Shell was born on November 26, 1946, in Charleston or North Charleston, South Carolina. He was the oldest child of Arthur Lee Shell Sr., a machine set operator, and Gertrude Shell, who died when Shell was 15. After her death, Shell took on added responsibility caring for his siblings. Shell attended the segregated Bonds-Wilson High School, which no longer exists, graduating in 1964. He was coached by James Fields and Eugene Gray. He made all-state teams in both basketball and football.[3][4][5][6]
He was inducted into the UMES Hall of Fame in 1984,[4]Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) Hall of Fame in 2006,[7] the Black College Hall of Fame in 2011,[8] and the College Football Hall of Fame in 2013.[4] Since 2000, Shell has held the UMES Celebrity Golf Classic, a celebrity golf tournament.[4]
Playing career
Shell was drafted in the third round by the American Football League's Oakland Raiders. Playing offensive tackle, Shell participated in 23 postseason playoff contests in the AFL and NFL,[9] including eight AFC or AFL championship games, a loss in Super Bowl II, and victories in Super BowlsXI and XV. He was a four time All Pro (two times first team and two second team), and was named to eight Pro Bowls.[6][10][9][3]
He played 15 seasons for the Raiders. He was a top special teams player his first two years, and then moved to offensive line in his third year, becoming equally adept at pass and run blocking.[6] Shell played 156 straight games for the Raiders until he suffered a preseason injury in 1979, and after he recovered, Shell played another 51 straight games until he was injured again in 1982, his final season. Shell played next to hall of fame and 100th Anniversary All-Time teammate guard Gene Upshaw in three different decades.[6] He was also offensive linemates with hall of fame and 100th Anniversary All-Time teammate Jim Otto and hall of fame offensive tackle Bob Brown.[11]
Shell was an offensive line coach with the Raiders from 1983 to 1988.[14] In 1989, the Raiders owner Al Davis hired Shell as his head coach to replace Mike Shanahan, becoming the first black head coach in modern NFL history, and the first since Fritz Pollard in 1925. In the NFL's early years, Pollard, an African American running back, was a player-coach for the Hammond (Indiana) Pros from 1923-1925. Pollard had earlier been a teammate of Paul Robeson on the Akron Pros of the American Professional Football Association.[15][16]
Los Angeles Raiders
Through Al Davis, Shell is a member of the Sid Gillmancoaching tree.[17][18] As coach of the Raiders from 1989 to 1994 (at the time located in Los Angeles), Shell coached 12 games in 1989, and 16 games/year from 1990 to 1994, compiling a record of 54 wins, 38 losses.[19] Shell was named AFCCoach of the Year in 1990, when the Raiders won the AFC West division with a 12–4 record, and advanced to the AFC championship game in the playoffs,[20] becoming the first African-American coach to lead the team to the Conference Championship game.[16][14] Shell also received the Maxwell Club's coach of the year award (the Greasy Neale Award),[21] and Pro Football Weekly's NFL Coach of the Year Award.[22]Al Davis, owner of the Raiders, fired Shell after a 9–7 season in 1994,[23] a move Davis later called "a mistake."[24]
After the Raiders
After leaving the Raiders, Shell went on to coaching positions with the Kansas City Chiefs (offensive line coach 1995-1996) and Atlanta Falcons (offensive line coach for four years before resigning in early 2001),[14] before serving as a senior vice president for the NFL, in charge of football operations. In 2004, Shell became the NFL's Senior Vice President over football operations, supervising all football operations and development.[3][7]
2006 return to Raiders
Shell was working for the NFL when he was officially re-hired by the-then Oakland Raiders as head coach on February 11, 2006.[16] After leading the team to its worst record (2 wins, 14 losses) since 1962, despite having one of the best defenses, Shell was fired for the second time as head coach of the Raiders on January 4, 2007.[25]
Shell is the father of Billie Dureyea Shell, the author of the Unfaithful book trilogy, and the great uncle of Brandon Shell, an offensive lineman who was drafted in 2016 by the New York Jets.[27][3]
