Illustrations Insert

The ravages of the game, and of time, seemed kinder to Shula than to many of his players. One of the perfect-season Dolphins, defensive end Bill Stanfill, glad-handed here by Larry Csonka when Stanfill was inducted into the team’s Ring of Honor in 2010, underwent multiple hip and spine surgeries and was diagnosed with dementia before he died in 2016. (AP Photo / Al Messerschmidt)

A moment of comedy—and, for Shula, agony—came during Super Bowl VII, when Dolphin kicker Garo Yepremian’s field-goal attempt was blocked. The ball caromed back to him and, trying to pass, he batted it into the air, to be grabbed by the Redskins’ Mike Bass, who ran for a touchdown. But nothing could keep Shula from destiny. The Dolphins won the game to cap his perfect season. (AP Photo / NFL Photos)

Dan Marino, displaying the perfect mechanics that defenses dreaded, uncorks a typical quick-release pass in a 1985 game against the Kansas City Chiefs. Marino’s arm and leadership led Shula to revamp his conservative game plans and usher in the era of exploding pass yardage. Marino took the team to a Super Bowl in his second season, which would prove to be Shula’s final appearance in the title game. (AP Photo / Al Messerschmidt)

Never mellow, Shula flashes his storied temper during a 1979 game in Oakland, unleashing a stream of well-chosen adjectives on a helpless referee. Being named the coach of that decade didn’t ease his fanatical desire to win, explaining why the Dolphins were almost always in contention, right up until he was forced out as coach in 1995. (AP Photo / Al Messerschmidt)

While Shula never got over his mortifying loss in Super Bowl III, he could look back with good humor when Joe Namath attended the 2018 Reid & Fiorentino Call of the Game Dinner in Miami to receive the Don Shula Sports Legend Award. At 88, Shula was confined to a wheelchair but was still spunky and handsome, a fixture in South Florida and the last of football’s greatest generation. (Sipa USA via AP / Alberto E. Tamargo)

Reflecting the social culture, the Dolphins’ backfield tandem of fullback Larry Csonka, left, and Jim Kiick were tagged “Butch and Sundance.” Here, in groovy shirts, they pose before Super Bowl VIII with toy guns. Often at odds with Shula, they betrayed him by defecting to the World Football League in 1975, though Csonka would end his Hall of Fame career as a Dolphin. (AP Photo)

A sight that has given Shula nightmares for 50 years: Joe Namath fires a pass, oblivious to the massive Bubba Smith, during Shula’s longest day—the New York Jets’ 16–7 victory over Shula’s 18-point-favorite Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III on January 12, 1969. Shula would reboot his record-setting coaching career in Miami, on the same Orange Bowl field where he suffered his greatest humiliation. (AP Photo)

Shula always assembled top-notch teams of assistants. Seen here in 1964, his second season with the Baltimore Colts, his staff comprised: in the front row, left to right, Don McCafferty, John Sandusky, and Dick Bielsky; flanking Shula are Charley Winner and Bill Arnsparger. The latter two would also join Shula in Miami—Sandusky for 19 years, Arnsparger for 12, mainly as his much-heralded defensive coordinator. (AP Photo / WAS)

When Shula took over the coaching reins of the Colts, some wondered whether he could exercise authority over his old running buddies on the team. But he could share a good laugh with two of his hoariest former cronies, Gino Marchetti (left) and Bill Pellington, as he signed a football after the team went 12–2 in ’64, winning their conference and earning him the first of his four Coach of the Year awards. (AP Photo / WAS)

Shula and his peerless quarterback Johnny Unitas seemed all smiles in this staged 1964 shot, but it was a rare moment of felicity. Though the Colts would become one of the greatest teams ever, and Unitas a Hall of Famer, they regularly feuded, Unitas at times even disobeying Shula’s play calls. While Shula cut him greater slack than any player he ever coached, Unitas nursed the grudge to his grave. (AP Photo / NFL Photos)

