From Shula to Buoniconti to Scott, Morrall and Kiick, ’72 Dolphins honor men who have died
When members of the undefeated 1972 Dolphins convene this weekend in South Florida to celebrate the 50th anniversary of perfection, there will be great joy.
There will be also be a great void.
Celebrating this honor without legendary coach Don Shula — who died in 2020 — will feel odd, former standout safety Dick Anderson said last week.
“You realize everybody is getting older,” Anderson said. “Every coach we had has passed away.”
“You don’t realize how fast you’re getting old until your teammates, your friends, acquaintances, family, start to disappear,” Larry Csonka said Tuesday. “I don’t think anything brought it more drastically to mind than when coach Shula passed. He was just such a strong and prominent figure in so many of our lives, that you just assume he’s always going to be there. And then suddenly to be talking about him in the past tense was a really bitter pill.”
Seventeen players from the Dolphins’ undefeated team are also deceased: Marlin Briscoe (died in June), Nick Buoniconti (2019), Jim Kiick (2020), Bob Kuechenberg (2019), Earl Morrall (2014), Jim Mandich (2011), Jim Langer (2019), Bill Stanfill (2016), Jake Scott (2020), Garo Yepremian (2015), Charlie Leigh (2006), Bob Matheson (1994), Billy Lothridge (1996), Wayne Moore (1989), Jesse Powell (2012), Mike Howell (2016) and Jim Dunaway (2018).
In interviews with the Miami Herald, ‘72 Dolphins fondly remembered some of the players and coaches who have passed on:
▪ The players’ respect for Shula, already high, has only grown over the years.
“What I would say,” Hall of Fame receiver Paul Warfield said, “is he was a person of immense integrity and honesty. He believed in old fashioned ideals. He could communicate with his players. His formula was simplistic: hard work, sacrifice, dedication and we’ll get there. Practicing twice a day through the entire training camp, I never heard of that. Most teams of that era would have two-a-days for the first two weeks and one-a-days for the rest of camp.
“Not only in the first year did we have two-a-days throughout the entire training camp but the entire time I was there, we did that. We were highly disciplined, well trained, well coached. That’s why we were a successful team.”
PERFECT MEMORIES
Join us each Wednesday as we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the perfect 1972 team
Hall of Fame guard Larry Little said what stood out about Shula was “his leadership ability. A a lot of people thought he was no nonsense but he liked to have fun, too. He would openly laugh. He was very disciplined in what he did and we were disciplined in what we did and that helped lead to our success. He wanted us to do the right thing, but we didn’t have to [do silly things like] walk in a straight line.”
Shula’s greatest contribution that season? Pushing a mentality of “hard work,” Little said. “We probably worked harder than any team in the league. We were always well conditioned.”
Anderson has a million memories of Shula, including this one: “He was screaming at me all the time. Nick went up to him and said ‘Quit screaming at Anderson!’ Shula said: ‘You played better when I yelled at you!’
What made Shula so good?
“His inability to accept anything but the best from anyone he was coaching. End of story,” defensive end Manny Fernandez said. “If you weren’t producing, you weren’t going to be here. If you weren’t doing everything to the best of your ability, you weren’t going to be here. He wanted total commitment. He was a task-masker.”
▪ Several ‘72 Dolphins took time to acknowledge the sharp minds of assistant coaches Bill Arnsparger, Howard Schnellenberger and Monte Clark.
“Howard had a laser-like focus on every play being perfect,” said quarterback Jim Del Gaizo, who backed up Bob Griese and Morrall. “The way he worked the receivers, those guys must have hated him. You had to love the guy. He was an unbelievable human being. A brilliant offensive mind. They [Shula, Schnellenberger, Monte Clark] taught me more in two years than I could ever imagine.”
Anderson cited Shula’s “ability to hire the best coaches and the fact that Bill Arnsparger was brilliant. When you also look at Monte and Howard, all three of those guys got head coaching jobs. People don’t understand the value of the staff. You did what they told you to do, and the plays worked.”
▪ Griese will never forget Mandich, who was as popular with teammates as he was with Dolphins fans who loved his humor and candor as the team’s radio analyst and a longtime South Florida talk show host.
Mandich died in 2011, at age 62, after a battle with cancer.
“It brings a smile to my face to think of him,” Griese said. “Mandich was a great receiver but he couldn’t block. I remember playing the Raiders and Ted Hendricks and in a running situation, I put Mandich over there on the right side and put Larry Csonka and Jim Kiick on the right side.
