass surgery about 18 months ago.
Mr. Erickson's son, Dennis, is coach of the San Francisco 49ers. Dennis also previously was the coach at Oregon State (1999-2002), the Seattle Seahawks (1995-98), the University of Miami (1989-94, where he won one national title and shared another with Washington), Washington State (1987-88), Wyoming (1986) and Idaho (1982-85).
Dennis Erickson said yesterday, "The greatest years of my life were the years that he and I coached together at Idaho."
The NFL coach said the most important things in coaching he learned from his father was "how to treat people" and "how to motivate."
"He also was way ahead of his time football-wise," Dennis Erickson said. "He did things in the late 1950s that people just weren't doing. ... He spread them out (spread formations) before people knew it was even cool."
"Pink," who was often called "Pinky," got his nickname growing up in Marysville because he had red hair. He went to Marysville schools and played basketball at Saint Martin's College in Lacey before enlisting in the Army during World War II. He finished his education at Western Washington.
He was named coach at Ferndale High School, then moved to Everett, where he was on coaching staffs at Everett High School until Cascade High School opened in the fall of 1960. He was the first head coach at Cascade and coached there until 1967, when he joined the University of Montana staff.
The Erickson home in Everett was in the Everett High School section of town, and Dennis was the Everett High quarterback and played against his father.
"We'd sit down to dinner the night of the game, and he wouldn't give me any information and I wouldn't give him any," Dennis Erickson said.
They faced each other again in college because Dennis played at Montana State when "Pink" coached at Montana.
In 1969, "Pink" was on Jim Sweeney's Washington State staff. His final coaching job was as volunteer tight-ends coach at Idaho for his son.
Washington coach Keith Gilbertson drove to Everett on Thursday to visit "Pink" and arrived to learn he had died.
"Pinky was a unique guy," Gilbertson said yesterday. "He was a great person, great coach, great father, great friend. I knew him as all those things. I knew him as a father to Dennis and his sisters and the husband of Mary. I knew him as a coach and an opposing coach (when Gilbertson played for Snohomish High School), and as a (fellow) coach (they shared an office at Idaho). I knew him in a lot of different ways.
"He was a real enjoyable human being."
Texas-El Paso coach Mike Price, who coached with "Pink" at WSU in 1969, said yesterday, "He was one of my mentors. He is the first guy who ever gave me a chance as an assistant coach. He has helped me throughout my career. My family sends the Erickson family all of our love and support during this time."
In addition to his wife of 61 years, Mary, Mr. Erickson is survived by Dennis and his wife Marilyn, daughters Christy, Julie and Nancy and her husband Gary Hunter, grandsons Bryce, Ryan, Jamie and granddaughter Cree.
A memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. Monday at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church (25th and Hoyt in Everett). A reception will follow at the Everett Yacht Club at the 14th Street dock.
Donations may be made in his honor at the Front Bank to the Challenger Elementary Helping Children's Fund, where daughter Christy Johnson is on the staff, or to a favorite charity.
Craig Smith: 206-464-8279 or csmith@seattletimes.com