One of the NFL’s greatest coaching tandems started at Kentucky
Don Shula and Bill Arnsparger coached in five Super Bowls together, one with the Baltimore Colts (1968) and four with the Miami Dolphins (1971, 1972, 1973, 1982). They won two, including 1972 when the Dolphins finished 17-0, still the NFL’s only perfect season.
Shula, who died Monday at age 90, was the winningest head coach in pro football history.
Arnsparger, who died in 2015 at age 88, was one of the best defensive coordinators in pro football history.
“Most people when they talk about the relationship between dad and Coach Shula just go right to the undefeated season,” David Arnsparger, Bill’s son, said Tuesday from his home in Alabama, “but really their whole relationship started on that staff at the University of Kentucky back in the late 1950s.”
Indeed, what became one the NFL’s greatest coaching tandems started in 1959 when Shula and Arnsparger were assistant coaches at Kentucky. “Under a guy,” said David, “who probably was one of the greatest football coaches there has ever been, and that’s Blanton Collier.”
The former coach at Paris High School, Collier was an assistant under Paul Brown when Shula played for the Cleveland Browns in 1951-52. When Collier succeeded Bear Bryant as Kentucky’s head coach in 1954, he hired Arnsparger, who played for Collier at Paris, then Sid Gillman and Woody Hayes at Miami of Ohio, before coaching under Hayes at Ohio State. Five years later, Collier hired Shula as an assistant and a friendship was born.
That was the famous 1959 UK staff that included Ermal Allen, Bob Cummings, John North, Ed Rutledge, Howard Schnellenberger, Arnsparger and Shula. Collier, North, Schnellenberger, Arnsparger and Shula became NFL head coaches. Collier (1964) and Shula (1972, 1973) won NFL titles. Schnellenberger (1983) won a college national championship.
Shula spent one season in Lexington — long enough for son David to be born here — before being hired as an assistant with the NFL’s Detroit Lions. After UK failed to renew Collier’s contract in 1961, Arnsparger took an assistant’s job at Tulane. Two years later, however, Shula offered him a position as the defensive line coach with the Colts.
“And we spent 30 or 40 years together,” said B.J. Arnsparger, Bill’s wife and a Frankfort native, who lives 15 minutes from her son in Alabama. Daughter Mary Susan lives in North Carolina. “Our children grew up with their children. (Shula’s first wife) Dorothy was my best friend for years until she passed away. They were just good, honest people.”
“You knew he was in charge,” said David, himself a college and high school coach for over 30 years, who worked Shula’s training camps as a boy. “And you knew he was in charge in every way a leader is supposed to be in charge. He organized everything. Everybody knew what they were supposed to do and he held people accountable.”
“He just surrounded himself with good people,” said B.J. “He looked for the best he could find.”
Arnsparger was among the best of the best, building Miami’s “No-Name Defense” of the 1970s and the “Killer B’s” of the 1980s. When Arnsparger was fired seven games into the 1976 season as the New York Giants’ head coach, Shula brought him right back to Miami.
“Dad got fired on a Monday morning and Tuesday he was in Miami,” David said. “Even in today’s time when coaches get fired at the drop of a hat, nobody gets fired and hired in the middle of a season, but that happened with Dad. I guess that says a lot about their relationship.”
The two would reach the Super Bowl again in 1982. A season later, Arnsparger left Miami to become head coach at LSU, where he won the 1986 SEC title. Meanwhile, Shula took the Dolphins back to the Super Bowl in 1984. Arnsparger spent five years as Florida’s athletics director before returning to the NFL as defensive coordinator for the San Diego Chargers, where he retired after losing the 1994 Super Bowl. He was the first person to coach in a Super Bowl in four different decades. Shula retired after the 1995 season.
B.J. and David Arnsparger were saddened Monday to hear of Don Shula’s passing, but they’re thankful for the memories.
“When I think about it, I was around guys at the top of their profession, who worked hard every day,” David Arnsparger said. “That’s what it takes to win football games.”
“All I can say is that I saw a lot of football,” said Ms. Arnsparger, “but I loved every minute of it.”
This story was originally published May 5, 2020 at 5:31 PM.