“Hendricks knew it would be a running play to Csonka, with Mandich blocking Hendricks. I called the play in the huddle to come up to the line as if it wasn’t going to be a run play. Hendricks looks over to Shula on our sideline and yells to Shula, ‘Hey Shula! This is an embarrassment!’ pointing to Mandich. Jim was a good guy. He was somebody you could count on. If he told you something, it was solid.”
Little said Mandich — known to South Florida as Mad Dog — “got his nickname because he was good on special teams. Great teammate, funny, liked to have fun. I remember listening to him on the radio one day and [former Dolphins guard] Jamie Nails was pulling out on a sweep, and Jim said ‘Holy Larry Little’ as they were running a sweep. I smiled.”
PERFECT MEMORIES
Join us each Wednesday as we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the perfect 1972 team
▪ Griese also spoke fondly of Kuechenberg, the six-time Pro Bowl guard who can make as strong a case for the Hall of Fame as any Dolphin who hasn’t been inducted.
“He was the most underrated player on that team and probably should be in the Hall of Fame,” Griese said. “We have two guys in the Hall from the offensive line on that team: Jim Langer and Larry Little. Kuechenberg should be in the Hall with him.”
Warfield said Kuechenberg “was determined and gritty and he was ready in every sense of the word and an outstanding blocker. He handled some of the best defensive tackles. Did a great job against Alan Page in that Minnesota Super Bowl the following season.”
▪ Mercury Morris regularly visited Kiick at an assisted living facility, as the brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) took a toll. Morris and teammates prefer to remember Kiick from happier times.
“Kiick was a do-it-all guy, could run and catch and block,” Griese said. “Larry Csonka could run and couldn’t catch. Kiick was the second-best receiver on the team, short of Paul Warfield and maybe Mandich. I would look to Kiick on third-and-5. Kiick on that linebacker gave us a good option; he knew how to run and timing and distance. That was Jim at his best.”
▪ Morrall, who filled in capably for the injured Griese for much of that ‘72 season, holds a special place in the hearts of Dolphins players. So does the irrepressible kicker, Yepremian.
“Earl had established himself as a premier relief pitcher,” Warfield said. “He was the Rollie Fingers of quarterbacking. You could put him in a situation where your number one guy goes down and everyone says ‘what are we going to do?’ Earl could step into that with confidence and lead a football team as he did leading a 17-0 team.
“Before Don Shula made the decision it was time to bring Griese back, we were totally confident in Earl and we didn’t miss a beat. And Bob took it from there from halftime of the AFC Championship Game.”
Linebacker Larry Ball said of Morrall: “He was the mayor of Davie. Can’t tell you how nice a person he was, and how much credit he deserves not just for helping that team [when Griese went down], but his whole career. He picked up the pieces for a lot of people.”
Larry Seiple, the punter and part-time tight end, said Morrall “was such a great person. He couldn’t throw the ball 30 yards but he was accurate and he saved the 72 team, to be honest.”
▪ Warfield said of Yepremian: “He had a great personality — always even-keeled and humorous. But on that field, he was a singularly focused individual who had great confidence in his ability to kick them from 50 yards.
“When he trotted out on the field, you knew it was good. One thing Garo made a mistake on was he tried to throw a pass in the Super Bowl [which was intercepted and returned for a touchdown for Washington’s only points in that win to cap the 17-0 season]. That wasn’t a capability” of his.
▪ Buoniconti and Scott were as important to that ‘72 defense as any players.
Both of them — along with Morrall, Kiick, Kuechenberg and Stanfill — suffered late in life with CTE, the progressive brain condition that’s thought to be caused by repeated blows to the head.
“Nick was an Italian fiery type of guy and he spoke his mind,” Little said. “Jake was tough as nails.”
Anderson, for years, shared a toast with Buoniconti after the final undefeated team lost. He misses his friend.
“The success he had with what he did to form the Miami Project when [his son] Marc got hurt was remarkable,” Anderson said. “I remember the first meeting with Dr. Barth Green and Nick. And Nick said, ‘Don’t worry about the money. I’ll raise it.’ And that’s when the Miami Project got started and he kept his word until the day he died.
“He was already an attorney when he got to Miami [as a player, after playing in New England]. He was a remarkable individual. He was a leader. He called the defense. His death was a terrible tragedy.”
Fernandez said of Scott and Buoniconti: “Jake Scott was smart as a whip and fearless. He had all the tools. He was fast, ornery and mean. Jake the snake!
“And Nick was a very intelligent player who knew the other team’s game plan, their tendencies. Nick was the leader of that and was making all the right calls, putting us in the best position. The blitzing calls were all made at the line of scrimmage and Nick would [handle that]. He made all the right calls.”
The ‘72 Dolphins will celebrate this weekend. But it won’t quite be the same without the men who are no longer here to appreciate the enormity of what they achieved.
