The Miami Dolphins are a professional American football franchise which competes in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. The team's headquarters, stadium and training facilities are all co-located in Miami Gardens, Florida. The Dolphins' team was founded by attorney-politician Joe Robbie and actor-comedian Danny Thomas. The Dolphins began play in the American Football League (AFL) in 1966. South Florida did not have a professional football team since the days of the Miami Seahawks, who played in the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) East Division in 1946 before becoming the first incarnation of the Baltimore Colts.
The late 1960s: Origins
The first professional American football team to be based in Miami and the state of Florida was the Miami Seahawks. The Seahawks entered the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) during its inaugural 1946 season, as the first major league-level sports franchise ever in Miami. However, the team lasted only one year before being confiscated by the league.
Miami had been a target for the American Football League from its earliest stages. Ralph Wilson, one of the league's founding owners, had hoped to establish his franchise in Miami when he acquired his stake in 1959. However, he was unable to secure a lease to a suitable stadium to host professional football games. As was the case in 1946, the only stadium large enough was the Orange Bowl (called Burdine Stadium during the Seahawks' brief tenancy there) but municipal officials were unwilling to risk a repeat of the AAFC fiasco and told Wilson only college teams would be permitted to play there. This led Wilson to abandon Miami and instead establish the Buffalo Bills in Buffalo, New York. The fledgling AFL maintained its interest in Miami however, and in 1962 staged a preseason exhibition game between the Houston Oilers and the Dallas Texans. By 1965, the AFL was clearly a much more sustainable venture than the previous AAFC and as such local government resistance to a professional team playing at the Orange Bowl had subsided. The AFL awarded an expansion team to lawyer Joe Robbie and actor Danny Thomas. They agreed to pay the AFL $7.5 million for their franchise, an astonishing three hundred times the $25,000 the eight original AFL owners had paid for the league's charter franchises.
Robbie had originally wanted to establish the new franchise in Philadelphia, but encountered resistance from the other AFL owners since Philadelphia was already home to an established NFL team. The decade had not only seen the relocations of the AFL's Texans and Los Angeles Chargers due to local NFL competition, but even that of the NFL's long-established Chicago Cardinals while the Oakland Raiders and New York Titans initially only barely survived. Such experiences had left the AFL to doubt whether a city such as Philadelphia would support two professional football teams. Moreover, while by 1965 the NFL was already seriously entertaining merger discussions with its rival, the future of the AFL's two remaining teams in shared markets was a major sticking point which the AFL commissioner Joe Foss did not wish to aggravate further.
At the suggestion of Foss, Robbie agreed to court Miami due to its warm climate, growing population, and lack of a football team. Robbie was soon able to secure a lease for the Orange Bowl, and Thomas would eventually sell his stake in the team to Robbie. A contest was held in 1965 to choose the name of the team, which elicited 19,843 entries and over a thousand different names. The winning name, "Dolphins", was submitted by 622 entrants. During the summer of 1966, the Dolphins' training camp was in St. Pete Beach with practices in August at Boca Ciega High School in Gulfport.
The Dolphins' first head coach was George Wilson, former coach of the Detroit Lions. Under Wilson, the Dolphins had a combined 15–39–2 record in four seasons.
The 1970s: The 'perfect season' and the Super Bowl titles Upon joining the NFL in 1970, the Dolphins hired Don Shula, a former Paul Brown disciple who had been lured from the Baltimore Colts after losing Super Bowl III two seasons earlier to the AFL's New York Jets and finishing 8–5–1 the following season, as their head coach. The Colts were enraged, especially since they had agreed upon the merger to move to the new American Football Conference and become the Dolphins' division rivals. They charged the Dolphins with tampering in gaining Shula. NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle awarded Baltimore Miami's first round draft pick in 1971 as compensation.
Shula introduced himself to the Miami press by saying ‘that he didn't have any magic formulas and that the only way he knew to make his teams successful was through hard work.’ Shula's early training camps with the Dolphins seemed to have improved the Miami Dolphins to a 10–4 record and their first-ever playoff appearance, losing 21–14 at Oakland.
The Dolphins were a successful team during the early 1970s, becoming the first team to advance to the Super Bowl for three consecutive seasons. They captured the AFC championship in 1971 behind quarterback Bob Griese and wide receiver Paul Warfield. The AFC Divisional Playoff Game, in which the Dolphins defeated the Kansas City Chiefs 27–24, was the longest contest in NFL history (82 minutes 40 seconds). The Dolphins then shut out the Colts 21–0 in the AFC Championship game at the Orange Bowl. In Super Bowl VI, however, Miami lost to the Dallas Cowboys 24–3.
