Michael Ruben Wilson (born December 19, 1958) is 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 wi ...

coach and former wide receiver for 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 ...

of 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 ...

(NFL). He is one of only a few NFL players to be a member of four Super Bowl championship teams. He played college football at

Washington State University Washington State University (Washington State, WSU, or informally Wazzu) is a public land-grant research university with its flagship, and oldest, campus in Pullman, Washington. Founded in 1890, WSU is also one of the oldest land-grant uni ...

Early years

Wilson attended Carson High School where he played in a run-oriented offense and received All-Los Angeles City honors. He also practiced

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

and track. He graduated in 1976 and accepted a football scholarship from

. Although he struggled with dropped passes as a sophomore, that would end up being his best season, registering 31 receptions for 451 yards and 3

touchdown A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchdown by advancing the ball into the opponent's end zone. In Amer ...

s. The next year

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

Jack Thompson Jack Thompson may refer to: Sports * Jack Thompson (footballer, born 1892) (1892–1969), English footballer who played for Sheffield United and Bristol City * Jack Thompson (1920s footballer), English footballer who played for Aston Villa and Brig ...

graduated and the offense changed to a ground attack, with him playing the role of a blocking wide receiver in his last two seasons. As a junior, he posted 6 receptions for 80 yards and 3

s. As a senior, he was slowed down by a hamstring injury that forced him to miss 4 games, making 11 receptions for 212 yards. He finished his college career with 48 receptions for 743 yards (15.5-yard average), 6

s and 176 rushing yards.

Professional career

Dallas Cowboys

Wilson was selected by the

Dallas Cowboys The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Cowboys compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East divi ...

in the ninth round (246th overall) of the 1981 NFL Draft. At the time of his arrival, the team already had in its roster Drew Pearson, Tony Hill,

Butch Johnson Richard Andrew "Butch" Johnson (born August 30, 1955 in Worcester, Massachusetts) is an archer from Woodstock, Connecticut in the United States. He has competed in the Summer Olympics five times, and was a part of the gold medal U.S. team at th ...

and also drafted

Doug Donley Douglas Max Donley (born February 6, 1959) is a former American football wide receiver in the National Football League (NFL) for the Dallas Cowboys and Chicago Bears. He was selected in the second round of the 1981 NFL Draft. He played college ...

in the second round that year. He was waived on August 24, after the team decided to keep only four wide receivers.

San Francisco 49ers

On August 27,

1981 Events January * January 1 ** Greece enters the European Economic Community, predecessor of the European Union. ** Palau becomes a self-governing territory. * January 10 – Salvadoran Civil War: The FMLN launches its first major offensiv ...

, he signed as a

free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...

with the

, where he earned the team's third wide receiver job behind

Dwight Clark Dwight Edward Clark (January 8, 1957 – June 4, 2018) was an American professional football player who was a wide receiver for nine seasons with the San Francisco 49ers of the National Football League (NFL) from 1979 He was a member of San ...

and

Freddie Solomon Freddie Solomon (January 11, 1953 – February 13, 2012) was a professional American football player who was selected by the Miami Dolphins in the 2nd round of the 1975 NFL Draft. A native of Sumter, South Carolina, he was a graduate of Sumt ...

. He also registered 12

special teams In American football, the specific role that a player takes on the field is referred to as their "position". Under the modern rules of American football, both teams are allowed 11 players on the field at one time and have "unlimited free substitu ...

tackles, on a season when the franchise won its first Super Bowl. On September 9, 1982, he was placed on the

injured reserve list The injured reserve list ( IR list) is a designation used in North American professional sports leagues for athletes who suffer injuries and become unable to play. The exact name of the list varies by league; it is known as "injured reserve" in th ...

. In the

1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning ...

NFC championship game, he had one of his best performances after replacing an injured Clark and finishing with 8 receptions for 57 yards and 2

s in a losing effort. He became a starter in

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Bicenten ...

after Clark retired, but the next year he was passed over by John Taylor who would remain the starter playing alongside

Jerry Rice Jerry Lee Rice (born October 13, 1962) is an American former professional football wide receiver who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 20 seasons. Known primarily as a member of the San Francisco 49ers, winning three championsh ...

. His combination of size and strength was not common at the time for a wide receiver, so he was also used as a

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. Lik ...

in some passing situations. Wilson retired in

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phi ...

, after the team did not offer him a contract. He helped the 49ers win 4 Super Bowls, 4 NFC Championships and qualify for the NFL post-season in 9 out of his 10 seasons.

Coaching career

He began his coaching career at Stanford (1992–94) where he coached wide receivers and tight ends on the staff of former 49ers coach Bill Walsh, followed by two seasons as wide receivers coach of the Oakland Raiders (1995–96). From 1997 to 1999 he served as wide receivers coach at USC. After four years in private business (2000–03), Wilson joined the Arizona Cardinals as tight ends coach in 2004. From 2005 to 2006 he coached the Cardinals wide receivers. Wilson was the wide receivers coach for the

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

franchise of the United Football League, while helping the team win two championships. He was the

Cleveland Browns The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. Named after original coach and co-founder Paul Brown, they compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (A ...

wide receivers coach from 2011 to 2012. In 2019, he became the wide receivers coach for the

Los Angeles Wildcats Los Angeles Wildcats is a name shared by several American football teams from Los Angeles: *Los Angeles Wildcats (AFL) The Los Angeles Wildcats (also reported in various media as Pacific Coast Wildcats, Los Angeles Wilson Wildcats and Wilson's ...

of the XFL.

References

External links

Mike Wilson: 10-Year Club (1981–90)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, Mike 1958 births Living people Players of American football from Los Angeles Washington State Cougars football players San Francisco 49ers players American football wide receivers Stanford Cardinal football coaches Oakland Raiders coaches USC Trojans football coaches Arizona Cardinals coaches Las Vegas Locomotives coaches Cleveland Browns coaches Los Angeles Wildcats coaches Carson High School (Carson, California) alumni Sports coaches from Los Angeles Ed Block Courage Award recipients