Late football coach leaves winning legacy

America has sustained another terrible loss in this year that’s seen far too many of them. One of the nation’s most admired sports figures is gone.

Don Shula is best remembered for leading the 1972Miami Dolphins to a 17-0record and a Super Bowl championship.

Don Shula, the winningest coach in NFL history, died last week at the age of 90.

He is best remembered for leading the 1972 Miami Dolphins to a 17-0 record and a Super Bowl championship. As each year passes without any team matching the feat of an undefeated season, the accomplishment seems even more impressive.

It’s worth noting that one of the great teams that came close — the 1985 Chicago Bears — were stymied by Shula’s own Dolphins.

But Shula is remembered for far more than just that one season. Just as important was his teams’ sustained excellence over more than three decades.

In his 33 years as a head coach, his teams won a record 328 regular-season games, lost 156 and tied 6. Counting playoff appearances, he won a whopping 347 games. He presided over just two losing seasons in a career that lasted from 1963 to 1995. Shula still holds the NFL records for games coached (526) and total victories. His teams won 10 or more games in a season 21 times and reached the playoffs 19 times. He was coach of the year four times, yet another record.

Consider this: The great New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick has a chance to break Shula’s career wins record, but he’ll have to keep coaching into his 70s to achieve it.

Shula’s biography is remarkable. He became head coach of the Colts at the age of just 33, the youngest ever to hold that title in the NFL at the time. Those teams were successful, but Shula’s only NFL championship win with the Colts was marred by their shocking loss to the AFL champion New York Jets in the 1969 Super Bowl.

The resilient Shula returned to the Super Bowl with the Dolphins just three years later, recorded the perfect season a year after that, and followed that up with a second Super Bowl title. Though there were plenty of disappointments in the last two decades of his career, his teams consistently won, registering two more Super Bowl appearances.

What’s particularly noteworthy about Shula’s death is that he was one of the last surviving coaches who worked in the NFL prior to its merger with the AFL and the enormous changes to the game and growth in popularity that went with it.

Shula adapted well. His early teams, including the champion Dolphins, relied heavily on grinding out games through lots of running and stifling defense. When Dan Marino was his quarterback in the 1980s and 1990s, the team won with a high-flying passing game.

Some may wonder why so much fuss is made about people like Shula and other legendary old-school coaches such as Vince Lombardi and Paul Brown.

It’s not just because many people are obsessed with sports, though there’s no denying that’s a factor. A big part of it is that such extraordinary individuals symbolize what has made America great — a relentless drive for excellence in their own work and in those around them. The Dolphins went 3-10 the season before Shula arrived in Miami in 1970. With the legendary coach at the helm, the team achieved a 10-4 record in his first season, followed by three straight Super Bowl appearances and two more decades of consistent winning. This was a man who made a difference.

There’s also something powerfully American about the rise of individuals from humble backgrounds. Shula was born in a tiny Ohio town to immigrant parents. Thanks to his parents’ hard work and his own, he was able to become one of the most famous men in America.

Even after his football career ended, Shula kept a fairly high profile. He lent his name to a popular chain of steakhouses and made many appearances on TV to talk about his Dolphins teams, especially at the point each year when the last undefeated team in the NFL recorded its first loss.

Though the once notoriously tough coach had a sweet, grandfatherly air in his later years, he never stopped being competitive. That’s the mark of a winner.