THE ALOHA BOWL QUARTERBACKS : MIKE SHULA : This Kid Has Made a Name for <i> Himself </i> at Alabama

An old buddy from the National Football League called Ray Perkins when Perkins was named coach at the University of Alabama.

“Congratulations,” the caller said.

“Thank you,” Perkins said.

The friend mentioned that he had a son, Michael was his name, and, well, come to think of it, he played quarterback for his high school team and not a bad team at that.

And, by gosh, he was a senior who would just be ecstatic to play for a major college team, say, oh, somewhere in the South. A few schools already had begun to recruit him and, gee, where did you say you’re coaching now?

“Well, maybe I’ll take a look at him,” Perkins said.

Perkins dispatched offensive coordinator George Henshaw to Miami for a look-see at the left-handed quarterback.

Henshaw came back impressed. “He was definitely a guy I wanted,” Henshaw said.

Perkins, who still was unpacking his X’s and O’s, decided to see for himself. He got to Miami just in time to watch the quarterback play basketball, of all things. He only had seen the quarterback on film, but that was enough.

“Come to Alabama,” said Perkins, offering a precious scholarship.

And Michael Shula, son of Don, the old friend who used to coach Perkins during their years with the Baltimore Colts and who now coaches the Miami Dolphins, happily accepted.

Three years later, he is the starting quarterback of an 8-2-1 team with reservations against USC in the Aloha Bowl Saturday at Honolulu.

Alabama is the nation’s 15th-ranked team, and Shula led the nation in passing efficiency for most of the season.

Shula could claim responsibility--but he won’t--for helping lead Alabama past Georgia, Texas A&M; and arch-rival Auburn this season. Two of those games, Georgia and Auburn, were in doubt until the final minute.

These days, you can find Shula’s likeness on the Alabama football media guide or on one of several posters available in the school’s sports information office. After the season-ending win over Auburn, you even could see Shula’s name written in soap on several cars on campus.

All this from a quarterback who runs a 40-yard sprint as if anvils have been taped to his ankles, who often is accused of having a weak throwing arm and who came close to being named Most Likely to Waste a Free Ride when he arrived on the Alabama campus.

When Shula showed up for fall workouts his freshman season, Perkins might have thought he had viewed the wrong game film, that the kid should have stuck with basketball.

But pedigree is pedigree, and Shula was little different from his father, a career overachiever, or even his older brother, David, who turned marginal athletic skills into a productive stay at Dartmouth, a year in the NFL as a player and an assistant coaching position with the Dolphins and who is now under consideration for head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles.

The youngest Shula persisted, too, and now finds himself with a considerable and loyal fan club.

“If he were to walk into a bonfire, those other 10 guys would walk in there with him,” Perkins said.”

Alabama fans would settle for annual trips to the Sugar Bowl and a return to No. 1. Human sacrifice isn’t necessary. A championship will do fine, thank you.

Shula has one season left to do his part. Considering that about three years ago he had no part, bit or otherwise, his success is a pleasant but welcome surprise. “That first week we looked at him as being a marginal prospect,” Perkins said. “But look at where he is now.”

Shula overcome not only the burden of the family name but also several physical obstacles, little things like lack of speed, brawn and quickness. Of course, it’s tough to time intelligence and the need to win, some popular inherent traits of the Shulas.

Oh, Shula has shown he can play the game, but it hasn’t been easy. He also has constructed little mental walls, but nothing that can’t be scaled by a particularly persistent jab or critic.

Speaking of his sons from the Dolphin facilities, Don Shula said: “They realize that the name has gotten them in some areas that they might not normally get in. They’ve also had some tough times because of (the Shula name). They became targets for cheap shots. There are unpleasant things that go along with it, some negatives. I’ve tried to tell them that.”

Said Mike Shula: “My senior year in high school, (opposing) players would come up and say, ‘Oh, we’re going to get Mike Shula.’ ”

Sometimes, maybe it would be best if Shula went by the name given to him by the photographer of Alabama’s football players. There, in black and white, is a 5 by 7 glossy of the quarterback, forced grin and all. Typed under the photograph is, Mike Schula .

Schula . Poof, go some of the problems. No more like-father-like-son comparisons. But Shula understands. He could have chosen a less conspicuous playing position or school and spared himself some of the abuse. He didn’t and that’s that.

“I came up to school here because I always pictured going away to college,” Shula said. “I didn’t come up here to be known as Don Shula’s son. I came here to be Mike Shula and play quarterback for the University of Alabama.”

On an information sheet he filled out for the Alabama sports information office, Shula listed “My dad” as The leader you most admire .

Under List relatives who have participated in college or professional athletics; give names, relation to you, sport, year and any outstanding accomplishments , Shula went crazy with pen and paper. Ol’ name-dropper Mike wrote: “Dad--football player, coach. Brother (Dave) played football, one year.”

Nothing about Super Bowls and the like, just “Dad--football player, coach.”

“My father has been there for a lot of support that I needed, as well as my mom and the rest of my family,” he said. “The work ethic . . . that’s something I’ve grown up with and (seen in) him as a coach. As I’ve grown older, I’ve learned to appreciate how hard he works.”

