The Holmgren Era Begins -- Seahawks Coach A Real Genius

SINCE HIS EARLIEST COACHING days in California, Mike Holmgren's offense has been on the cutting edge and his disciplinary tactics rarely challenged.

Sometimes the story is filled with many twists and turns and unfathomable ironies.

The young quarterback impressed everyone, winding his way through the San Jose public-school system with all the promise you see once in a decade. Phil Stearns, the coach of San Jose's Oak Grove High School, knew he might have a great one in an eighth-grader named Marty Mornhinweg.

And he knew, too, that he needed a quarterback coach who could tutor the player, teach him the things only a quarterback would understand.

So, he asked friends if they knew of anyone who could do the job. Eventually, one said he had heard of a young coach he thought might be pretty bright but was trapped in perhaps the worst program in San Francisco, Sacred Heart, that had won just one game in three years.

An interview was arranged, and just like that, Mike Holmgren went from being the coach of the worst team in the Bay Area to the offensive coordinator of one of the best.

Had Mornhinweg's potential not forced Stearns to look for a quarterback coach, Holmgren might have been lost forever. And had Mornhinweg, now the offensive coordinator of the 49ers, not designed the plays that another Holmgren understudy, Steve Young, completed in the ending seconds of last Sunday's wild-card game, Holmgren's Packers would still be marching toward the playoffs.

And there wouldn't have been a stretch limousine pulling up outside the Seahawk headquarters Friday. And Mike Holmgren wouldn't have stepped out into a blaze of camera lights. And there wouldn't have been a $32 million contract or total control of the team's football operation.

The line between destiny and obscurity can be thin.

But there was always something about the young Holmgren in the mid-to-late 1970s that drew people in, that made everyone from Mornhinweg to the reporter from the San Jose Mercury News come around to listen to him talk football. After a couple of years of having Holmgren draw up the plays, Stearns gave up his head coaching job and let Holmgren run the team.

"He has a very good feel for people," says Harry Sydney, who once played for Holmgren and coached running backs for him in Green Bay. "There's special people who can only thrive in special situations, who are calm in crazy situations. He has a knack for that."

When Holmgren first walked into the Packer offices seven years ago and sat across from Packer President Ron Wolf, the man who would build a champion in Green Bay looked at his prospective new coach and was immediately sold.

"After 15 minutes, I knew he was the leader of men," Wolf later said.

Years earlier, Stearns had experienced the same thing. The man who walked into his office just five years removed from being a quarterback who rarely played at USC, was bright, witty, eager and talented. Looking back, Stearns says "it was an added plus that he knew offense and was a quarterback coach."

Yet Holmgren did amazing things with Oak Grove's offense. The young reporter assigned to cover Oak Grove, Rick Vacek, remembers it being the most complex in the area by far.

"It was obvious then that he was a genius," says Vacek, now the sports editor of The Kansas City Star. "They had good athletes, but then again nobody had the sophistication to compete with them. The games were hilarious. They were always 30-0 by the end of the first quarter.

"Anybody who watched high-school football in San Jose in the late 1970s knew he would be a hot commodity in the future."

It was only a matter of time before San Francisco State picked Holmgren to be its offensive coordinator. And a year after that, the San Francisco State coach was begging Brigham Young Coach LaVell Edwards to take Holmgren as his quarterback coach - he was just too good a mind to waste.

At BYU, Holmgren molded Young, then went on to the 49ers for six seasons as a quarterback coach and then offensive coordinator where he helped win two Super Bowls and then moved on to the Packers where he won another in his fifth year.

"When I played for Mike, I felt going into games there was no doubt he was in control," says Seahawk Matt LaBounty, who played for Holmgren in Green Bay.

Which is the amazing thing about Holmgren. He's meticulously organized. He nitpicks at the strangest details, insisting they be taken care of. And while at the time they might not make a lot of sense, the results always seem to be successful.

After all, he's 84-42 with two Super Bowl appearances as an NFL coach.

