Bobb McKittrick (December 29, 1935 – March 15, 2000) was an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

offensive line In gridiron football, a lineman is a player who specializes in play at the line of scrimmage. The linemen of the team currently in possession of the ball are the offensive line, while linemen on the opposing team are the defensive line. A numbe ...

coach in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

who coached in five

Super Bowl The Super Bowl is the annual final playoff game of the National Football League (NFL) to determine the league champion. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966, replacing the NFL Championship Game. Since 2022, the game ...

Playing career

Born in

Baker City, Oregon Baker City is a city in and the county seat of Baker County, Oregon, United States. It was named after Edward D. Baker, the only U.S. Senator ever killed in military combat. The population was 10,099 at the time of the 2020 census. History Pl ...

(then known as Baker), McKittrick attended Oregon State University, and was a member of the

Acacia Fraternity Acacia Fraternity, Inc. is a social fraternity founded in 1904 at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The fraternity has 27 active chapters and 3 associate chapters throughout Canada and the United States. The fraterni ...

. He played college football for the

Oregon State Beavers The Oregon State Beavers are the athletic teams that represent Oregon State University, located in Corvallis, Oregon. The Beavers compete at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I ( Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) for c ...

, helping them to a

Pacific Coast Conference The Pacific Coast Conference (PCC) was a college athletic conference in the United States which existed from 1915 to 1959. Though the Pac-12 Conference claims the PCC's history as part of its own, with eight of the ten PCC members (including a ...

championship in 1956, playing in the 1957 Rose Bowl. Following graduation from Oregon State, he served as an officer in the

United States Marines Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through co ...

for three years.

Coaching career

From 1961 to 1964, McKittrick was a

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, p ...

and

tight end The tight end (TE) is a position in American football, arena football, and Canadian football, on the offense. The tight end is often a hybrid position with the characteristics and roles of both an offensive lineman and a wide receiver. Like ...

coach at Oregon State, helping the team reach the 1962

Liberty Bowl The Liberty Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game played in late December or early January since 1959. For its first five years, it was played at Philadelphia Municipal Stadium in Philadelphia before being held at Atlantic City ...

and the 1965 Rose Bowl. He followed Beaver head coach

Tommy Prothro James Thompson "Tommy" Prothro Jr. (July 20, 1920 – May 14, 1995) was an American football coach. He was the head coach at Oregon State University from 1955 to 1964 and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) from 1965 to 1970, compil ...

in 1965 to

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

, where he coached in his second straight Rose Bowl with the Bruins in 1966. From 1971 to 1972, he was the offensive line coach of the NFL's

Los Angeles Rams The Los Angeles Rams are a professional American football team based in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Rams compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) West division. The Rams play ...

. From 1974 to 1978, he was an offensive line coach with the

San Diego Chargers The San Diego Chargers were a professional American football team that played in San Diego from 1961 until the end of the 2016 season, before relocating to Los Angeles, where the franchise had played its inaugural 1960 season. The team is now ...

. In 1976, he coached the offensive line under Bill Walsh, who was the Chargers' offensive coordinator for that single season. From 1979 to 1999, he coached the

San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National ...

offensive line. During his 21 years with the 49ers, the team won five Super Bowls (

Super Bowl XVI Super Bowl XVI was an American football game between the National Football Conference (NFC) champion San Francisco 49ers and the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Cincinnati Bengals to decide the National Football League (NFL) champ ...

, Super Bowl XIX,

Super Bowl XXIII Super Bowl XXIII was an American football game between the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Cincinnati Bengals and the National Football Conference (NFC) champion San Francisco 49ers to decide the National Football League (NFL) champ ...

, Super Bowl XXIV, and

Super Bowl XXIX Super Bowl XXIX was an American football game between the American Football Conference (AFC) champion San Diego Chargers and the National Football Conference (NFC) champion San Francisco 49ers to decide the National Football League (NFL) champio ...

) and 13

NFC West The National Football Conference - Western Division or NFC West is one of the four Division (sport), divisions of the National Football Conference (NFC) in the National Football League (NFL). It currently has four members: the Arizona Cardinal ...

championships. McKittrick is one of only four coaches, the others being

George Seifert George Gerald Seifert (born January 22, 1940) is an American former football coach and player. He served as the head coach for the San Francisco 49ers and the Carolina Panthers of the National Football League (NFL). Seifert owned the second-grea ...

Ray Rhodes Raymond Earl Rhodes (born October 20, 1950) is a former American football player and coach. Rhodes played wide receiver and cornerback for the New York Giants and the San Francisco 49ers. He served as the head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles an ...

and

Bill McPherson William McPherson (September 22, 1897 – July 1976) was a Scottish-American soccer wing half. He began his career in Scotland before moving to the American Soccer League. He also spent time in the St. Louis Soccer League, winning a total of fiv ...

, to be a part of all five of the 49ers'

-winning teams. McKittrick's success derived from his ability to get the most effect out of unheralded talent. The 49ers' offensive line that won the various Super Bowls consisted of only one player drafted in the first round.

Death and legacy

In January 1999, McKittrick was diagnosed with

cholangiocarcinoma Cholangiocarcinoma, also known as bile duct cancer, is a type of cancer that forms in the bile ducts. Symptoms of cholangiocarcinoma may include abdominal pain, yellowish skin, weight loss, generalized itching, and fever. Light colored stool ...

(cancer of the

bile duct A bile duct is any of a number of long tube-like structures that carry bile, and is present in most vertebrates. Bile is required for the digestion of food and is secreted by the liver into passages that carry bile toward the hepatic duct. It ...

) and died 14 months later. Later that same year, he was named to the

Oregon Sports Hall of Fame The Oregon Sports Hall of Fame honors Oregon athletes, teams, coaches, and others who have made a significant contribution to sports in Oregon. The first class was inducted in 1980, with new inductees added in the fall. Operated by the Oregon Sports ...

for his excellence in coaching.

Bobb McKittrick Award

This award is given annually to the 49ers offensive lineman who best exemplifies the dedication, excellence and commitment of offensive line coach Bobb McKittrick, a five-time Super Bowl champion. In 1999, the San Francisco 49ers, under the direction of Bill Walsh, established the Bobb McKittrick Award. The award is meant to honor those offensive linemen who have best represented the courage, intensity and sacrifice displayed by the late Coach McKittrick during his 21 years of service with the 49ers. “Bobb gave distinguished service to the organization since our renaissance in 1979. He was a vital factor in five Super Bowl championships, the evolution of a dynasty and in the production of some of the finest offensive linemen in football. Offensive linemen don’t receive the recognition they so richly deserve. This gives us a venue to honor their sacrifices and achievements”, Walsh said. A bronze plaque of McKittrick hangs in the 49ers locker room surrounded by the photographs of the McKittrick Award winners.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McKittrick, Bobb San Francisco 49ers coaches Oregon State Beavers football players Oregon State Beavers football coaches UCLA Bruins football coaches Los Angeles Rams coaches San Diego Chargers coaches 1935 births 2000 deaths Deaths from cholangiocarcinoma Deaths from cancer in California People from Baker City, Oregon