Player's death a `sad, sad time' The fishing day done, a friend flat on his back with seasickness, Stanley Shakespeare was returning to Jupiter Inlet by boat Tuesday when a wave knocked him overboard and left the 17-foot vessel captainless. About 40 minutes later, the still body of the former University of Miami wide receiver and member of the Hurricanes' first national championship team was retrieved from rough waters by three people in a rental boat. Shakespeare, 42, drowned -- swept along by a current rushing between 15 and 20 knots. His fishing companion, Marvin Weston, watched helplessly, holding on to a life jacket but too far from Shakespeare to toss it to him, said police. Weston did not know how to restart the boat that could have saved his friend's life. By the time a marine unit arrived, Shakespeare lay face down in the water, his sunglasses clutched in one of his hands. He was pronounced dead at Jupiter Medical Center at 3:06 p.m. ''What a sad, sad time for all of us,'' said Bernie Kosar, Shakespeare's quarterback on the 1983 championship team. ''What a wonderful young man he was,'' said Howard Schnellenberger, who coached the '83 Canes. ``You get out in that dadgone Gulf Stream, and it doesn't take much to put you in peril.'' Shakespeare, whom Kosar said ''wasn't a great swimmer,'' was found three quarters of a mile east of the Jupiter Inlet. His family, in Palm Beach Gardens, could not be reached for comment. Kosar said Shakespeare had three children, including a ninth-grader and a son at Florida Atlantic University who will be married in June. Shakespeare was the grocery manager at a Publix in Lake Park, where he supervised Weston. Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office spokesman Paul Miller said foul play is not suspected and the case is being treated as an accident. The investigation will continue until an autopsy is completed. Miller said Shakespeare was steering the boat when he was knocked from it. Weston was lying down, ill from the rocking motion. Asked why Weston didn't turn on the boat again in an attempt to retrieve Shakespeare, Miller said, ``I think at that point he panicked. He really didn't know what he was doing.'' Dustin Olayvar, 23, said he was piloting a boat with his girlfriend, Pattie Hidy, and Jason Ness when, out of the corner of Hidy's eye, she saw Weston frantically waving two life jackets. ''We flew over and found [Shakespeare] face down in the water. I pulled up as close as I could and Jason grabbed his hand to pull him up,'' Olayvar said. ``There was no life at all. His eyes were wide open. He had clamped onto his sunglasses.'' Shakespeare, who grew up in Boynton Beach and was integral in UM's first championship season, nonetheless was not the star receiver. A small, thickly built flanker, he complemented All-American split end Eddie Brown, his roommate on road trips. Brown, now the receivers coach for the Las Vegas Gladiators of the Arena Football League, said he last saw Shakespeare a year ago at a UM reunion. ''I'm stunned and I'm hurt,'' said Brown, who lives in Kendall. ``He was happy-go-lucky, funny. He was the backbone of the whole offense -- me and him and Bernie were a trio. No one was bigger than anyone else. He made plays that opened up the gate for me, and I made plays for him. There was no star on that team.'' Kosar said he last saw Shakespeare two weeks ago at Kosar's house. The two were roommates immediately after college during Cleveland Browns' training camp, at which Shakespeare signed a free agent contract but ended up sitting out the year on the injured reserve list. Shakespeare also was a 1987 strike replacement player with Tampa Bay. Kosar said he spent the early part of the '83 title game against Nebraska ``passing to Shake because everyone was cognizant of Eddie Brown. Shake probably had 60 of the first 75 yards of offense.'' After UM won 31-30, Kosar said he went out with Shakespeare to celebrate. ''Instead of going back to my room afterward, I ended up staying in his room because we wanted to wake up together to hear the news of whether or not were national champions,'' he said. ``At 7:30 a.m. we wake up and find out we're national champions and we immediately start wrestling -- and Shake had separated his shoulder that game. We were so excited.'' Don Bailey, 44, a UM football color commentator for WQAM, played two seasons with Shakespeare as the center. ''I always loved seeing him because he always had a big smile and big hello and great attitude,'' he said. ``He was about laughing and about making people feel good. ``This morning I found out and I'm in total shock. When you're in your 20s and early 30s, you think you're never going to run out of time. Something like this tells you you're on the clock.'' Susan Miller Degnan, 1 May 2005