Don Shula

Hard Rock Stadium, 347 Don Shula Dr, Miami Gardens, FL

Last updated 8/27/2026

Don Shula coached the Baltimore Colts for seven seasons before moving to the Miami Dolphins in 1970, where he'd stay for the rest of his 33-year head coaching career. By the time he retired in 1995, he held the NFL record for most career wins by a head coach — 347 total, a mark that stood as the standard for the next three decades. Shula's defining achievement came in the 1972 season: a 17-0 record capped by a Super Bowl VII win, still the only perfect season in NFL history. The 2007 New England Patriots came the closest to matching it, finishing the regular season 16-0 before losing in the Super Bowl — a result that, if anything, has only reinforced how singular Shula's 1972 Dolphins remain. Shula won back-to-back Super Bowls with Miami (VII and VIII, covering the 1972 and 1973 seasons) and appeared in six Super Bowls total across his career, one with Baltimore and five with Miami, though he lost four of those six championship games — a reminder that even the sport's winningest coach had real postseason heartbreak mixed into his record. Miami's home stadium sits on Don Shula Drive, a permanent civic marker of how thoroughly his name is tied to the franchise he coached for a quarter century, similar to the way Lombardi Avenue anchors Green Bay's own coaching legend.

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