Shula: The Coach of the NFL’s Greatest Generation

Inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1997, Don Shula remains the winningest coach of all time with 347 career victories and the only undefeated season in NFL history. But before he became the architect of the Dolphins dynasty, Shula was a hardworking kid selling fish on the banks of Lake Erie, the eldest of six children born during the Depression to Hungarian immigrant parents. With rugged determination, the jut-jawed Shula started as a defensive back in the 1950s, later beginning his thirty-two-year coaching career as the then-youngest coach ever with the Baltimore Colts. Acclaimed sports biographer Mark Ribowsky transports us from Shula’s blue-collar origins on to his glory days in the Miami heat, evoking America’s greatest generation and revealing a man of grit and charisma who never lost sight of a simple creed: All I’ve ever done is roll up my sleeves, figure out what to do, and start doing it.