Who scored the second Dolphin regular-season touchdown ever?
Which Dolphin made his first start in a playoff game?
Running back Rick Casares.
Offensive lineman Eric Laakso (1978 vs. Houston).
53
1979
1980
February 22:
Larry Csonka re-signs with the Dolphins after spending the previous four seasons with the World Football League and the New York Giants.
October 14:
Tony Nathan scores on an 86-yard punt return as Miami defeats Buffalo, 17-7, for its 20th consecutive win in the series, the NFL’s longest consecutive win streak by one team over another.
December 30:
The Steelers race to a 20-0 first-quarter lead and defeat the Dolphins, 34-14, in a playoff game in Pittsburgh. Csonka, after an 800-yard, 13-touchdown regular season, ran for just 20 yards on 10 carries in his final NFL game. In the aftermath, Csonka and the Dolphins cannot agree on a new contract and he retires.
September 7:
Buffalo’s Joe Cribbs rushes for 60 yards, catches nine passes for 71 yards and scores a touchdown in Buffalo’s, 17-7 win, ending the Dolphins’ NFL-record 20-game winning streak against the Bills.
DOLPHIN TRIVIA:
Of the 32 players selected by the original Dolphins in the expansion draft, only one remained on the active roster six years later when the club reached the Super Bowl. Who?
Offensive tackle Norm Evans.
September 21:
Bob Griese wins his 100th game, coming off the bench and passing for two touchdowns in the fourth quarter of a 20-17 win at Atlanta.
54
Don Shula and Bob Griese, undated. (Miami Herald)
December 20 – “Announcer-less Game”
Dolphins lose 24-17 to the Jets, to finish the season 8-8. David Woodley, a rookie eighth-round draft pick, starts 11 games and is named team MVP despite posting just a 63.1 passer rating. As an experiment, the NBC television network broadcast the game without any announcers. The two teams were playing the last game of the season, neither had qualified for the playoffs and since the game was being broadcast nationally NBC executive Don Ohlmeyer decided on the idea to boost what would otherwise have been weak ratings.
55
1981
DOLPHIN TRIVIA:
Which Dolphins quarterback holds the team record for most passing yards in a game? Name the player, the game and the yardage total.
David Woodley, 408 vs. Dallas in 1981 [Book editor’s note: Current record is 521 yards by Dan Marino, Oct. 23, 1988 vs. Jets.]
February 5:
Six-time All Pro guard Larry Little retires after a 14-year career that included 12 years with the Dolphins.
June 25:
Bob Griese retires after a 14-year career with the Dolphins, boasting a record of 101-62-3, two Super Bowl victories and six Pro Bowl appearances.
You knew from the first that it would be this like this with Griese. No tear-stained farewells. No nostalgia hangovers. No desperate search to find a place in the real world after football’s fantasyland. “When you’ve been hanging around locker rooms as long as I have, you forget what a normal life is. One year coaching, 14 years quarterbacking pro, four at Purdue, four in high school. That’s a long time to be doing the same thing,” Griese says.
August 8, 1982 (Edwin Pope/Miami Herald)
Griese was one of the last true heroes, so obsessively upright that he never took even one personal misstep to shatter his idolators. He exemplified Bernard Malamud’s line in “The Natural:” “Without heroes, we are all plain people and don’t know how far we can go.” Griese showed us by climbing the highest hills with little more physical talent than a lot of people right off the street.
August 8, 1982 (Edwin Pope/Miami Herald)
56
July 1:
Linebacker Rusty Chambers is killed in an automobile accident in Hammond, Louisiana.
DOLPHIN TRIVIA:
Which Dolphin was once chased by a buffalo?
Steve Towle.
November 8:
Don Shula records his 200th NFL win when linebacker Bob Brudzinski intercepts a pass in overtime to set up Uwe von Schamann for a 30-yard field goal in a 30-27 victory at New England.
November 30: