SAN FRANCISCO — The Super Bowl memories come flowing back for Carolina Panthers offensive coordinator Mike Shula, though he never played or coached in one.

That's because his father is Hall of Fame coach Don Shula, who will be in attendance Sunday night when the Panthers play the Denver in Super Bowl 50.

“I feel so lucky, not because of my dad's last name and who he was, but just because he's my father,” said Shula, 50, a former Alabama quarterback who was a reserve for the 1987 Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

He'll go head-to-head Sunday with Broncos defensive coordinator Wade Phillips, also the son of a legendary coach. The late Bum Phillips rose from high school coach in his home state of Texas to become head coach of the Houston Oilers and then the New Orleans Saints.

“I'm my father's son, that's for sure,” said Phillips, 68, who oversees one of the NFL's most stifling defenses in years. “I was around football and around him my whole life. ... He shaped pretty much everything.”

Some will see this Super Bowl as Cam Newton vs. Peyton Manning. For others, it's Ron Rivera vs. Gary Kubiak, the first time the head coaches will have both coached in and played in Super Bowls.

But there's no denying the game's most enticing matchup is Carolina's top-scoring offense, which averaged 31.2 points this season, and Denver's No. 1 defense, which gave up just 18.5 points per game.

Phillips and Shula are highly complimentary of each other, just as their fathers were. Bum Phillips famously said: “Don Shula can take his'n and beat your'n, or he can take your'n and beat his'n.”

Reminded of that this week, Don Shula said: “I took that as quite a compliment. Funny way of saying it.”

Wade Phillips is a former head coach with nearly four decades in the NFL. As defensive coordinator, he assembled a defense that finished No. 1 overall and against the pass this season, and No.?3 against the run, but surrendered only 33 more rushing yards than the first-place Seattle Seahawks.

“He puts you in the best position possible,” Broncos linebacker Danny Trevathan said. “He makes you feel like it's on you. You want to go out there and play, and you don't want to mess up for him. ... You feel like you owe him.”

Bum Phillips' players felt the same way about him, and his son learned at his elbow.

“It's kind of strange,” the younger Phillips said. “My dad was in the league like 16 years and this is my 38th year. I've learned a lot of things ... and certainly made a lot of mistakes. He had great common sense. Some guys are great at X's and O's, and he knew that, but he had great common sense of when to do things and what things to do. I like to emulate that, but it's hard to do.”

Mike Shula remembers Super Bowl?VI, when he was a 6-year-old sitting in the chilly upper deck of Tulane Stadium in New Orleans, watching his father's Miami Dolphins play the Dallas Cowboys.

“I can remember getting a hot dog, and it was ice cold,” he said.

Colder still were the Dolphins, who were on the wrong end of a 24-3 defeat.

The next season, Shula's Dolphins won all 17 games for a “perfect season,” something no NFL team has matched in the modern era. The season culminated with a 14-7 win over the Washington Redskins in Super Bowl VII at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

“The biggest thing I can remember from that year was that my mom had just bought me a red transistor radio,” Shula said. “I thought that was awesome because I could listen to the game while I was watching it.”

The Dolphins made the Super Bowl for a third straight season, facing the mighty Minnesota Vikings. Miami had a 17-0 halftime lead in that game.

“I remember they had these flags for each team, and the one for Miami said, ‘Dolphins No. 1; Vikings eat your heart out.' I said, ‘Mom, let me get it. I want to get it.'

“She said, ‘No, it's only halftime. We have a very long way to go.' I talked her into getting it, and sure enough, the opening kickoff of the second half, the Vikings return it for a touchdown. There was a penalty on the play, though. Those are things you remember as a kid.”