The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
“He will be remembered by most for his Hall of Fame NFL coaching career,” said JCU president Dr. Michael D. Johnson in a prepared statement. “But his impact on our community cannot be overlooked.
Hall of Fame coach, alum wowed students during speech about growing up, career
It had been 57 years since Don Shula had roamed the halls of the old Harvey High School building at 167 West Washington Street in Painesville.
And yet, on a Friday afternoon in 2004, it was as if he never left.
He had a sense where to go — in that building and, as an evergreen example of what could be possible for generations in his community, throughout the course of his life.
Shula, a 1947 Harvey graduate and the NFL’s all-time winningest coach, died May 4. He was 90.
His death struck a somber tone for the communities in which he made his mark in his childhood and young adulthood — in Grand River, where he grew up, and in Painesville, after becoming indisputably the most famous Red Raider of all.
For Harvey graduate and former longtime Red Raiders athletic director Mike Mohner, it particularly elicited memories.
In 2004, Mohner was able to get Shula to come back to his old stomping grounds, a series of events that especially strikes a chord today.
“Wow, what a great story,” Mohner said with pride.
In 2004, Mohner received mail that noted Shula was slated to be a guest speaker at a Lake County Visitors Bureau event at LaMalfa.
Mohner wondered if he could convince Shula to trek just a few more miles east to his old high school.
After garnering approval from the principal and superintendent, Mohner called the visitors bureau director, Bob Ulas, to see what could be done.
“You could hear a pin drop in that place. I don’t think I’ve experienced anything like that ever before. It was like having the President of the United States speak at your school.” — Harvey graduate and former longtime Athletic Director Mike Mohner
“He said, ‘Well, I’ve got a contact number for you, but I’m telling you: Don is very regimented,’ “Mohner said. “To get Don to do something, it’s got to be really, really regimented. It’s kind of like a coach.
“So I called down (to Florida) and talked to a rep in his office, a secretary or something like that. We explained our situation. And gosh, within a couple of days, we got a call back that said that Don would like to do that. And we’re like, ‘Woah!’”
When Mohner and longtime Harvey alumni association official Don Wheeler picked up Shula from LaMalfa, Shula informed them he had not truly been back to his alma mater for a visit since graduation.
Given the timeline, it made perfect sense.
After graduating from Harvey, Shula went on to John Carroll, then a tenure as a defensive back in the NFL, including two years with the Browns.
Once his playing days concluded, he jumped into coaching, with college stops at Virginia and Kentucky before coming into the NFL as an assistant with the Lions in 1960.
From there in the NFL, it was to the Colts as head coach, then the Dolphins and, eventually, immortality.
“So there wasn’t much time, the way his career progressed, for him to have a comeback,” Mohner said.
Taking the advice on a Shula visit to heart, Mohner strictly mapped out his afternoon
at Harvey.
The former Harvey building had two parts, the “old” section where Shula had gone to school, and a “new” addition completed in 1970.
Mohner would bring Shula up to the main entrance of the “new” portion of the school, through the lobby, where the trophy cases sat, and up the steps into the gymnasium for a assembly before Harvey’s student body.
There was just one problem.
“So we get everything set, and we can’t find Shula,” Mohner said with a hearty laugh. “We’re ready to go — where is Don Shula?
“Don just went off on his own. So we finally found him in the main office on the second floor, talking to the secretaries up there and just being a great, affable guy.”
Shula wandered into what, to him, would have been the more familiar part of Harvey, including venturing into what in 2004 was the school’s auxiliary gym. During Shula’s Harvey tenure, it was the main competition gym.
Mohner asked Shula if he would be interested in saying a few words to the student body.
“So he got up there, and I’m telling you: It was 20 minutes at minimum, 20 minutes to a half-hour, and that ceremony was locked,” Mohner said. “You could hear a pin drop in that place. I don’t think I’ve experienced anything like that ever before. It was like having the President of the United States speak at your school.”
Shula regaled the audience with tales of his days at Harvey and its impact on him, as well as a story about recruiting another of its greatest exports, John Mummey, as an assistant for Blanton Collier at Kentucky in in 1959. Alas, Shula knew as a Northeast Ohio product, he was fighting an uphill battle for the prized running back.
“But Woody (Hayes) wanted him, and Woody got whatever he wanted,” Mohner said.
Afterward, Shula was taken to the library for a reception, at which he caught up with familiar faces, including a few of his surviving teammates from the gridiron for the Red Raiders.
Since Shula was not in town when he was inducted into Harvey’s halls of fame, he received his plaques from longtime Harvey assistant principal Ron Balogh for the alumni hall and legendary former Red Raiders football coach and athletic director Dick Beeler for the athletic hall.
“Boy, it was such a memorable event,” Mohner said.
Despite Shula being unable to come back home regularly, his presence was always felt with his school’s football team.
For much of the ‘80s and ‘90s, Shula sent practice pants the Dolphins no longer were using up to Ohio for Harvey’s use. That came about, in part, through Shula’s relationship with Tony Cimaglio, a beloved figure to generations in Painesville who was a longtime coach and equipment manager for the football team.
Shula had spent his elementary school years at St. Mary’s in Painesville, where Mohner’s father, Albert, worked the school’s annual carnival. For a raffle prize, a signed Colts football was donated during the 1963-64 school year.
“You’re talking about a football signed by the Baltimore Colts,” Mohner said. “So now you’re talking Johnny Unitas, Lenny Moore, Big Daddy Lipscomb — you’re talking about all these Hall of Famers in football, and that ball was in my room for about a month and then we had to give it away. I’m like, ‘Why can’t I have this ball?’ I’ll never forget that.”
He also won’t forget the time at the old Municipal Stadium in 1966 when the Colts were in town.
“We had the worst seats in the stadium,” Mohner joked. “We were in the first row of the lower deck behind home plate. You couldn’t see anything. Shula walked by, and dad yelled to him. He recognized my dad, which was really something I’ll remember. That was really cool.”
As was that magical Friday afternoon when Harvey’s most famous alumnus came back home for a day and took a walk around the school that helped forged his formative years and set a glowing example in the process.
“I’ll tell you, as excited as I was in 2004, it’s multiplied 10-fold over the years,” Mohner said. “We’ve been able to reminisce about that with so many people. And with his passing, it just brings it all back.
“Without question, when you think of Harvey High School, the first name you look in the Hall of Fame and that is Don Shula. It’s amazing how many people from other schools have walked around and go, ‘We didn’t know Don Shula went to school here.’ That jumps off the wall. There’s no question about that.”
Coming soon
For a detailed look at Shula’s athletic career at Harvey, and reaction to his example locally, check back May 5 online and in the May 6 print edition.