In 1972, the Dolphins completed the NFL's first and only perfect season, winning every regular season game, two playoff games, and Super Bowl VII, defeating the Washington Redskins 14–7 (the 1948 Cleveland Browns had accomplished an undefeated season, but as members of the All-America Football Conference). During this season, Griese suffered a broken ankle in Week 5 versus the San Diego Chargers and was replaced by veteran Earl Morrall for the rest of the regular season, with Griese returning to the field as a substitute during the AFC Championship game versus the Pittsburgh Steelers and would once again start for Miami in Super Bowl VII. On the ground, running backs Larry Csonka and Mercury Morris became the first teammates to each rush 1,000 yards in a season. The offensive line included future Hall of Fame members Jim Langer and Larry Little, and Pro Bowler Bob Kuechenberg. The 1972 Dolphins defensive unit, called the No-Name Defense because Miami's impressive offense received much more publicity, was the league's best that year. It was led by linebacker Nick Buoniconti, end Bill Stanfill, and safeties Dick Anderson and Jake Scott. The Dolphins defeated the Cleveland Browns 20–14 at the Orange Bowl, then knocked off the Steelers 21–17 at Three Rivers Stadium to advance to Super Bowl VII. The only blemish in Miami's Super Bowl victory over Washington came from their placekicker, Garo Yepremian. Late in the 4th quarter, with the Dolphins leading 14–0, Yepremian attempted a 42-yard field goal, which was blocked. Yepremian picked up the loose ball, and attempted to pass, but the ball slipped out of his hands, and after batting it up in the air, the ball was grabbed by Redskins cornerback Mike Bass, who returned it for a touchdown. The Dolphins were able to hold on for a 14–7 victory.
The Dolphins finished 12–2 after the 1973 regular season and repeated as NFL champions, beating the Minnesota Vikings 24–7 in Super Bowl VIII at Rice Stadium in Houston. Miami reached the playoffs again in 1974 but lost in the first round to the Oakland Raiders, in what has entered NFL lore as the "Sea of Hands" game, considered one of the greatest games ever played. This devastating loss, which Shula called his toughest ever (he cried in the locker room after the game) and which haunts Dolphin players and fans to this day, marked the end of the Dolphins' dynasty. It would be eight years before the Dolphins would win another playoff game. After the disappointing defeat, several players, including Csonka, Warfield, and running back Jim Kiick, joined the short-lived World Football League. The Dolphins managed to win ten games in 1975, aided by Griese's consistency and the fine play of wide receiver Nat Moore. They did not make the playoffs, however, losing on tiebreakers to the Baltimore Colts.
Miami rebounded from a 6–8 losing record in 1976 by winning ten or more games in four of the next five seasons. Shula built a solid defense around a new set of stars, including linebacker A. J. Duhe and linemen Bob Baumhower and Doug Betters. The Dolphins went 10–4 again in 1977 but again lost the division title (and playoff spot) to the Colts. They made the playoffs as a wild card in 1978 but lost in the first round to the Houston Oilers 17–9.
Csonka returned to the Dolphins in time for the 1979 season. After winning the AFC East division with a 10–6 record, the Dolphins lost the divisional playoff 34–14 to the eventual Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers at Three Rivers Stadium.
The Dolphins also accomplished another feat never done before or since by another NFL team. They beat the division rival Buffalo Bills 20 consecutive times in the 1970s. The Bills were "0 for the seventies" against the Dolphins.
The 1980s: The Marino era (part 1)
In 1980, David Woodley, an athletic quarterback out of LSU, took over for Bob Griese, who severely injured his shoulder in a game against the Baltimore Colts. Griese would never play again, retiring after the season. The Dolphins finished 8–8 and did not make the playoffs. Their season ender with the Jets was notable for being the only NFL game ever broadcast without commentary.
The Dolphins were back on top of the AFC East in 1981 with an 11–4–1 record. That season, the Dolphins' quarterback position was actually manned by both Woodley and backup Don Strock, causing the local media to identify the Miami quarterbacks as "Woodstrock." They reached the divisional playoff against the San Diego Chargers, regarded as one of the most memorable games in NFL history, known as The Epic in Miami. After being down 24–0 after the end of the 1st quarter, Strock entered the game for an ineffective Woodley and engineered a frenetic comeback, which included the historic "Hook and Lateral" play, in which wide receiver Duriel Harris caught a pass from Strock and immediately lateraled the ball to the streaking running back Tony Nathan for the score on the last play of the first half, which cut the Chargers lead to 24–17. After the Dolphins took the lead in the 4th quarter, San Diego tied it up 38–38 with under a minute to play. Chargers tight end Kellen Winslow, playing through exhaustion, blocked Uwe von Schamann's field goal try on the last play of regulation. Von Schamann had another field goal attempt blocked in overtime, and Rolf Benirschke kicked the game-winner for San Diego late in overtime. Strock finished the game with 403 passing yards and 4 touchdowns.