Author: Jim Johnson

In late October 2022, the Miami Dolphins hosted the living members of the 1972 team along with families of the deceased members to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Perfect Season. The festivities included a gala on Saturday night and ceremonies at the Dolphins-Steelers game on Sunday night, October 23. Before the game, the living […]

After six months of writing this chronicle, I have a confession to make. On January 14, 1973, the Miami Dolphins broke my 14-year-old heart. I had recently celebrated my birthday and Christmas, and both were filled with gifts covered in burgundy and gold. You see, I lived on the outer edge of the Washington, DC […]

“I know if I don’t do the job on him, we won’t win the game. If I do, we’ll win. I have a lot of pride and I can’t see myself getting beat.” That spot-on analysis was from Miami Dolphins guard Larry Little, a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame and one of […]

“The Dolphins are still the Unconquered. But they looked awfully vulnerable at times Sunday.” That was the succinct summary from the Miami Herald of the Miami Dolphins’ first-round playoff win on Christmas Eve, 1972. Miami entered the game as a two-touchdown favorite but wound up fighting for their playoff lives against the Cleveland Browns. The […]

“14 and 0, Three to Go” That headline on the front page of the Miami Herald’s December 17, 1972 sports section succinctly summed up the Miami Dolphins’ accomplishment from the day before and the task still ahead of them. Miami completed the first 14-0 season in NFL history with a 16-0 domination of the Baltimore […]

The Miami Dolphins entered Week 13 of the 1972 season with the opportunity to win their 13th game, a feat accomplished only four other times in NFL history at that point (Chicago 1934, Green Bay 1962, Oakland 1967 (AFL), and Baltimore 1968). Cleveland had gone 14-0 in 1948 in the old All-American Football Conference, but […]

Would the Perfect Season fall victim to a New England jinx? Despite the Patriots’ 2-9 record heading into their rematch with the Miami Dolphins in Week 12 of the 1972 NFL season, that was weighing on coach Don Shula’s mind. The Dolphins had never won in Boston/Foxboro. In fact, in 1971, they had been spanked […]

In Week 11 of the 1972 NFL season, the traveling circus that was ABC’s Monday Night Football arrived in Miami. Frank Gifford, Dandy Don Meredith, and Howard Cosell, with police protection in tow, arrived at the Orange Bowl to bring the nation their only prime-time look at the 1972 Dolphins. If you are younger than, […]

The Dolphins Week 10 rematch with the New York Jets featured the first meeting of quarterbacks Joe Namath and Earl Morrall since Super Bowl III. Before that game, along with his famous guarantee, Namath had shared a less than flattering evaluation of the Colts’ Morrall, the reigning NFL MVP, as a quarterback. “We’ve got four […]

In 2022, it is difficult to escape the hype that accompanies the buildup for a major sports figure on the verge of a statistical milestone. In 1972, however, there appears to have been little buildup in Miami as Dolphins Head Coach Don Shula approached his 100th career victory. That’s not such a big deal now […]