The Men Who Made The Game: Don Shula
Vince Lombardi | Johnny Unitas | Paul Brown | Tom Landry | Bill Walsh | Chuck Noll
UKEndZone’s new series takes a look at the men and characters who shaped the National Football League. Andrew Symes and Neil Dutton delve into the lives and careers of the great and the controversial figures who made the game what it is today.
I don’t know any other way than to lead by example — Don Shula
By Andrew Symes
When any list of the greatest achievements in NFL history is brought up, the Miami Dolphins perfect season of 1972 is always towards the top, if not the ultimate. The mastermind behind the only season in which an NFL team went undefeated, including a Super Bowl victory was Don Shula.
Donald Francis Shula was born in Grand River, Ohio, in January 1930. He was the oldest of seven children born to Dan and Mary Shula, who were Hungarian immigrants. He had a passion for football from an early age, but when he suffered a cut to his face as an eleven year old, his mother forbade him from playing the sport. When he was 15, however, a high school coach noticed him in the school gymnasium and convinced Shula to sign up for the football team. Knowing his parents would never allow it, he forged their signatures and joined.
Having been a relatively successful high school player, Shula looked to continue his career into college, but was unable to find a school willing to offer him a scholarship in a hyper competitive post-war market. Finally, a small college in the Cleveland suburbs — John Carroll University — gave him a chance with a one year scholarship. Shula never looked back. He graduated in 1951 and was drafted by the Cleveland Browns — the reigning NFL champions — in the ninth round, number 110 overall, and signed as a cornerback.
His playing career was disrupted when he was called up to the National Guard with the Korean War ongoing, but Shula returned to the Browns towards the end of the 1952 season, when the Browns lost in the NFL Championship game for the second consecutive season. He found himself traded to the newly created Baltimore Colts before the start of the next season, starting his relationship with a franchise that would give him his first head coaching position. Shula was never the greatest player but showed an eye for an interception, reading offenses well and jumping routes.
After playing for seven seasons in the NFL, including one season in Washington, Shula hung up his helmet as a player and began to embark on his coaching journey. His breaks initially came in college football, when he worked as an assistant at the University of Virginia, then the University of Kentucky, before he was given a shot as defensive coordinator with the Detroit Lions in 1960. Leaning on his own personal experiences, which players found they could relate to, he was able to help mould the Lions into a defensive powerhouse, leading the league in the fewest yards allowed during the 1962 season, with specific emphasis on a stingy pass defense.
He was still relatively untried and untested when a head coaching opportunity came by way of the Baltimore Colts. Shula, who was just 33 at the time, was offered the position, and full of self-confidence, he happily took the job. The Colts had been going through a barren spell, despite the presence of Johnny Unitas at quarterback, with a lack of team spirit a concern that was cited by owner Carroll Rosenbloom.
A solid first season in charge saw Shula lead the Colts to an 8–6 campaign, before his team took off with a 12–2 record the following season. It would culminate in a Championship game loss, but saw Shula named Coach of the Year. Riding the arm of Unitas, the Colts were perennial contenders, and Shula built a defense that provided a strong force with which to be reckoned, looking to be aggressive and create turnovers wherever possible.
Shula spent seven seasons in Baltimore, and despite posting winning seasons every year, he never managed to win the sports biggest prize, as the Colts were beaten 16–7 by Joe Namath’s New York Jets in Super Bowl III. He was starting to develop a reputation as a great regular season coach who could not get it done in the post season, something that began to hurt him.
For the 1970 season, Shula signed as head coach of the Miami Dolphins for their first season in the NFL despite still having a contract with the Colts — a highly controversial move that produced a tampering charge by the NFL. This resulted in the Dolphins having to send their first round pick in the draft that year as compensation to the Colts, who were left aggrieved by the manner of Shula’s sudden departure. Shula, with a will to win and sheer focus on producing a superior team never cared. He looked to build a winning franchise in his own image, one that would be tough and uncompromising on the field, and search for perfection.
Shula led the Dolphins to the playoffs in his first season, and to the Super Bowl in his second season, hoping to lay to rest his personal ghosts from his defeat two years previously. However, it was not to be as the Dolphins lost 24–3 to the Dallas Cowboys, with Shula’s reputation as a choker in the big games gaining more steam each year. Shula said: “When you’re 0–2 in the Super Bowl, they say unkind things about you. They say, ‘He can’t win the big one.’ And that’s the worst thing that can be said about you.” The accusations rankled him, and he was determined to put it right. “What I learned from that loss … was that when you’re there, it’s not good enough to be there, when you’re there, you better walk away with that ring.”