Shula’s apprenticeship included a stop as an assistant at the University of Kentucky in 1959, under coach Blanton Collier (right). One of his fellow assistants, Howard Schnellenberger (left), began a long personal and professional relationship with Shula there. He was on Shula’s original Dolphins coaching staff, as offensive coordinator, and also won a national title coaching Miami University in 1983. (AP Photo)

As a player, Shula wasn’t the biggest or most talented, but nobody was smarter, tougher, or more pugnacious. Here, at defensive back for the Baltimore Colts in 1957, he returns an interception against the Green Bay Packers in a 37–14 win. He would be traded the next year, missing out on the Colts’ first championship season, but would return five years later in a far more important capacity. (AP Photos / NFL Photos / Vernon Biever)

February 18, 1970: Shula is introduced as the new coach of the Miami Dolphins, hired by team owner Joe Robbie (wearing glasses). Though Shula would win two titles and more games than any other coach in history, and become the highest-paid coach in the league, he and Robbie would clash for two decades, Shula once threatening to knock Robbie on his posterior. (AP Photo / Jim Bourdier)

Shula’s early march to a championship in the ’60s was stymied by Vince Lombardi, whose Green Bay Packers edged Shula’s Colts in several nail-biting playoff games. Shula had to get used to leaving the field, as he did here after a 20–17 loss to the Pack in September 1965, with Vince seeming smug and Shula in agony. (AP Photo)

Shula’s mentor was Paul Brown, who drafted him to play for the Cleveland Browns in 1950. He absorbed Brown’s brilliant, cerebral coaching methods, but disliked Brown’s cold indifference to players. When the Dolphins trounced Brown’s Cincinnati Bengals 34–16 in a 1973 AFC playoff game, the iciness between them was obvious when they met up after the game. (AP Photo)

In this 1973 photo, a relaxed Shula sits beside his wife, Dorothy, surrounded by their children: Anne (foreground), Michael (leaning on Shula’s leg), and behind them, Donna, Sharon, and David. Shula’s family wasn’t only his sanctuary, but a budding NFL dynasty, both sons becoming pro coaches. So popular was Dorothy that all of football grieved when she died in 1991 after a courageous battle with breast cancer. (AP Photo / MTF)

A freeze-frame of Shula and the Dolphins during their glory days: Shula on the sideline, hands on knees, jaw clenched, intensity etched on his face, watching his defense like a hawk as quarterbacks Bob Griese (12) and Earl Morrall (15) plot strategy, speedy receiver Nat Moore (89) close by. Shula’s teams were called dull and businesslike, but in Miami, they were more exciting than early-bird dinners. (AP Photo / David Durochik)

Shula groomed his son Dave to follow in his giant steps. As a teenager, he charted plays for the Dolphins; then, after a brief career as a pro, he was hired as an assistant coach. Here, watching warm-ups with his old man in 1985, they look eerily alike, with many of the same mannerisms. Dave became coach of the Cincinnati Bengals in the ’90s, losing twice to his father. (AP Photo / Al Messerschmidt)

In 1993, Shula married wealthy divorcée Mary Anne Stephens (second left), the two becoming South Florida’s ultimate power couple. Raised as a New Deal Democrat, he retained a blue-collar sensibility, endorsing candidates for office selectively, such as when he and Mary Anne hosted a 2003 fundraiser for Democrat Bob Graham when the Florida senator and ex-governor announced a presidential run. (AP Photo / Wilfredo Lee)

Denied a White House invitation in 1973 because Richard Nixon was preoccupied with Watergate, Shula and the veterans of his perfect team finally got there 40 years later, hosted by President Barack Obama on August 20, 2013. With smiles all around, Shula and Bob Griese presented the president with a Dolphins jersey signed by the team and inscribed “Undefeated.” (AP Photo / Jacquelyn Martin)

In retirement, Shula and his meal ticket for the final 12 seasons of his coaching career, Dan Marino, remained close, doing joint appearances and commercials for everything from weight-loss products to car dealerships. Both also stayed close to their old team, as informal consultants. Here, they share a ride in a cozy golf cart before a Dolphin home game in December 2017. (AP Photo / Wilfredo Lee)