Long-time Miami Dolphins coach and two-time Super Bowl winner Don Shula dies at 90
"Don Shula was the patriarch of the Miami Dolphins for 50 years," the team said in a statement. "He brought the winning edge to our franchise and put the Dolphins and the city of Miami in the national sports scene."
The 90-year-old is survived by his wife, Mary Anne, and children Dave, Donna, Sharon, Anne and Mike.
Though he spent several seasons in the NFL as a player -- for the Cleveland Browns, Baltimore Colts and Washington Redskins -- and served as head coach of the Colts, he is best known for his quarter century at the helm of the Miami Dolphins.
During his time coaching the Dolphins, from 1970 to 1995, he won back-to-back Super Bowls in the 1970s.
The first of those, after the 1972 season, set a bar that has yet to be reached by any other team. With the Dolphins 14-7 win over the Redskins in Super Bowl VII, Shula's squad became the first and only team to go undefeated in a season.
His 347 career wins remain tops in the NFL. The Chicago Bears' George Halas and the New England Patriots' Bill Belichik are the only other members' of the 300-win club.
Shula was born in 1930 in Grand River, Ohio, on Lake Erie. He played college football at John Carroll University in the Cleveland suburbs and went on to play seven seasons as a player in the NFL before beginning his pro coaching career as defensive coordinator for the Detroit Lions.
