‘A fixture in the Orange Bowl’: A look back at Dolfan Denny, the Dolphins’ original super fan

Long before T.D. strutted across Hard Rock Stadium, pumping up the Dolphins faithful on game days, there was Denny Sym, known by many as “Dolfan Denny.”

His various getups were distinguishable from anywhere in the Orange Bowl, with maybe the trademark being a vibrant, rhinestone-decorated orange outfit from head to toe and a matching cowboy hat on his head.

Sym was present at the franchise’s very first game in its inaugural 1966 season. And for the next 33 years, Sym, who died in 2007, led chants at Dolphins home games, originally in the stands and then on the sideline as the team’s unofficial mascot.

Sym’s first games at the Orange Bowl were like any other fan. During the week, the Davie resident was working as an engineer at Southern Bell. But on Sundays, he was situated in the west end zone with a much more standard attire – “a regular pair of shorts, a T-shirt and a bright orange hat I bought at the concession stand,” he told the Miami Herald in 1983.

A member of some of the great Miami High football teams in the early 1950s, Sym played in the state’s all-star game as a senior and earned a scholarship to Tennessee, where he majored in engineering. Going to games at the Orange Bowl was cathartic for the self-described “frustrated coach.”

Sym was the ring leader of his section in the late ‘60s, organizing the fans around him to start cheers. As more joined in on the antics, the cheers became more organized. Sym made signs to cue fans when to start, and a woman in the stands made a costume for Sym, which began the elaborate attire he would wear to the games.

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“He was a super fan,” said Tim Robbie, the son of former owner Joe Robbie. “And he was one of those guys that the fans in the stands embraced as a leader of chants. He would stand in a corner and have the sideline section in that corner chant ‘D’ and then the end zone section chant, that kind of stuff. He was a fixture in the Orange Bowl and a guy that helped motivate the crowd to make noise.”

As Hall of Fame coach Don Shula arrived in 1970 and the team started to come to prominence — the Dolphins won 31 straight home games from 1971 to 1975 — Sym to his act to the next level. He began using his own money to purchase tailored outfits and get custom signs made.

“We had the No. 1 coach in the league and a reputation as the cream of the crop, so I had to fit the mold,” Sym said.

“I think [1972] was the most exciting year he ever had,” his wife, Ingrid, told the Herald in 2007. “The fans were all very active, and all of that changed after they moved into the new stadium. That was his very best year.”

Four years after the franchise’s perfect season in 1972, Joe Robbie approached Sym about moving from the stands to the sideline to be the team’s unofficial mascot. Sym signed on for it and was paid $50 per game. He was not only a fixture of the game day experience but in the South Florida community. Sym spoke on behalf of the team at community events and helped raise money for charitable organizations.

“It was sort of a perfect storm,” Tim Robbie said. “You had a team that had been an expansion team and hadn’t done much winning for the first few years to this sudden turnaround where Don Shula arrived on the scene and the team became very good very quickly. It was a situation where the crowd was excited to begin with and to have a guy like that to help spur the bond, I think it was a lot of synergy there.”

In a 13-10 win over the Philadelphia Eagles in 1981, Denny — and the raucous crowd he orchestrated — may have been the difference in the narrow margin of victory. With the score tied at 10, Philadelphia was closing in on a go-ahead score late. But Denny, seemingly innocuous on the sideline, raised one hand to the crowd, almost to quiet them. He placed his other hand behind his back, frantically waving it up and down and instigating the several thousand fans in attendance.

The deafening noise was too much for Eagles quarterback Ron Jaworski, who threw an interception. Kicker Uwe von Schamann eventually won the game with a 27-yard field goal.

In 2000, years after the Dolphins had moved into what is now Hard Rock Stadium, Sym retired and was honored by the franchise. In 2007, one year before the Orange Bowl that served as his stage was demolished, he died of a weak heart, his wife told the Herald.

Through the years, plenty of fans have embraced the legacy of Sym, decked out in extravagant garments and taking on unique personas at home games.

But Sym was the original “Dolfan.”

“It’s important to have dedicated, loyal, enthusiastic fans,” Tim Robbie said, “and I think Denny sort of epitomized the Dolphin mania that struck South Florida when the team started playing in the ‘60s and of course when Don Shula came in 1970 and the winning and Super Bowl titles followed. Denny was an integral part of the interaction between the fans and the team and having that type of guy — the cheerleader that represented the fans was something special for the club and really epitomized the mania for the team that existed at the time.”