The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
LEGENDARY COACH DON SHULA DIES
Don Shula, the only coach to lead his team to a perfect season in the 100 years of the NFL and the winningest coach in league history, has died.
Shula was 90 when he passed away on May 4 of unspecified causes.
“If there were a Mount Rushmore for the NFL, Don Shula certainly would be chiseled into the granite,” Dolphins owner Stephen Ross said in a statement.
“We were so fortunate to have him associated with the Dolphins for 50 years, and he was a source of inspiration to me every time I was around him. There will never be anyone like him, and I want to extend my condolences to his wife, Mary Anne, and the entire Shula family.”
Shula coached the Baltimore Colts from 196369 and the Dolphins from 1970-95.
He was proud of the 17-0 record the Dolphins posted in 1972 on their way to a Super Bowl championship. He was proud of leading the Colts and Dolphins to 347 total victories, and he was proud of his Northeast Ohio roots.
Shula was born in Grand River on Jan. 4, 1930, graduated from Harvey High School in Painesville and then graduated from John Carroll University before marrying his first wife, Dorothy Bartish, of Painesville, who passed away from breast cancer in 1991. One of the highlights of his John Carroll football career was rushing for 125 yards as a senior to help the Blue Streaks upset Syracuse, 2115.
Shula was drafted by the Browns in 1951 to play defensive back. He was traded to the Colts after the 1952 season, played four seasons in Baltimore and finished his career with the Redskins in 1957.
But this obituary on one of the biggest legends in NFL history is getting ahead of itself.
Thomas Wolfe, in his novel “Look Homeward, Angel,” wrote “Every moment is a window on all time.”
Shula’s moment that redirected his life forever occurred one summer day when he was 18.
“When I got out of high school, the veterans were coming home from World War II and they were getting all the scholarships,” Shula said in a 2010 interview with The News-Herald.
“I had a good senior year at Harvey, but I wasn’t getting any scholarship offers. So that summer I decided I would work a year and then go to college.
“I pulled into a gas station one day and Howard Bauchman, who had been the coach at Painesville and then went on to Cleveland Heights, saw me and asked me what I was going to do. I told him and he said, ‘Don’t do that. I have this friend, Herb Eisele, who just got the head coaching job at John Carroll. I’ll set up an interview for you and see what he could do to help you financially.’
“He set up the interview, and Herb said he could give me a scholarship for tuition only the first year. If I did OK it would include room, board and books plus tuition the following years. I had a good freshman year, and I got a full scholarship after that first year.
“I think about needing gas that day a lot. It’s amazing how events shape the direction your life takes.”
Shula being selected by the Browns in the ninth round and his John Carroll teammate, Carl Taseff, being drafted by Browns coach Paul Brown was no coincidence. Brown was interested in the two John Carroll teammates because Eisele attended Brown’s coaching clinics and taught similar schemes to his players.
Shula majored in sociology and minored in mathematics at John Carroll — where the Blue Streaks’ home field is named Don Shula Stadium — with the goal of becoming a coach because he did not want to follow his father and become a commercial fisherman. Grand River was a fishing village of about 500 when Shula was a teenager.
“One of the early summer jobs I had was going out with him on the boat and learning how to fillet fish and pack them and ship them out in ice and do all the things you had to do,” Shula said.
“I never got used to the rough seas. I’d get seasick a lot when I’d go out on Lake Erie. When I got to Miami, everybody wanted to take me deep sea fishing. I said, ‘No thanks. I’ve had enough of seasickness.’”
Shula was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1997, two years after he retired from coaching. He played under two Hall of Fame coaches in Brown with the Browns and Weeb Ewbank with the Colts.
Shula said Brown influenced him more than any coach he played for because Brown taught in the classroom, made sure players were tedious note takers, and then Brown taught them on the field. Shula said he did the same thing with his players.
“The Game has lost one of the greats today, but we have all lost a truly incredible man,” Hall of Fame president David Baker said in a statement at Shula’s passing.
“Hall of Fame Coach Don Shula served as an ambassador for this great game for more than half a century. His legendary feats on the gridiron led him to a record 347 wins to become the winningest coach in NFL history and allowed him to lead the 1972 Dolphins to the only perfect season in NFL history.
“Coach Shula was a man who truly loved the game and I have often been moved by the deep respect and affection he was always afforded by the men who played for him.”
Two years after retiring as a player, Shula was the defensive backs coach at Kentucky in 1959 under Blanton Collier. Collier was his position coach when Shula played for the Browns.
Collier was named head coach of the Browns in 1963. Shula was hired as head coach of the Colts the same year, and being 33 at the time was the youngest head coach in NFL history at the time.
The Browns and Colts met in the 1964 NFL championship game. Shula’s Colts were heavy favorites, but the Browns won, 27-0, in stunning fashion. They haven’t won another title since.
Shula got his revenge four years later. He was still coaching Baltimore and Collier was still coaching the Browns when the Colts beat the Browns, 34-0, in the 1968 NFL championship. But that was the third year of the Super Bowl, and the Colts became the first NFL team to lose a Super Bowl to an AFL team when Joe Namath and the Jets pulled a shocking 16-7 upset.
Shula was 2-4 in Super Bowls to go with the loss to the Browns in 1964. He is not remembered for that, though. He is remembered for going 17-0 in 1972 and finishing off the perfect season by beating the Redskins, 14-7, at Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles. In 1985, the Dolphins handed the Bears their only loss of the season on “Monday Night Football” in Miami.
“When you have a chance to do something nobody else had ever done, that became very important,” Shula said in 2010.
“I was 0-2 in Super Bowls before that. I wanted to get back to the Super Bowl and win it. If we had lost a game or two along the way and won the Super Bowl, it would have been a great year. But winning all the games and the Super Bowl made it a special year.”
Shula married Mary Anne Stephens in 1993. He was confined to a wheelchair late in life, yet he remained involved in the 32 Don Shula Steakhouses across the country.
Shula passed away with his two most cherished records untouched. He admitted celebrating when the final undefeated team falls each season. Sometimes it took longer than others.
“You can’t help but think about it because it’s always brought up,” Shula said. “The fact nobody has done it tells you just how tough it is to do.”
Bill Belichick is 68. He has been a head coach 25 years – five with the Browns and 20 with the Patriots. He has 273 regular season victories plus 31 more playoff wins, including six Super Bowl championships. Belichick, justly lauded for all his success, still trails Shula by 43 total wins. Shula coached 33 years.
Former Ohio State coach Jim Tressel responded by email for a 2010 story on Shula.
“He is truly the perfect example of a coach.” Tressel wrote
“The tradition and pride Don Shula has contributed to the game of football and the state of Ohio are immeasurable. He is certainly an icon.”
Tressel’s response is just as relevant 10 years later on the day of Don Shula’s passing.