Donnie Shell never planned on playing professional football. Sure, he dreamed of it, imagined blowing up ball carriers and picking off passes like Raiders safety Jack Tatum, but never planned on it. For Shell, football was a means to an end, a way to be the first of his nine siblings to attend college. His plan: He’d attend South Carolina State, get a master’s degree in education, then head home to Whitmire, S.C., to teach and coach football.

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None of that made waiting any easier.

Not while waiting for his name to be called during the 1974 NFL Draft. There were 17 rounds and 442 picks, from Ed “Too Tall” Jones (No. 1, 6-foot-9) to Ken Dickerson (No. 442, 5-9). Scouts had told Shell he could be drafted as early as the fifth round. He wasn’t drafted. The next day, Steelers scout Bill Nunn called and offered Shell a contract. The Broncos and Oilers did, too. Shell’s college coach, Willie Jeffries, said he’d fit best in Pittsburgh.

Not while waiting for a starting job with the Steelers. Shell’s strategy to win a roster spot as a rookie was to be the best-conditioned and most-prepared player in training camp. That’s what he could control. Still, Shell remembered a reporter saying, “Mr. Shell, are you aware that you’re a long shot to make this team?” Shell smiled and replied, “You must not be used to the S.C. State tenacity.”

And not while waiting for the call from Canton. Thirty-three years passed between Shell’s retirement in 1987 — after four Super Bowls and five Pro Bowls — and the day Pro Football Hall of Fame president David Baker informed Shell he’d been elected to the Hall’s Centennial Class of 2020. After all that, Shell’s enshrinement would wait an extra year. He’ll be inducted this weekend, alongside Bill Cowher, Alan Faneca, Troy Polamalu and the late Nunn.

“I’ve learned a lot of patience over that wait,” Shell told reporters a few weeks ago. “but it was a good wait. I learned a lot. I grew a lot. I was not discouraged because I knew I had the numbers. It was just a matter of time.”

Shell, 68, said he always had faith that the call would eventually come, but it would happen on God’s timing, not his. Shell — who after retiring from football served as director of spiritual life at Johnson C. Smith University — speaks often of his faith. The night before the AFC Championship Game in 1974, Shell walked into a cafe for a bite to eat and met a man who was scheduled to speak at the Steelers’ chapel service the next morning. As they chatted, Shell felt called, like he had the answer to the emptiness he was experiencing. Soon, he’d start a Bible study with teammate Mel Blount. They met during training camp, at home, on the road, wherever the team was on Wednesdays.

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“All that was part of the fiber that held the team together,” Blount said in a conversation with Shell.

One of Shell’s donated items on display in Canton is his old Bible.

Shell is the fifth member of the famed “Steel Curtain” defense inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, following Blount, Joe Greene, Jack Lambert and Jack Ham. Pulling on the gold jacket in Canton, he said, will feel like reuniting with them. Shell made his name with huge hits, big plays and picks. (He said his hit on Earl Campbell in 1978 ranks as the No. 1 moment in his career, but his three-interception day against Cleveland’s Brian Sipe in 1981 is close behind.) As a rookie, Shell’s biggest issue as an outside linebacker-turned-safety was his interception skills. “When I first got in the league, I couldn’t catch a cold, man,” he said. “Things hit me in the hands, hit me in my helmet.” He stayed after practice with John Stallworth and Lynn Swann and learned. In the end, Shell would be the first strong safety to surpass 50 interceptions.

As a rookie determined to stay on the Steelers, Shell carved a niche as a special-teams ace and as a nickelback on third downs. Once, after Shell busted the wedge of blockers in kickoff coverage, Steelers defensive end Dwight “Mad Dog” White, who liked to pick a nickname for each teammate, told Shell, “I’m going to tell you right now, you’re Torpedo. That’s who you are.”

Slowly, “Torpedo” worked his way from reserve defensive back into a regular role. Before his first start, filling in for the injured Mike Wagner against the Bengals in Week 14 of his rookie season, Shell told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, “If you don’t have confidence in yourself, then no one else will.” He intercepted his first pass, off Wayne Clark, in that game. Shell began starting at strong safety in 1977, his fourth season. He held down the position for the next 11 seasons and finished with 51 interceptions.

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“With him at strong safety and me at tight end, we went against each other all the time,” former Steelers tight end Bennie Cunningham told The State. “By comparison, the games were fairly easy. When you compete against the best, it brings out the best in you.”

After retiring, Shell worked for 15 years as the Carolina Panthers’ director of player development, focused on helping players plan for their post-football careers. He passed along a message he’d heard again and again from Steelers coach Chuck Noll: There’s a lot of life left after football.

Today, Shell is a happily retired father and grandfather. He and his wife, Paulette, have three children — April, Donnie and Dawn — and all five members of the family are South Carolina State graduates. April, a middle school principal in Columbia, S.C., will introduce Shell on stage in Canton at his Hall of Fame enshrinement.

Shell also serves on South Carolina State’s board of trustees and remains involved in a number of community fundraising efforts. He and Paulette started the Donnie Shell Scholarship Foundation to provide financial assistance to students coming from rural parts of South Carolina who can’t afford college tuition — like Shell and his siblings all those years ago.

In the earliest days of his NFL career, people asked Shell what he’d do if he didn’t make it, if the Steelers cut him, if football didn’t work. “Well,” he’d tell them, “I’m going back to get my master’s degree and be a teacher and a coach.” Shell never needed the fallback plan. He left football on his terms. But he went back to school anyway, earning a master’s degree in counseling education from South Carolina State in 1977. After all, he figured, why wait?

(Photo: George Gojkovich / Getty Images)