Art Shell

football coach; football player

Personal Information

Born November 26, 1946, in Charleston, SC; son of Arthur, Sr. (worked in a paper mill), and Gertrude Shell; married; wife's name, Janice; children: Arthur III, Christopher.
Education: Maryland State (now University of Maryland--Eastern Shore), B.S., 1968.

Career

Professional football player with Oakland Raiders of the National Football League, 1968-82 (franchise moved to Los Angeles, 1982); Los Angeles Raiders, offensive line coach, 1983-89, head coach, 1989--.

Life's Work

When Art Shell was named head coach of the Los Angeles Raiders in 1989, he became the first black head coach in modern National Football League history. A former star offensive lineman for the Oakland Raiders, and part of two Super Bowl championship teams, Shell replaced Mike Shanahan, a second-year coach who was previously with the Denver Broncos. By appointing Shell, Raiders management hoped to rejuvenate the franchise, which, after moving to Los Angeles from Oakland in 1982, had lost the mark of the dominant Raiders teams of the late 1970s and early 1980s. "I wanted a Raider," general manager Al Davis was quoted as saying in the New York Times after naming Shell early in the 1989 season. "When we went back in Oakland for an exhibition game two months ago, the one thing lacking was a link to the past in our coaching leadership."

Shell's history with the Raiders runs deep. In fifteen seasons as an offensive lineman, he was considered one of the N.F.L.'s finest. At 6' 5" and 300 pounds, Shell could, as Jill Lieber noted in Sports Illustrated, "intimidate opponents with his size alone." He was selected to the Pro Bowl a total of eight times, the most of any Raider ever, and played in a total of 207 games, the third highest number of any Raider. One of his career highlights came when Oakland defeated Minnesota in the 1977 Super Bowl, and Shell's defensive opponent had neither a tackle or sack the entire game. Former Raiders fullback Mark van Eeghen recalled to Lieber: "Art had extremely high standards. He prided himself in keeping his guy off [quarterback] Ken Stabler; a sack hurt Art more than it did Kenny." In 1989, Shell was honored for his career achievements by being elected to the Professional Football Hall of Fame.

In addition to his stellar playing career, Shell possessed a knowledge of Raiders football that distinguished him as prime coaching material. Former Raiders head coach John Madden remarked in the New York Times: "When I watched Art Shell play, I always felt he would make a good coach and a good head coach.... He's a very bright, studious person, who not only played the game physically but knew everything about what he did, what everybody else did and why. He took that approach to the game, he was very, very knowledgeable." Madden added: "Some players never think about anything but their own jobs, but Art always thought about everybody else's job. When I was coaching the Raiders, he used to come up to me and say, `I was thinking last night, what if we did this.' That's the way a coach thinks, but not many players think like that."

Following games, Shell would enjoy listening to other players respond to the media, especially fellow lineman Gene Upshaw. "I'd listen to Gene answer the questions. He always said the right things and he was so good, so quotable," Shell told Thomas George in the New York Times. "I paid close attention. I learned a lot that way about football, about life, by just listening." After Shell retired from playing football in 1983, he was named the Raiders offensive line coach, and continued to learn from others. He commented to Lieber on the various Raiders coaches he worked under: "John Madden taught me about the game of people. I learned that you have to understand each individual, when to push his buttons and when not to. From Tom Flores [the Raiders coach from 1979 to 1987] I learned patience. He was a quiet, stoic leader. Mike Shanahan was one of the most organized people I ever met."

Loyal and patient as a coach, Shell makes it a priority to maintain a closeness with his players. "Even in the bad games, his communion with the players is obvious," commented Jeannie Park and Lorenzo Benet in People. "Unlike more mercurial coaches, Shell doesn't scream or throw tantrums. When things go wrong, he gently pulls the offender aside, wraps a beefy arm around his shoulder and speaks his mind quietly." A family approach has always been important to Shell, as he already demonstrated when he was a young man. The eldest of five children whose mother died when he was fifteen, Shell played a major role raising his siblings. Shell's sister, Eartha Smalls, told Park and Benet: "He ran the house as my dad would.... He told us life must go on and we had to pull together."

Since becoming head coach, the Raiders under Shell have started their climb back to the top of professional football. In his second year as coach, the team advanced all the way to the American Football Conference championship game, before losing to Buffalo. Shell seemed to be living up to his game plan, as he was quoted in New York Times as saying that the Raiders were "going to try and regain the power, toughness and explosiveness we had in the past." Shell has a good chance of being, as general manager Davis hopes, "the guy ... to restore the identity of this franchise."

Awards

Selected eight times to the Pro Bowl; elected to Professional Football Hall of Fame, 1989.

Further Reading

Sources

• New York Times, January 25, 1989; October 4, 1989; October 5, 1989; October 8, 1989.
• People, December 4, 1989.
• Sports Illustrated, October 23, 1989.