Legendary steakhouse mogul Don Shula dies at 90
Don was my favorite coach as a kid, eventually dethroned by Wayne Fontes.
RIP
You can argue that both were the best coaches in the history of their franchises.
Son of a bitch! I hate being a Lion's fan.
Monte Clark?
Monte went 0-2 in the playoffs and had a terrible record. Fontes coached the Lions to the playoffs in four out of five years and won two division titles. He did that despite having terrible GMs (Russ Thomas and Chuck Schmidt) and average quarterbacks. I've always felt that if the Lions would've kept Fontes, Barry would not have retired in 1999. Dude loved Barry.
I was ambivalent about Fontes' firing at the time, as I thought he had taken the team about as far as he could, in 25 years hindsight it was definitely a mistake to fire him.
If Barry had played 3 or 4 more years no one would have touched that rushing record.
One more season he would have been #1 (at the time) and Emmett Smith would still be playing trying to catch him
3-4 more seasons and yea. No one would have ever caught him.
I find it astonishing that Frank Gore has managed to move into third place all time.
I thought they should’ve never fired Wayne in foresight. Even though he came across as doofus he was enough to know the cards he as dealt and didn’t think he was the coach of a first class organization. After rick forzano Tommy hudspeth Monty Clark and Daryl Rogers I knew not to expect Shula or parcels. At least the lions were fun even if not very good. In twenty years since the best the lions had was a half season of moeller pretending he was back at U-M. RIP don Shula.
Clark’s record was so bad in part because of that 2-14 season when Gary Danielson was injured and they had the immortal Jeff Komlo backing him up. Not to say Clark was brilliant; I felt his teams lost a fair number of winnable games and probably should have been in the playoffs for the entire Billy Sims era.
Wayne Fontes was up and down but goddamnit he won a playoff game and had a winning record against both Dallas and Jimmy Johnson.
Buddy Parker was clearly the best Lions coach of all time, though.
If Eddie Murray hits that field goal against San Francisco the fortunes of the franchise might be very different.
Didn't Dwight Clark catch happen against Dallas the very next week?
That could have been Leonard Thompson instead
Wayne Fontes may have retired with the most total wins by a Lions coach, but he also has the dubious record of most losses too, finishing with a record of 67-71.
Buddy Parker is clearly the most successful Lions HC in franchise history.
67-71? That's honest work for any Lions coach in my lifetime.
I meant most successful in the SB era.
I think the best Lions coach by winning percentage in the Super Bowl era is Gary Moeller.
Imagine if they had stuck with Mo. Instead the Loins ushered in the Millen / Mornhinweg era. SOL
While the statement and the sentiment are perfectly correct, hindsight informs 'SOL'. However, at the time, hiring Millen was considered a godsend by most Lions fans. It turned out to be awful, but it was well received at the time.
You remember things quite differently than I do. I don't know when I stopped being a Lions' fan and became a Lions observer, probably sometime during the Fontes era, but Millen was a player turned TV analyst, with no experience in coaching or managing anything. I'm no genius, but even I knew the fundamental problem with the Lions was the ownership: William Clay Ford simply had no clue about how to find someone to run his football team successfully. That same issue exists to this day. The Fords running the Lions have no ability to pick people who will run a winning team. It was apparent to me then, and lots of other people, that Millen was picked because Ford liked talking to him, Millen sucked up to him, and could say cool football-sounding stuff to him and told him stuff he liked hearing. He had no qualifications to run the team and that was obvious to lots of people.
most people i knew thought the millen hiring was a joke. before, during and after.
I'd agree with that. General consensus at the time was a lot of excitement over his hiring. He was sought after. Qualified or not, he was a trendy hire at that moment in time. Drafting was simply atrocious, would have to try to be that bad with so many top 10 busts.
Wayne Fontes owned steakhouses?
He always seemed like such a nice man.
Deepest condolences to his family.
+1 for the title
he was a great one.
Somehow wasn't able to get a title with Marino though.
I’d like to see Belichick open a steakhouse. It’d just be a piece of raw meat on your plate and if you don’t like it then GTFO and go somewhere else.
wait.....is the steak owner related to the guy who used to coach the Miami Dolphins?!
2nd cousins.
He was a coach so long, that he went from being an assistant for PAUL BROWN during the Otto Graham days to coaching until the birth of NFL free agency. Was the head coach for Johnny Unitas AND Dan Marino. Suffered the most embarrassing and ignominious defeat in the history of the NFL and then coached the greatest season in NFL history.
