Don Shula
Don Shula
Donald Francis Shulais a former professional American football coach and player who is best known as the head coach of the Miami Dolphins, the team he led to two Super Bowl victories, and to the only perfect season in the history of the National Football League. He was previously the head coach of the Baltimore Colts, with whom he won the 1968 NFL Championship. Shula was drafted out of John Carroll University in the 1951 NFL Draft, and he played...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionCoach
Date of Birth4 January 1930
CityGrand River, OH
CountryUnited States of America
He was a great competitor and what Dan wanted to do was win, ... and as long as he felt he was getting the right help from the sideline, he certainly appreciated that. I coached him 13 years of his 17-year career and we put up big numbers.
Now he's got the parts to make it all work.
He didn't like any play-action, ... He liked to drop back and go downfield. Of course, we didn't have much of a running game in those years.
And my rookie contract, my first rookie contract was for $5,000.
He is (happy). He likes Tuscaloosa. They enjoy it there. He's got two young girls and they've got a third on the way, they just found out it's another girl, so that will be three girls. He likes everything about the job.
He took over a tough situation. They were on probation, and the scholarships were down. He had to get that turned around. He's done a good job. They are going in the right direction, but he's got Florida coming up, LSU coming up and Tennessee and Auburn coming up. He's got his work cut out for him.
Success is not forever and failure isn't fatal.
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.
We're depicted as being happy about somebody's misfortune.
We didn't have any champagne to toast each other. But we did have some Diet Cokes up there. We lifted the Diet Cokes.
We didn't win a Super Bowl together, ... and that's something I'll always regret, not knowing what that feels like. ...
You set a goal to be the best and then you work hard every hour of every day, striving to reach that goal. If you allow yourself to settle for anything less than number one, you are cheating yourself.
Lots of leaders want to be popular. I never cared about that. I want to be respected.
Anybody that's a Dolphins fan feels they're headed in the right direction.