Ohio's Own, NFL Legend Don Shula Passes Away At Age 90
The NFL learned it had lost one of its most iconic figures upon hearing the news that Don Shula passed away Monday morning. Shula was the ultimate football coach and his impact on the game touched three different generations. From the buttoned up, picture of excellence that coached Johnny Unitas and the Baltimore Colt in the 1960s to the laid back, always dignified, grandfatherly coach that led the Miami Dolphins into the 90s, Shula, the living embodiment of class. He entered the league with one all-time great quarterback in Otto Graham and finished with another in Dan Marino.
Shula's 327 wins, the undefeated season in 1972, which has never been matched, the NFL Championship and two Super Bowls he won, all started in Grand River, Ohio in 1930. Shula attended John Carroll University and played the first two seasons of his NFL career with the Cleveland Browns.
Shula helped to establish what has become one of the most famous football legacies when it comes to coaching at John Carroll, which continues to have a network of coaches, executives and athletic directors flourishing at all levels of the game of football.
While any number of people will always know Shula for what he did in cities like Baltimore and Miami, the state of Ohio will always know Shula as someone who loved the state he was born in until the very end, staying connected to it throughout his life. An NFL man his whole life, starting in Cleveland in 1951, Shula was a part of the league until 1995, when he retired at age 65, spanning four decades.
In 1997, he was enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, finishing his career where it started; in Northeast Ohio.
