1966 to Present Classic Video Highlights

[cnc66]

The Miami Dolphin’s are currently doing a wonderful feature that has given us unprecedented access to some of our earliest seasons.

COUNTDOWN TO CAMP DOLPHINS 2006On July 5, 1966, 83 players reported to St. Petersburg, Fla. for the inaugural Miami Dolphins Training Camp. That year The Sound of Music won Best Picture, a first-class stamp cost five cents and Star Trek premiered the same week Joe Auer returned the opening kickoff in Dolphins history 95 yards for a touchdown. Starting Sunday, June 18, fans will be able find interesting tidbits like these and relive the past 41 seasons of Dolphins football as the team counts down the 41 days to the start of the upcoming "Camp Dolphins," which is scheduled to begin on July 29.</B>

With anticipation growing for the Miami Dolphins' 2006 season and Super Bowl XLI, which will be played at Dolphin Stadium on February 4, 2007, the team will flashback daily at each of its 41 years of rich tradition. Every day www.miamidolphins.com will feature rare video footage, results, statistics and photos recapping a particular season, while also reminding fans of major American events, sports champions, entertainment news and other fascinating facts from that time.

Included in this “Countdown” are video’s of each seasons highlights starting with our inaugural year 1966. I started a thread about this that quickly became confusing with bad links, CrunchTime stepped in to the rescue. He has taken each of the offered highlights and converted them into a file WE can down load. I will keep the list on this page current so check here for a master list. There is no video for 1967. Please give props to CrunchTime for giving so generously of his time and talent;

Recapping the Highlights that were uploaded to Rapishare we have the following files.
http://rapidshare.de/files/23829123/..._divx.avi.html 1966

http://rapidshare.de/files/23925890/..._divx.avi.html 1968

http://rapidshare.de/files/23928588/..._divx.avi.html 1969

http://rapidshare.de/files/23940718/..._divx.avi.html 1970

http://rapidshare.de/files/23938440/..._divx.avi.html 1971

http://rapidshare.de/files/23943044/..._divx.avi.html 1972


http://rapidshare.de/files/23943972/..._divx.avi.html 1973

this is a "zip" file and contains the 1966-1973 files in one "long" download. It saves waiting 90 minutes inbetween each download.

http://rapidshare.de/files/23947999/Dolphin_Highlights_1966_to_1973_Crunch_rmr.zip.html

UPDATE
http://rapidshare.de/files/24091068/..._rmr_.avi.html 1974

http://rapidshare.de/files/24101753/..._divx.avi.html 1975

http://rapidshare.de/files/24103229/..._divx.avi.html 1976

http://rapidshare.de/files/24105106/..._divx.avi.html 1977

Instructions...opening the link will take you to page which asks you whether you are a premium member or not. Select free .That will take you to another page .Look at the bottom of the page and you will see a time counter which ticks down to zero whereupon a download link will appear after you have typed in a 3 character code which appears.

If you really like the Highlights I recommend that you download them as the ones on the official site will probably taken down after a couple of weeks.



Here is a Dolphin link worth saving and perusing, the “Press Box”… there is a wealth of videos and interviews archived here, well worth the perusal.

http://www.miamidolphins.com/pressbox/pressbox_index.asp


It is my hope that those who personally remember those days will participate and share “things I remember”. I was 12 years old in ’66, playing “Pop Warner” football and I remember well the electricity in the air. Watching that 1966 video was like finding an old friend, lost but not forgotten, it opened many old memories. Dick Wood, Tom Nomina, Cookie Gilchrist, Gene Mingo, and the “Chief”, Wahoo McDaniel, old friends indeed. I thought to break it down into ten year bites but I felt George Wilson would quickly get lost to Shula and his remarkable part of that first ten years. That is why this segment is the George Wilson era which takes us to 1970 and then ten year chunks from there maybe. When the 1979 video comes up we can get into Don Shula’s first ten years. For many reasons the historian in me thinks how these days are recalled are important but some may have modern relevance. Not the events per se but the “feelings and emotions” the stuff you won’t find in the stat pages. I am hoping as we go through this you will share how it “felt”, try and compare it with the “now” so the younger guys can understand and relate better. For those of you “geezers” who have related things in the “1966” thread, please drag them over here.

The NFL and the AFL had merged and Miami came out of it with a football franchise. I will look around for stuff about this time and post it as I find it. Much was happening, Miami Beach was about to be assaulted by Walt Disney and they wanted the team bad. They saw the dollars, so did the City of Miami. Joe Robbie and Danny Thomas stepped up to the plate and with a shoestring budget and clever manuvering we got a team. The entire area was abuzz with excitement. Things moved pretty fast from there. We had a contest for a "name"...my family voted, and we put together coaches and staff. Here is how it shook out and you can follow the other links to see the rest of them.