For all his admiration, Shula still was upset when he learned of his father’s conversation with Perkins. He didn’t find out until the beginning of his freshman season, and by then there were whispers that Shula was bench-bound. Just the kind of thing you need to hear when you’re trying to make a name for yourself.

“It was just the idea that my dad mentioned my name,” Shula said. “I didn’t want people to think that my dad helped me get that scholarship.”

Shula also said that now he understands his father’s motives and that anyway: “I don’t think the coach of a major college would waste a scholarship.”

Maybe not, but Shula wasn’t exactly on the top of everyone’s blue-chip recruiting list. Understand that he spent his first two high school seasons at Chaminade, a Catholic school in Hollywood, Fla., where the football team was full of good intentions but few victories. Shula played quarterback, or at least he received the snap from center. After that, only Ben Gazzara ran more for his life.

“We didn’t have very good linemen,” said Jim Moses, who coached Shula at Chaminade and estimated that the offensive line averaged 5-foot-11, 200 pounds. “A lot of times everything looked like a screen pass even though it was a short out (pass pattern). I feared for his life every time he took a snap.”

Moses also coached David Shula, a wide receiver for Chaminade. “Dave didn’t have as much talent as Mike,” Moses said. “But the work ethic for those kids, it was unbelievable. It probably does come from their father.

“And never once did one of the kids say, ‘Hey, I know all about that.’ Every once in awhile, I’d listen to them. But neither kid would try to show you up,” Moses said.

Shula transferred to Columbus High School in Miami for his junior and senior years, at the request of his parents. Columbus High had a better football team at the time. Better yet, it had offensive linemen whose voices had changed.

Nothing wrong with wanting to see your son celebrate his 17th birthday, is there?

By the end of his high school career, Shula had been named to an all-state team and had led Columbus to the state championship game, where the team was beaten. During the season, father and son spent nights looking at game films. Columbus High opponent game films.

“That was the year of the (1982 NFL) strike,” Mike Shula said. “My dad would be waiting for another game to get canceled. So then he’d help me.”

Despite the awards and upbringing, few recruiters were knocking down doors to get Shula. “I don’t think mine was much of a war,” Shula said. “I don’t think I was a nationwide prospect or anything like that. I was in the top 20 . . . in my state.”

Shula narrowed his choices to Duke, Indiana, LSU and Alabama before selecting the Crimson Tide. Of course, it didn’t hurt to have a bunch of former Alabama players on the Miami Dolphin roster, among them center Dwight Stephenson, running back Tony Nathan and nose guard Bob Baumhower. Baumhower often offered advice.

So Shula went to Alabama and played in one game his first year, completing one pass for six yards. Yeah, some career he had going.

The next season he started six games. Alabama finished with a 5-6 record, and out came the critics. When your best game is an 8-for-20, 185-yard performance, well, there’s some explaining to do. “How about this weak arm business?” and “Do you know where the weight room is?”

“I knew I had a ways to go when I came here, especially physically,” Shula said.

Said Don Shula: “That was probably the low spot in his life. He’s never had any downs, always ups. I knew what he was going through. Everybody, sooner or later, has to deal with it.”

Shula stayed in Tuscaloosa during the summer and participated in Alabama’s conditioning program. About 80 other players were there, too. He began the fall workouts as the starting quarterback, but still there were doubts.

Then the Crimson Tide came up with its 20-16 victory over Georgia on national television, with Shula leading a last-minute touchdown drive. Seventy-one yards in 50 seconds. “We tried it all that last drive,” Bill Lewis, defensive coordinator of Georgia said later.

Afterward, Shula told Mike Goens of the Florence, Ala., Times: “I’ve been trying to live up to what people expected of me for a long time. No matter how hard I’ve tried to put what people say about me out of my head, and for the most part I have, I know it’s there. I know they expect me to be something special because of circumstances I have nothing to do with.”

In retrospect, Shula downplays the outburst. “It was just that I wanted to contribute more than I had contributed in the past,” he said.

By season’s end, Shula had two other comeback victories to his credit. Back in Miami, Don Shula would watch an Alabama game on Saturday and then coach his own team on Sunday. “I watched as a father,” he said. “I go through the same ups and downs. By the end, you feel washed out.”

So do young Shula’s opponents, who watch as he picks their pockets but never takes credit for the crime. Ask him about a certain pass or an outstanding play and he’ll spend the next 30 seconds describing the play of the offensive linemen or receivers or the ball boy, for goodness sakes. After listening to Shula, you think Pee-Wee Herman could go out there and complete 60% of his passes.

Shula has begun to spoil Alabama football fans. There are others who can throw the ball harder, longer, but few who can better command respect and understand the game’s nuances.

“That’s what has allowed him to become successful,” said Perkins, who, in all seriousness, compares Shula’s playing poise to that of San Diego Charger quarterback Dan Fouts, whom Perkins coached for one season.

As for his future, Shula said he prefers to ignore the possibilities of winning the Heisman Trophy a year from now, or a professional football career.

Perkins, though, said: “I would hire him right out of college (as a coach). I’m not going to say he can’t (play in the NFL). I’m not going to bet against the kid.”

If nothing else, Shula has shown he’s worth his room and board. Nothing to apologize for anymore. Certainly not his last name.