Don Shula*

The son of a Hungarian immigrant, Don Shula was born in 1930 in Grand River, Ohio, and grew up in Painesville. His father worked at a local rose nursery, and his mother ran the household, which included seven children. Raised with strict discipline, Shula said his parents had a no-nonsense approach to everything. They were relatively poor, but he remembers always having enough to eat and wearing clean clothes.

Shula was competitive from an early age. In school, he excelled in sports, lettering in football, basketball, baseball, and track. Following high school, he enrolled at Cleveland's John Carroll University. He majored in sociology, but sports continued to occupy him. While he was a football player for his school, his team leadership and talent attracted the interest of the Cleveland Browns. He signed with the Browns after graduation and played two seasons with them. In 1953, he joined the Baltimore Colts. Four years later, he went to the Washington Redskins for one more year of play. During his professional career as a defensive back, Shula made 21 interceptions.

When he could no longer play, it seemed a natural progression to go into coaching. He became assistant coach at the University of Virginia, later moving to the University of Kentucky. In 1960, he broke into the pro ranks as a defensive coordinator for the Detroit Lions. He quickly earned a reputation as a master motivator of players and a skillful defensive strategist. In 1963, he became head coach for the Colts. At the age of 33, he was the youngest head coach in NFL history.

Throughout the 1960s, Shula built powerhouse teams, taking the Colts to the NFL title game in 1964 and 1968. In 1970, he became head coach of the Miami Dolphins. In 1972, the Dolphins achieved what many believed was impossible: a perfect 17-0 season, including the Super Bowl VII victory. His team won the 1973 Super Bowl as well.

Shula's impressive achievements include the following statistics: He had more regular season and total victories than any NFL coach in history and is only the second coach to record more than 300 victories. His team made six Super Bowl appearances, more than any coach in NFL history. And he was the youngest coach to record more than 100, 200, and 300 victories.

About his many successes, Shula said, "You have to have goals and be willing to do the work that is necessary and to make the sacrifices that are necessary to achieve those goals." Shula was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1997.

The author of Everyone's a Coach, Shula was a regular motivational speaker. The title of his talk, "You Can Inspire Anyone to Be a Winner," expanded on the principles of goal-setting motivation, teamwork, and honesty.