[ 1965 | 1966 | 1967 | 1968 | 1969 | 1970 | 1971 | 1972 | 1973 | 1974 ]

[ 1975 | 1976 | 1977 | 1978 | 1979 | 1980 | 1981 | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 ]
[ 1985 | 1986 | 1987 | 1988 | 1989 | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 ]
[ 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 ]
[ 2005 ]


1965

March 3
Minneapolis lawyer Joseph Robbie meets AFL Commissioner Joe Foss in Washington, and Foss advises Robbie to apply for an expansion franchise in Miami.
May 6
Joseph Robbie meets Miami Mayor Robert King High to ascertain the availability of the Orange Bowl stadium, and the mayor agrees to invite the AFL to Miami.
June 7
AFL Executive Committee votes to expand in 1966 at a meeting in Monmouth Park, N.J.
August 16
AFL awards its first expansion franchise to Joseph Robbie and television star Danny Thomas for $7.5 million.
November 27
Miami picks Kentucky QB Rick Norton and Illinois RB Jim Grabowski in first round of AFL's college draft. Tulsa WR Howard Twilley is selected in 12th round.
December 16
Miami Dolphins, Ltd. organizes as a Florida limited partnership. Joseph Robbie becomes Managing General Partner and Danny Thomas Sports, Inc., becomes the other general partner.


Mariners, Marauders, Mustangs, Missiles, Moons, Sharks, Suns none of those other names suggested to the American Football League expansion franchise in 1965 could raise a fin to the runaway winner.
"Dolphins" was submitted by 622 entrants in a contest which attracted 19,843 entries and more than a thousand different names. The dozen finalists were delivered to a seven-member screening committee of local media.
The bottlenose dolphin, an intelligent creature with an irresistible built-in grin, has inspired wonder for centuries. Plutarch observed 1,900 years ago that the dolphin "is the only creature who loves man for his own sake." Every trainer will have a tale of the dolphin's cleverness and ingenuity, and scientists are fascinated by a dolphin's natural equipment which far surpasses the range of Navy sonar equipment.
"The dolphin is one of the fastest and smartest creatures of the sea," Joe Robbie said in announcing the team name on October 8, 1965. "Dolphins can attack and kill a shark or a whale. Sailors say bad luck will come to anyone who harms one of them."
Mrs. Robert Swanson of West Miami won two lifetime passes to Dolphin games with her nickname entry. The tiebreaker was picking the winner and score of the 1965 game between the University of Miami and Notre Dame. It ended in a scoreless tie.


This brings us to George Wilson Sr.
George Wilson was a former professional football player and later a coach in the NFL and AFL for the Detroit Lions and the Miami Dolphins.
He attended Northwestern University and played professionallly for the Chicago Bears from 1937 to 1946, winning four NFL Championships as a player. In 1957, he became the head coach of the Detroit Lions and in that same season won the NFL Championship over the Cleveland Browns, 59-14.[1] As of 2006, this is the last NFL championship won by the Lions (they've never won a Super Bowl). He was replaced following the 1964 season and coached one year as an assistant for the Washington Redskins before being name the first ever head coach of the AFL expansion franchise the Miami Dolphins.[2] After four losing seasons in Miami he was replaced with former Baltimore Colts coach Don Shula.
In 1980, Wilson was inducted into the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame. [3]
Wilson's career record was 68-84-8 as head coach, with 2-0 record in the postseason.

Here is a link to the 1966 expansion and college drafts;
http://www.miamidolphins.com/history/alltimedraftchoices/alltimedraftchoices.asp

Here are the links to the individual pages 1966-1969, the George Wilson years;
1966;
http://www.miamidolphins.com/countdo...1.asp?lid=1966
1967;
http://www.miamidolphins.com/countdo...0.asp?lid=1967
1968;
http://www.miamidolphins.com/countdo...9.asp?lid=1967
1969;
http://www.miamidolphins.com/countdo...8.asp?lid=1969

here are the CrunchTime avi files for this era;

http://rapidshare.de/files/23829123/..._divx.avi.html 1966

http://rapidshare.de/files/23925890/..._divx.avi.html 1968

http://rapidshare.de/files/23928588/..._divx.avi.html 1969
Instructions...opening the link will take you to page which asks you whether you are a premium member or not. Select free .That will take you to another page .Look at the bottom of the page and you will see a time counter which ticks down to zero whereupon a download link will appear after you have typed in a 3 character code which appears.

