Don Shula Dynasty

Lore & Background

The Shula family moved to Detroit in 1960 and Baltimore in 1963, following Don Shula's career in the NFL. The family settled in Miami Lakes, Florida in 1970, where Dave Shula was a high school football and baseball player at Hollywood Chaminade High School. Shula was a star wide receiver at Dartmouth College, where he graduated with a degree in history in 1981. Shula's career as an NFL player was a brief one-season appearance as a wide receiver and punt returner with the Baltimore Colts in 1981.

He began his coaching career with the Miami Dolphins in 1982, under his father as head coach. In 1989, Shula was hired by Jimmy Johnson to be his offensive coordinator for the Dallas Cowboys, a position he held for two seasons. Shula clashed with players due to trust differences and was demoted from that position after the 1990 season, and soon thereafter left the Cowboys to take an assistant coaching position with the Cincinnati Bengals in 1991.

In 1992, Shula was named head coach of the Bengals. At age 32, he was one of the youngest men to achieve such a position with an NFL team. The younger Shula faced off against his father twice, dubbed Shula Bowl I and Shula Bowl II by the media, the first father and son head coaches to face each other in NFL history. Don's Dolphins beat Dave's Bengals in both games, 23–7 in 1994 and 26–23 in 1995.

Both games were played in Cincinnati. The younger Shula's stint with the Bengals was unsuccessful and the team was dismal during the 1990s. The team compiled a 19–52 record over Shula's four and a half years at the helm. Infamously, Shula was hired over Kansas City Chiefs defensive coordinator Bill Cowher.

Cowher took the head coaching position with the rival Pittsburgh Steelers that same offseason and went on to have a 22–9 career record against the Bengals, the most wins he had against any team as a head coach. This included an 8–1 record against Shula. The Bengals fired Shula after starting the 1996 season 1–6. Shula lost 50 games faster than any NFL coach in history, in 69 games.

Shula surpassed former Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach John McKay as the fastest coach to 50 losses to begin an NFL coaching career. After a 22-year absence from coaching, Dave Shula was hired as a wide receivers coach by Dartmouth College on March 29, 2018.

Reader's Guide

Dave Shula attended Hollywood Chaminade High School, not Miami Lakes High School. He played for the Baltimore Colts in 1981, not the Miami Dolphins. He was hired as offensive coordinator for the Dallas Cowboys in 1989, not wide receivers coach.