HYDE: Glory for mom, son who never gave up

Published December 9, 2006

 

CORAL GABLES ? The first thing she did after the good news broke from the University of Miami football office was to bow her head in thanks again, and to say again: "Well, Lord, you gave me one."

 

Dorleatha Johnson first said this nearly 20 years ago after noticing her twin sons' mouths turning white. She recognized what that meant. She was a nurse on the AIDs floor at Jackson Memorial Hospital and had spent years warning the twins about using crack cocaine.

 

"The girlfriend they'll never give up," she'd say of the drug to her youngest child. The twins gave it up only after AIDS killed them.

 

"Well, Lord, you gave me one."

 

She also said it the night her daughter died of AIDs on that hospital floor. The daughter's problem wasn't drugs. It was someone she met. She was diagnosed in October of 1988 and was dead by the next April, her mother washing, feeding, loving her on that floor and ultimately feeling something slip out of her own life when her only daughter died.

 

"Well, Lord, you gave me one."

 

She prayed it, too, as the only other surviving child, another boy, moved in and out of jail, on and off drugs, up and down the ladder of accountability. He even stole the youngest child's identity, causing so many problems that even as he was introduced as Miami's new coach he carried papers in his wallet proving he's the real Randy Shannon.

 

And so this is the newest leader of Miami football: A Hurricane lifer who won a national championship as a player and two as a coach; an overachiever who went from 11th-round draft pick to starting linebacker as a Dallas Cowboy rookie; and a survivor forged by such hard city streets and harder family times that few know his full story.

 

Shannon was 3 when his father was murdered? Three siblings have died of AIDS? UM administrators and public-relations men walked around, whispering they didn't know that.

 

Even something as simple as Shannon having three children came as a surprise. And how many knew his 24-year-old daughter, Ty, was stationed by the Navy in Iraq during this war and is now in Okinawa?

 

This is Shannon's way. Dan Stubbs, a Hurricane great, watched the proceedings from the side and said, "For all he went through when we were teammates, he never talked about it. No one knew what was happening in his family. He was quiet. Strong but quiet."

 

Shannon says there was a simple reason for this: "Growing up, I saw a lot of people who had it worse than me."

 

He told of players he knew who lived in shelters, of friends who foraged for food, of people who ran extension cords from neighbors because their electricity had been cut off.

 

"It was just life," he said.

 

What does this have to do with being Miami's new coach? Maybe nothing. Maybe everything. Certainly it tells you what to expect upon hearing Shannon slept in the kitchen to keep overweight Cortez Kennedy from eating in the same manner he tried to protect his twin brothers, Donald and Ronald, even though they were 13 years older.

 

"He used to tell them to leave the drugs alone," his mother said. "They wouldn't do it. They'd be like, `Don't you tell me what to do.' Or: `Yeah, Randy. Sure, Randy.'

 

"But as soon as Randy was gone they'd be saying, `Who does he think he is? He's not my daddy. We're the ones older than he is.' And they'd be off doing their thing."

 

They died in 1993 and 1994 at ages 40 and 41. Mom never worried about her youngest son that way.

 

"He didn't bother with drugs or liquor," she said. "All he did was football and TV."

 

It would have been easy for Miami to pass over Shannon. The assistant of a fired coach? A mainstay in a regime with some image problems? The school could have brought in some new guy from middle America, wiped the slate clean and told everyone everything had changed.

 

But think of the image this sends: A man who survived Miami's toughest streets in charge. A success who weathered constant family tragedy atop this enlarged family. A black coach able to show black kids the way up.

 

That's all true. But it's not the full truth.

 

"Who do you think raised him?" Shannon says, pointing across the room at linebacker Jon Beason. "His father died when he was young, just like mine did. His mother raised him, just like mine raised me. So I understand what he's gone through.

 

"But someone like Anthony Wollschlager, who comes from a home with two parents. They have family values. I have family values, too. So I can understand that, too."

 

In other words: Don't box him in. Don't limit the sixth black coach in Division I-A and Miami's first in football -- "a historic day," school President Donna Shalala called it -- in what he can do.

 

Ultimately, it comes down to winning. And through his first day as coach, Shannon returned to mantras that obviously serve as guideposts: Never say you can't. Don't ever feel sorry for yourself. Keep on working.

 

Meanwhile, at the Miami Gardens home where he grew up, where she watched three children die and saw a fourth move between jail and drugs, his mother said her prayer. Asked what she means by telling the Lord, "you gave me one," she said simply, "One of my children is blessed."

 

Dave Hyde can be reached at dhyde@sun-sentinel.com.

 

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/college...sfla-hurricanes

 

 

 

Most likely one of the better pieces written by Hyde. Really tells where he comes from and what he has happend over the life of Coach Shannon. If he can overcome that he can overcome anything.

Hyde's story came on the heels of a piece by Michelle Kaufman in Friday's paper...nice for the S-S to tail behind

coughs

 

biased

coughs

 

biased

 

 

 

I know who pays the bills

Hyde's story came on the heels of a piece by Michelle Kaufman in Friday's paper...nice for the S-S to tail behind

hyde had a similar piece on friday.

 

and while we're at it, michelle kaufman's piece was on saturday.

 

miami herald sports section FTL.

Hyde's story came on the heels of a piece by Michelle Kaufman in Friday's paper...nice for the S-S to tail behind

hyde had a similar piece on friday.

 

and while we're at it, michelle kaufman's piece was on saturday.

 

miami herald sports section FTL.

 

 

 

you are right Michelle's story ran the day after the announcment...i was lost in the days he was announced