Don Shula saw it all.
he was asst coach for the lions before getting the colts job. if only the lions would have promoted him.
I spoke with his daughter Sharon about this (she seemed nice. She was shocked than anybody remembered he had a job before Baltimore.
probably only lions fans remember
One of many Lions facts that I try to forget.
Does this mean a reunion with legendary chicken restaurant mogul Kenny Rogers?
It’s been a bad year for icons of the restaurant industry. Mark and Donnie Walhberg has better be careful.
I definitely don’t think of “restaurant icon” when I think of Mark and Donnie Walhberg
Before he took over the Baltimore Colts in 1963, Shula was the defensive coordinator for the Detroit Lions in 1960-1962. He led the '61 and '62 teams to top-5 finishes in both total defense and scoring defense both seasons. He was regarded as one of the brightest and most promising assistant coaches in the league at the time.
Of course, it was another franchise that recognized his potential as a head coach, so the Colts poached him.
Seems the Lions gave a knack for employing future legendary coaches. If only they could get one for themselves.
Marty Schottenheimer and Chuck Knox were also former Lions assistants.
Obviously neither rose to the heights of Shula, but Schottenheimer won 8 division titles with three teams, and Knox won 7 division titles with three teams. Both would have been a gigantic improvement over the steady stream of mediocrities the Ford family has hired as head coach.
Bill Belichick also was a Lions assistant for two seasons in the '70s.
This suggests that maybe it isn't the coaches?
Former Lions assistant. That was the secret of his success. Leaving the Lions.
Username most definitely checks out
Going undefeated in the pros is no easy task.
Would love to see Urban and Ryan Day get pantsed in the pros but c'est la vie.
Urban Meyer has only coached one season in the power 5 where he didn't have a significant or massive talent advantage over most of the competition: 2010. Florida went 8-5 and Meyer retired.
One can claim that 2012 OSU wasn't uber-talented but OSU still had more talent than every other team in the Big Ten.
The truth is that most hyper-elite coaches are built on having incredible talent advantage over his or her peers in college athletics. It doesn't matter if it's college football or college softball. A big picture view proves this time and time again.
Is that the same guy who was a coach?
Lulz steakhouse mogul
+1 for the thread title
Love the title! And either LOL or sad at those who wonder if it's the same person - I'm not sure which...
RIP, Don. You had a helluva run with some talented players, including 16-0. And you hired some people that cook up a fantastic steak! Well done on all fronts, you've earned your rest.
I can actually remember the 1950's era of the Detroit Lions, as a kid.They won 2 NFL Titles (1952 & 1953) under Buddy Parker. His record was 47-23-2 (.671) during six seasons (1951-1956). They also appeared in the NFL Title game in 1954 but lost to Cleveland. He retired on the eve of the 1957 season, which saw the Lions beat Cleveland for another NFL Title, under coach George Wilson. So in the 7 seasons from 1951-1957 they played in 4 NFL Title games, all against Cleveland winning 3 of them. Ironically Detroit and Cleveland are the only 2 old school franchises that have not reached the Super Bowl. The Lions really do have a winning history. Unfortunately, it is ancient history. I watched the 1957 NFL Title game on Channel 6 WJIM out of Lansing, with a booster antenna at my uncles house. All home games were blacked out back then. Regardless if they were a sellout or not. I feel very fortunate to have actually seen that game. I watched it with my dad. Also, I took him to the next playoff win against the Cowboys 34 years later before he passed. It has now been another 29 years waiting for their next playoff win.
You'll enjoy this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdKjyFF2LVA (vol.1)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAKQ_KO9Uac (vol.2)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40U3RJMkoSU (vol. 3)
I was four at the time, and I'm sure my dad would have listened to it on the radio.
Thank you. I forwarded these links to my brothers. I forgot to credit the source (Don) but then one is an MTU Husky and the other is a mumble, mumble, mumble something else.
Thanks, Don. An oldie but goodie. Just like us. I’m hoping for a Michigan win over Ohio State or a Lion playoff win in my lifetime. Both of those things would be asking too much from the football gods.
So for some reason I'm seeing "manscaping" ads every time I visit the site.
Who in the hell "manscapes" and why? Unless you're one of those guys who grows a pelt every season, I don't get it.