When Bill Walsh and the 49ers won their first Super Bowl in January 1982, no one knew how the city they represented would react. Did San Francisco feel like celebrating? Should the city hold a parade? What if no one showed up? Organizers were expecting a crowd of 5,000 in front of City Hall. What the team encountered as it rounded the final corner of the parade route was a throng of a half-million fans who roared to the heavens when the white-haired coach stepped forward to greet them. Walsh was a pope on a balcony, a king before his people, a conquering hero. Twenty-five years later, the gathering at Walsh's memorial service indeed befitted that of a head of state. Two former mayors and a U.S. senator were among the 1,200 who filed into Stanford Memorial Church on an impossibly sunny Thursday morning. Media moguls, corporate giants and television personalities also paid their respects.