High school coach blazed same trail as Smith and Dungy

Before there was Lovie and before there was Tony, there was Bob.

More than two decades ago, Bob Shannon became the first African-American head coach to lead a high school football team to an Illinois state championship game. And he not only got his East St. Louis players to the big game, he coached them to a victory.

“The thing that helped us [was] nobody thought we were as good as we were,” Shannon said.

Some discounted the all-black team as nothing more than undisciplined speedsters, but Shannon showed critics otherwise.

“We proved that we were a well-coached team,” he said.

That’s what Shannon during the conference championships: two well-coached teams.

While many nationwide have become absorbed in the race of the coaches in this year’s Super Bowl, Shannon has focused on the coaches’ defensive strategies that, in his opinion, have helped the Chicago Bears and Indianapolis Colts make it this far.

Shannon said he can relate to the media scrutiny the coaches are going through -- he endured something similar when he took his first team to the state championship.

“We weren’t that different than Lovie [Smith] or Tony Dungy,” he said. “The spotlight was on us and, if we could get it done, [we knew] it would bring pride to East St. Louis and the state.”

Shannon, now 62, was the head coach at East St. Louis High School for 19 years, where he had to contend not only with opposing teams, but with the lure of gangs and the city’s crime-ridden streets.

“You give [the kids] an opportunity and you get them to understand that they have to take advantage of it,” Shannon said. “[We told them] simply because you were poor and black and from the ghetto it didn’t mean you couldn’t succeed.”

His players listened, to the tune of six state titles.

Turns out six is an interesting number. It’s the same amount of African-American head coaches in the National Football League after the Pittsburgh Steelers hired Mike Tomlin last week.

That two of them will square off at Super Bowl XLI has Shannon excited.

“This will prove that African-Americans and other minorities, when given the opportunity, can get the job done,” he said.

Now the head coach at Christian Brothers College High School in St. Louis, Shannon still remembers when the Bears gave him Coach of the Week honors after his 200th victory a decade ago.

“I’ve got a soft spot in my heart for the Chicago Bears,” he acknowledged. “I’m going to have to root for the Bears."