The head coach of the Denver Broncos split a kidney during a Panther football game in the 1970s. He urinated blood in the locker room and vomited at home, but it wasn’t until one of his roommates called an ambulance that Shanahan finally went to the hospital, according to a November 1997 Sports Illustrated article.

"My heart stopped beating for more than 30 seconds," Shanahan told S.I. "A priest read me my last rites. My dad got to the hospital as the priest was walking out."

But after emergency surgery and five days in intensive care, Shanahan emerged healthy. Two weeks after the operation, he went river rafting.

Today, Shanahan is one of Eastern’s greatest alums. He is the head coach and vice president of player personnel for the Broncos, two-time Super Bowl winner, one of the most respected and successful football minds in the game today and a shoo-in for the pro-football Hall of Fame. Most important, he’s an Eastern Illinois University alum with a penchant for donating chunks of cash to his alma mater and drafting fellow Panthers.

How cool is it to see an Eastern grad on television every weekend?

Michael Edward Shanahan started his football career at East Leyden High School in Franklin Park, Illinois, where he was a star high school quarterback. He went to Eastern in the early 1970s on a football scholarship, playing quarterback and defensive back.

That last-second operation at Eastern saved his life, but ended his playing career. After doctors removed the kidney (too bad no one kept it for posterity), Shanahan, a physical education major, worked as an assistant with Eastern’s football team while earning his bachelor's degree in 1974 and master’s (also in physical education) in 1975. He then worked as an assistant for the Oklahoma Sooners and won a national championship while there. He served as a backfield coach at Northern Arizona before returning to Eastern in 1978 as the Panther’s offensive coordinator, helping the team win a Division II championship—the first since Burl Ives’ won one back in the 1930s!

In a lateral move, Shanahan left Eastern to become the offensive coordinator at the University of Minnesota in 1979 and then Florida in 1980. Showing what an Eastern grad can do, he took two sorry programs and gave them winning records. He implemented the run-and-shoot offense and set 40 offensive records in Minnesota. In Florida, he took a team with a 0-10-1 record the year before and led them to a Bowl Game for four straight years.

Shanahan left college for the pros and found himself struggling to maintain his sterling reputation among a pack of jackasses. His went to the Broncos for the first time as a receivers coach in 1984 and then an offensive coordinator. He then became the head coach for the Raiders and, for the first time in recent memory, two EIU alums were united (Jeff Gossett) on one NFL team.

With two Eastern grads on the team, the only thing that stopped the Raiders from winning was Al Davis, the club’s owner. Shanahan couldn’t work with this overbearing, control-freak. After going 7-9 in 1988 and 1-3 at the start of the next season, Shanahan was fired.

To add insult to injury, Davis stiffed Shanahan out of thousands of dollars in pay. While they finally settled the issue by donating some cash to charity, Davis is someone that grates on Shanny to this day!

But things got worse. After being fired from the Raiders, Shanahan returned to the Broncos as a quarterback coach but was canned by Head Coach Dan Reeves for supposedly going behind Reeves' back and planning offensive plays with quarterback John Elway (Question: Which coach WON a Super Bowl with the Broncos and who didn’t? Enough said.)

In an attempt to rebuild his unfairly tarnished reputation, Shanahan then went to San Francisco as offensive coordinator in 1992. The 49ers won a Super Bowl while he was there.

After Reeves was fired in 1994 and another coach couldn’t cut the mustard, Shanahan took the reigns as head coach in 1995. In 1997, he won his first Super Bowl as a head coach. Then in 1998, he won it again and was named an Eastern Illinois University Distinguished Alumnus that year.

Apparently, to become distinguished alum you must guide a team to TWO Super Bowl wins.

A man never without a suntan, Shanahan is referred to as "The Rat" by sports radio personality Jim Rome. Friends used to say it always looks like Shanahan's head is going to explode.

Mike is known as an adventurer and a risk-taker -- the polar opposite of his looks. He once went bungee jumping with his pre-teenage kids and also dove off a 60-foot cliff into the Caribbean. He’s also known as a "player's coach," according to Sports Illustrated, and one of the more coveted coaches in the league.

"He doesn't feel a need to bark at you,” Denver running back Terrell Davis told S.I. “He's straightforward, and treats his players with respect. In return, he wants you to play hard for him. What else can you ask for?" "He treats you like a man, until you need to be treated like a boy," Broncos defensive lineman Mike Lodish also told Sports Illustrated.

Shanahan has a seven-year, $85 million contract with the Broncos, and he doesn’t hesitate to throw the cash around. In June 1999, he donated $25,000 to help improve O’Brien Stadium. Even better, he drafts Eastern grads to his team and hires coaches who went to the school. In 1999, he drafted Chris Watson, who now plays for the Buffalo Bills. Several members of his coaching staff are somehow connected to Eastern. That rules!

In Setepmber 199, Mike co-authored Think Like a Champion: Building Success One Victory at a Time. As of January 2003, Amazon.com was selling copies for 77 cents. Ouch.

His wife, Peggy, also went to Eastern. They have two children, Kyle and Krystal.

Mike Shanahan -- A marketable commodity.

Sources for information and some photos: The Sporting News, NFL, Denver Broncos Homepage, ProSportsPage.com, Amazon.com, California Bronco, and The Daily Eastern News.