"He's not afraid to get on you, then he praises you. And then he gets on you, and he praises you," Ricky Watters says. "That's good because you don't want a guy to just tear you down. When you do well, he's your biggest supporter."

There are many images of Holmgren; driven coach, teacher. He rides motorcycles to work. He still takes time every day to have morning coffee in his office with his wife, Kathy. He leaves meetings on Tuesdays, usually the biggest meeting day of an NFL week, to ride out to the nursing home where his mother lives. Together, they watch "As the World Turns."

It makes him a difficult man to capture, especially in a sport like football where too often the men are consumed by one thing - the game. He has been portrayed as craving power and seems to have a need to control situations.

Yet he appears comfortable in many situations. His agent, Bob LaMonte, an old friend from high school coaching days, was anxious for his client to meet Seahawk owner Paul Allen this week. He was convinced the two would get along fabulously. And when they did, LaMonte just nodded.

"I knew they would," he said.

At Oak Grove, Holmgren was in a '50s style band called Big Bop and the Choppers, put together by Stearns as a fund-raiser for the football team. Those who were in it, describe it as a Sha-na-na kind of group. They sang songs such as "Puppy Love," "Venus" and "Put Your Head on My Shoulder." They also acted out skits.

Each coach took on an alter-ego for the production. Holmgren was a dumb mechanic named Manifold Mike, who wore overalls and carried a wrench. "He used to sing in his church choir and was pretty good," Stearns said. "He's a human being, you know, not this living legend of a football coach."

So human, he puts his clipboard over his mouth when he starts spewing obscenities on the sideline so his wife and daughters won't see him swearing on television.

But don't challenge him because the easy-going, Harley-riding coach who watches "As the World Turns" with his elderly mother cannot stand dissention.

When Holmgren was the track coach at Oak Grove, the best half-miler in the league grew his hair long. There was a strict school rule against long hair, so Holmgren ordered the runner to get a haircut. When the boy didn't oblige, Holmgren kicked him off the team.

The parents complained to the principal, who in turn told Holmgren to let the runner back on the team.

Holmgren replied, "You'll have to find a new track coach."

The principal backed down.

"He won't tolerate any mistreatment of authority," Stearns said.

Now the Seahawks have given him more authority than he's ever known. Holmgren, who's only been a head coach for seven years, now will run every aspect of the football side of the team. He will pick players, run the scouting department and, of course, coach.

Stearns said: "He told me this last year, `The thing I have a passion for is being a head coach on the field the day of the game. But I want to be able to choose my own players.' Mike enjoys the business end of it. I asked him one time, `You really like that stuff?' And he said `Yeah, I really enjoy doing all that.' "

He has it all. More money than any coach, and more power than most, and the heart of every Seahawk fan who prays he will make this team win.

It's a lot to have. And if it wasn't for an eighth-grade quarterback named Marty Mornhinweg, who knows where he would be? ------------------------------- Mike Holmgren at a glance

Born: June 15, 1948 . High school: Named Prep Athlete of the Year in 1965 as quarterback for Lincoln High School in San Francisco. College: Played quarterback at USC, 1966-69. NFL: Drafted by St. Louis in eighth round and in training camp of Cardinals and New York Jets.

Coaching: 1971, coached at Lincoln HS IN San Francisco; 1972-74, assistant at Sacred heart HS; 1975-80, Oak Grove HS; 1981, quarterback coach and offensive coordinator at San Francisco Sate; 1982-85, quarterbacks coach at brigham Young; 1986-88, quarterbacks coach for San Francisco 49ers; 1989-91, offensive coordinator 49ers; 1992-98, head coach Green Bay Packers. Highlights: Led Packers to three successive seasons with 10 or more victories for the first time since Vince Lombardi era in early 1960s... Packers won Super Bowl XXXI after 1996 season, but lost to Broncos last season.

NFL coaching record: 75-37 in regular season, 9-5 in playoffs.