Don Shula

Donald Francis Shula (January 4, 1930 – May 4, 2020) played defensive back in the NFL and later became a head coach, a role he held from 1963 to 1995. He spent the bulk of his coaching career with the Miami Dolphins, and his 347 total wins (328 in the regular season) are the most in NFL history. He is widely considered one of the sport's all-time great coaches.

Shula got his first head coaching job with the Baltimore Colts, where he stayed for seven seasons. He then moved to Miami for 26 years. Under his leadership, the Dolphins won back-to-back Super Bowls (VII and VIII). The first of those titles, in 1972, remains the only perfect season in NFL history.

Shula was the first head coach to reach six Super Bowls—five with Miami and one with Baltimore. That total is second all-time among head coaches, though he also holds the record for most Super Bowl losses with four. He was the first coach to take two different franchises to the Super Bowl and the first to appear in three consecutive Super Bowls (with the Dolphins from 1971 to 1973). He is also the only head coach to lead two teams to their first Super Bowl appearance: the Colts in Super Bowl III and the Dolphins in Super Bowl VI. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1997.

Shula was born on January 4, 1930, in Grand River, Ohio, a small town on the Lake Erie shore in the northeastern part of the state. His parents, Dan and Mary Shula (born Dénes Süle and Mary Miller), were Hungarian immigrants who had come to the U.S. as children. Dan worked at a rose nursery for $9 a week and saved enough to buy the small house where Don spent his early childhood. The house sat next to a grocery store owned by Mary’s parents. As a child, Shula played football in the neighborhood, but his parents banned it after he got a gash on his face at age 11.

Shula had six siblings, including a set of triplets born in 1936. To help support the family, his father took a job in the local fishing industry for $15 a week and later worked at a rayon plant in nearby Painesville, Ohio. Shula attended St. Mary’s, a private Catholic elementary school in Painesville. His mother was a devout Catholic, and his father converted to Catholicism when they married.

Shula went to Harvey High School in Painesville, where he joined the football team in 1945. He hadn’t tried out because his mother had forbidden it and because he was recovering from pneumonia, but an assistant coach spotted him in gym class and convinced him to play. Shula forged his parents’ signatures to sign up.

Within weeks, he was a starting left halfback in the school’s single-wing offense. He handled most of the team’s rushing and passing, and in his senior year helped lead Harvey to a 7–3 record—the school’s first seven-win season in 18 years. The team would have won a league title if not for an early loss to Willoughby. Shula also ran the 440-yard dash and earned 11 varsity letters over three years.

When Shula graduated high school in 1947, many men whose football careers had been delayed by World War II were returning and competing for college scholarships. Shula couldn’t get one and considered working for a year before college. That summer, he ran into former Painesville coach Howard Bauchman at a gas station, who suggested he ask about a scholarship at John Carroll University.

Shula received a one-year scholarship to the private Jesuit school in University Heights, a Cleveland suburb. It became a full scholarship after he performed well as a freshman, including a win over Youngstown State in October 1948, when he ran for 175 yards and two touchdowns while substituting for an injured starter. That same year, after a three-day retreat, Shula considered becoming a Catholic priest but decided against it because of his commitment to football.

In his senior year (1950), he rushed for 125 yards in a win over a heavily favored Syracuse team.

Shula graduated in 1951 with a sociology major and a math minor. He was offered a job teaching and coaching at Canton Lincoln High School in Canton, Ohio, for $3,750 a year. But the Cleveland Browns had selected him in the ninth round of the 1951 draft that January. Cleveland had won the NFL championship the previous year, led by a strong defense and an offense featuring quarterback Otto Graham, fullback Marion Motley, and end Dante Lavelli. Browns coach Paul Brown also drafted Shula’s John Carroll teammate Carl Taseff in the 22nd round, partly because John Carroll coach Herb Eisele used similar schemes and terminology. Shula and Taseff were the only rookies to make the team in 1951. Shula signed a $5,000-a-year contract and played defensive back alongside Warren Lahr and Tommy James.

Shula played in all 12 games in 1951, starting for the first time in October, and recorded four interceptions. The Browns finished 11–1 and reached the championship game for the second straight year, but lost 24–17 to the Los Angeles Rams in Los Angeles.

In January 1952, Shula’s Ohio Army National Guard unit was activated during the Korean War.