The ’72 Dolphins 50th anniversary celebration: Six questions with trivia answer Larry Ball
To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Dolphins’ perfect season, The Miami Herald is running weekly conversations with members of the 1972 team that went 17-0.
Six questions with Larry Ball, a backup linebacker and special teams player on that team and a former head coach at North Miami High:
▪ What is your favorite memory of that season?
“The final cut down when they called the guys in with their playbook and my name wasn’t called,” Ball said. “It was a team coming back off a Super Bowl [loss to Dallas]. I was a nervous wreck worried about making the team.
“A couple of veterans thought I had a good chance. Coach [Don] Shula said that the more I could do — snap for punts and play special teams and back up at linebacker — [would help me]. You try to catch their eye” by being versatile.
PERFECT MEMORIES
Join us each Wednesday as we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the perfect 1972 team
▪ How has being a member of that ‘72 team changed your life?
“When someone finds out that you’re a member of that team, there is a respect they show to you that is amazing. That’s a big deal to them. For me, not being a player who was an All-Star or Hall of Famer, to say you were on a Super Bowl-winning team is huge. But to say you were on the only undefeated team keeps that pride in you all the time.”
“I played on the senior softball tour and five or so years ago, I was at a national senior softball event in Las Vegas and one of the people in my group was talking to the group from California. And they were going crazy when they found out who I was and said, ‘My father went to that game [the Super Bowl win in Los Angeles against Washington to cap the undefeated season]!’
“They wanted to have pictures taken with me and asked, ‘Can we see the ring and hold the ring?’ I don’t know if it was me who had them excited or the ring.”
Ball, 73, worked as as a guidance counselor, department head, and coach (including at North Miami High) for more than 30 years after his football career.
▪ You are the only player in NFL history to spend a full season with both a team that went undefeated (the 1972 Dolphins) and a winless team (the 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers). What do you think about being the answer to that trivia question?
“I think all the time about why I had to go to Tampa Bay in the expansion draft. Tampa Bay was very, very difficult. The defense was on the field 75 percent of the time.
“Doug Swift was also drafted by Tampa in the expansion draft, but Doug retired and went on to be an anesthesiologist. Maulty Moore, who was on the ‘72 team, signed with Tampa late [in 1976]. I was there the whole year with Tampa.
“When Bob Griese was doing [preason] Dolphins games on [TV] he would pop up that trivia question about me being the only player” to complete full seasons on undefeated and winless teams.
▪ What was it like playing for Don Shula as a backup player, as opposed to being a star? Did he treat players differently?
“You could see little differences but never outlandish where you felt you didn’t matter. He was very disciplined, very meticulous. He would let you know if you did something wrong. Everybody has a job to do and you are expected to do it the best you can.”
▪ Who’s the unsung hero on that ‘72 team?
“Dick Anderson manning the calls in the secondary and letting the linebackers know what was coming. And Manny Fernandez handled the middle of that defense so well; to do what he did at that size was tremendous.”
▪ Quirky memory from the ‘72 season?
“In the Jets game, I got called twice for clipping on kickoff returns; let’s just say Shula scolded me a couple of times coming out.
“Coach Shula, when he saw something wrong with a penalty, would send it to the league. In his team meeting the next week, he said, “Larry, I sent this to the league and neither one was a clip because the guy fell forward.’”
Jake Scott then said to Ball, in front of everyone: ‘Makes you feel a lot better for what [Shula] said to you.”
Shula then laughed.