And so came the 1972 season, the ‘perfect season’, despite a broken leg suffered by quarterback Bob Griese. While Griese recovered in time for the playoffs, the team was led by the running of fullback Larry Csonka and running back Mercury Morris, behind a stellar offensive line and a defense that was known as the “No Name Defense”, a cohesive unit without any true stars. Shula had adjusted to a fluid defense that borrowed concepts from the 3–4 alignment, making him one of the first to bring the concept into the NFL after it had been run in the college game, particularly at Oklahoma. All together, it gave the Dolphins the basis to put together what is so far the only undefeated season in NFL history.
Shula’s team were aided by one of the softest schedules the NFL has ever seen, playing only two teams who would finish with winning records that season. They pummeled teams and made sure they took advantage, finishing first in both scoring offense and fewest points conceded on defense. The victory over Washington in Super Bowl VII gave Shula the vindication for which he had longed, finally putting him as a Super Bowl winning coach. He would then repeat the trick the next season, making him the first coach to take his team to three consecutive Super Bowls.
Shula’s success in the early 1970’s with the Dolphins was based on his team producing few mistakes which led to a run based offense, where ball security was paramount. With the power of Csonka and elusiveness of Morris, the Dolphins racked up almost 3000 yards rushing in the 1972 season alone — an average of 211 yards per game. Shula knew his teams strengths and accentuated them wherever possible.
Just as he looked primed to build a dynasty that would last for years, the Dolphins were victims of their own success. The short-lived ‘World Football League’ came along and poached many of the best players of the time, including the likes of Csonka. While the Dolphins still saw success in the regular season, they struggled to make an impact in the playoffs for the rest of the decade, particularly in the shadow of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
He had an incredible eye for details, and was known for his brutal practices — often four in a day with no water. While he concentrated on the defense, he had an uncanny awareness of what was happening on his practise field. Quarterback Bob Griese recalled: “He didn’t miss much. There was one practice, where the defense and offense were working on separate fields. He was 60, 70 yards away with the defense. I ran a little bootleg and I was walking back to the huddle, and he hollers, “Hey, Griese, get your ass in gear! Run back to that huddle!” I’m still not sure how he saw that.”
Throughout his career, Shula was willing to mould his teams playing style to the strengths of his roster. Upon his retirement, Shula commented: “I think what coaching is all about, is taking players and analysing their ability, [and] put them in a position where they can excel within the framework of the team winning. And I hope that I’ve done that in my 33 years as a head coach.”
His early teams were built on powerful run-oriented offenses with opportunistic defenses. Later on, the drafting of Dan Marino allowed his team to enter into the passing philosophy that was engulfing the league in the 1980’s and used the talents of his quarterback to lead the team to regular season success. In 1984, Marino set the league record for passing yards in a season and threw for 48 touchdowns, records that stood until recently. Following a 45–28 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers in the playoffs after the 1984 season, the LA Times wrote: “Only three years ago, in fact, as a college senior at Pitt, he [Marino] was so ineffective that 27 of the 28 pro clubs would have nothing to do with him in the first round of the draft. What Marino needs is a passing system that fits his talent. And Shula gives him that.”
Shula coached with the Dolphins until 1995, taking them to two more Super Bowls in 1982 and 1984. Despite the presence of Marino at quarterback from 1983, he was unable to win the big games, finishing with a 2–4 record in Super Bowls and post season winning record of 19–17. His 347 career wins, including the post season, are the most by any NFL head coach, an average of almost ten wins per year in the regular season. Considering many of his seasons were 14 games long, it shows an incredible amount of consistency and longevity, with only two losing seasons in 33 years.
He was inducted into the Pro Football Half of Fame in 1997 and still gives his opinion on the game, even at the age of 85. Having built a legacy on winning and creating the benchmark in wins for all other coaches to aspire to, who could begrudge him that?
You can find Andrew on Twitter @asymes86, check out more in the ‘Men Who Made The Game’ series here, and join in the conversation @UKEndZone
