Don Shula — hands down the Miami Dolphins’ greatest coach — was living proof that good is great, but that perfect is priceless.
Twenty-five years after he retired, Shula died Monday at 90 with the honor of being the winningest coach in NFL history firmly intact. He earning 328 regular-season victories in 33 years with the Dolphins and the Baltimore Colts.
How lucky we were that a young Shula came to Miami from Baltimore in 1970 and stayed for the rest of his career, building a powerhouse team with the likes of Bob Griese, Dan Marino, Larry Csonka, Jim Kiick, Paul Warfield, Mercury Morris, Mark Duper and Mark Clayton.
Shula’s greatest accomplishment, of course, was leading the 1972 Dolphins to that perfect season, undefeated, yet to be repeated. The record still stands today. Even the dynamic duo of quarterback Tom Brady and New England Patriots Bill Belichick were not able to cap their undefeated season with a Super Bowl victory.
DOLPHINS’ ‘PATRIARCH’
The Dolphins franchise is well aware of their debt to Shula, too:
“Shula was the patriarch of the Miami Dolphins for 50 years,” the Dolphins said in a statement, expressing condolences to his wife, Mary Anne, and his children. “He brought the winning edge to our franchise and put the Dolphins and city of Miami in the national sports scene.”
There is no doubt.
Shula taught us that perfection is possible. He believed in hard work, discipline and God to achieve it.
To his players, Shula was tough and demanding, but find one today who won’t sing his praises for shaping them while they were still in the locker room, on the football field and in their lives long after they had left stadiums behind.
HIS LIFE LESSONS
Many of us recall Shula as a stoic, nonsense coach who seldom cracked a smile in the locker room, on the sidelines or during new conferences. And that jaw — solid titanium.
But like a true coach, he also taught not just his players, but also the rest of us, about life. About never giving up, about getting up when you’re down as happened to Shula when New York Jets quarterback Joe Namath famously guaranteed a Super Bowl win over Shula’s 1969 Colts — then made it come true in Miami’s Orange Bowl.
Shula was crushed. But the loss propelled him to the Dolphins’ first title in 1972.
Anyone who lived in South Florida during the Shula years felt that he was their coach, too.
