Benefield: Famed Bay Area outdoorsman, hall of fame athlete and coach Billy Gianquinto dies

In nearly eight decades of living, Billy Gianquinto packed a lot in.

He was a Hall of Fame high school quarterback, suited up alongside O.J. Simpson at San Francisco City College, coached for 10 years at Piner High School, became a world-renowned duck caller, a top-tier NCAA basketball official and was inducted into the California Outdoors Hall of Fame.

“He was probably one of the better characters,” said Rudy Lapera, Gianquinto’s friend since childhood growing up in San Francisco. “But he was a genuine guy, very dependable. He was just one of those guys, just a good guy.”

Gianquinto died Dec. 14 after a lengthy illness. He was 78.

Gianquinto was the younger of two boys born to a cabdriver and homemaker in San Francisco’s Castro neighborhood, Lapera said.

He was born on Halloween, which Lapera said was fitting.

“He was a character,” he said.

As a teenager, Gianquinto’s mode of transportation for getting around the city was a Vespa scooter, which made it convenient for him to test out his “siren call” while buzzing around the city.

“It was a pretty good one,” Lapera said. “We’ve pulled over a few cars. He loved to do it in the Broadway Tunnel.”

Gianquinto was quarterback for the Sacred Heart High School Fighting Irish, playing well enough to eventually get inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame.

He went to University of Idaho briefly but returned home to San Francisco where he played alongside Lapera and a young O.J. Simpson at San Francisco City College.

After two years, he matriculated to San Francisco State.

After graduation, Lapera hired his buddy to coach freshman football at Sacred Heart.

Gianquinto was hired in 1975 to take over head coaching duties at Piner High School. He held that position until 1985.

“Billy was an outstanding high school quarterback in San Francisco,” said legendary Piner High School coach Jim Underhill. “By playing quarterback, he understood offensive and defensive football. This carried over to his head football job at Piner High School where he was highly successful.”

Gianquinto was inducted into the Piner High Hall of Fame in 2015.

Gianquinto taught physical education at Santa Rosa Junior High for years, while spending countless evenings and weekends officiating basketball.

When he retired from reffing in 2009, he had been at it for more than five decades, logging 916 NCAA Div. 1 games, including four NCAA tournament games.

He was on the court officiating in 1990 when Loyola Marymount superstar Hank Gathers collapsed and died.

But friends say it was the outdoors — hunting and fishing — that were his true loves.

Gianquinto was a world-class duck caller, inventor of duck whistles and host of numerous outdoor shows, including “Ducks with Billy and Buck” that starred himself and his black Labrador “Buck.”

His know-how took him and his television show to film in every state in the union, as well as Canada, Argentina, Uruguay, Australia and New Zealand.

Anything Gianquinto put his mind to, he could do, Lapera said.

“Almost anything he did he was good at,” he said.

In 2011, Gianquinto was inducted into the California Outdoors Hall of Fame, where his name is alongside those of Ansel Adams, John Muir, Royal Robbins and Kit Carson.

He is credited with leading scores of fundraisers for wetlands protection, conducting countless seminars for the California Waterfowl Association, all while hosting his television programs.

When outdoor writer, and fellow Hall of Famer Tom Stienstra gave Gianquinto’s induction speech, he noted Gianquinto’s list of accomplishments, volunteer gigs and prodigious energy.

“The guy is amazing,” he said. “There is a finite amount of time. I don’t know how you’ve done it, to be honest, because you’ve done the work of like five people.”

“That’s why I’m not married!” Gianquinto said, to great chuckles in the audience.

Gianquinto was briefly married decades ago and had no children, friends said.

But many of Gianquinto’s players looked to him as family.

Mike Moran knew of the coach before he ever suited up to play football at Piner.

“My father was coach at Santa Rosa for years, so I met him when I was a little kid,” he said.

After Moran’s Hall of Fame career at Piner, Gianquinto got his former player into hunting.

“We’d hunt together, we went fishing a lot for salmon outside the Golden Gate and in Bodega,” he said.

When Gianquinto was on one of his many hunting or fishing excursions, he’d let guys hang out on his ranch.

When Moran had kids, he included Gianquinto in their lives.

And when Gianquinto’s log cabin home burned to the ground in 2021, Moran and other former players (some of whom helped build the structure in 1980) came to his aid.

“He was just a guy you wanted to be around,” he said. “He’d put himself out there, he’d do stuff for you. He was a good guy. Deep down, he was a great guy.”

Underhill remembered his former colleague as exuberant and deeply generous.

“I thought the world of Billy,” Underhill said. “He had a great personality and a lot of energy.”

Gianquinto was predeceased by his parents and his older brother, Albert.

Services are pending.

You can reach Staff Columnist Kerry Benefield at 707-526-8671 or kerry.benefield@pressdemocrat.com. On Instagram @kerry.benefield.