If you really like the Highlights I recommend that you download them as the ones on the official site will probably taken down after a couple of weeks.

That get's things started, some commentary on the 1966 video next.

 

[Coral Reefer]

That is GREAT STUFF!

Nice information CnC!

 

[dirwuf]

Thanks for bringing up the fact that there is no 1967 highlight film/video...this has driven me crazy for years. Was one made? Did they give it to Garo Yepremian to hold onto? What?..

My first Dolphin memory was when my family moved to North Miami from Chicago in the spring of 1969. My dad was a direhard Bears fan, but decided to get Dolphins season tickets because he was such a football nut. So one day he and I drove down to the Orange Bowl to purchase the tickets. We were at the window when the agent said he thought the seats we wanted might be behind a post and that he would check...so he opened the door and escorted us into the empty stadium where we prompty gave our seats a trial run!

I'll be back with more memories down the line...

 

[Tigers2003]

Awesome information about early Pre-Shula days. Great reads for sports history buffs and all fans alike.

 

[Delphinus]

Sweet!

 

[DolphinDevil28]

Anyone named Dick Wood is the man.


Thanks Marty.

 

[cnc66]

The 1966 video is the cat’s meow. I have coveted a copy of Joe Auer’s runback for 41 years, and now, it is mine. Notice how hokie the entire production is… I wish there were more of Flipper jumping around, it really was a one of a kind event in an era long gone. The motto;
Fun
Flipper
and
Football

Flipper with the old logo helmet..interesting sun ring.

It goes on like a drama, “the hopes, the headlines, the dreams†not a bad way to describe our beginning. Then the hype.. on paper as strong as any expansion team ever. I would point out to you that it turned out to be true on the field too.
Opening night in Miami was festive. Maybe some witnesses can tell us more. They show us George Wilson Sr., Dick Wood and Danny Thomas.

Next is the greatest start possible, Joe Auer taking it back 95 yards in front of the home crowd. We were listening on the radio and went crazy at home. Tom Erlandson, the LB bats the Jack Kemp pass to Wahoo McDaniel .

George Wilson Jr. the coaches son, # 49 gets his first snaps against Buffalo and gets a touchdown to rookie John Ruterick.



Next they show Wilson in the Charger game looking for “another of our fine receiving corps†rookie Karl Noonan. He does run into one of the old two pole “on the field†goal posts J

The Denver game the show us some of the big eaters, Ed Cook, Mel Branch, and Tom Nomina.( I wore his number that year in Pop Warner #76.)

Wilson hands off to Auer around the left end for a touchdown slamming the door on Denver. This was our first EVER victory. We beat the Denver Bronco’s 24-7, a GREAT day in Dolphin land. Now, no matter what else, we weren’t going to go winless our first year. THEN we won another one against Houston but the video doesn’t cover it. They called Miami the “fun capitol†and that’s what they were trying to sell, fun.
At Kansas City they use an “old school†term, "ballhawkingâ€Â, while showing Jim Warren getting a pick. and racing 70 yards.

Frank Jackson makes a great circus catch against the jets, there are some great individual frames in here if you pause in the right spot…wish I could screen cap. The catch it goes on for ten yards and then he brings it in. It’s a shame the film is so poor.

Did you notice that the cheerleaders are thick by today’s standards?

The ol’ “hook and lateral†was great to see against the Patriots. Dick Woods to Karl Noonan to Joe Auer past Bouniconti when he was still a Patriot.

Next is back home for the KC game where Dick Westmoreland gives Ken Dawson a “Florida†welcome by picking him off and running it in for six.

For the seasons last game we play Houston and the “unheralded†John Stofa was to start. He throws a nice pass to Frank Jackson for a score and then with just 38 seconds left, and behind by 6, Stofa throws to Auer for a 15 yard touchdown, Gene Mingo’s kick makes it a 29-28 win over Houston. Joe Auer scored first and last touchdowns of the year, 9 altogether for the year. The commentator says we have as many victories as were ever achieved by an expansion team…three.

At the seasons end John Stofa was the fan favorite. He was playing better by far than the other three QB’s. It was a pretty big deal that we had won three games, SWEPT Houston and split with Denver. To us, with the “promise†of better qb play out of John Stofa things were looking aquamarine. An aside, The loss we took to Buffalo in 1966 was the last time we lost to them at home until 1983, pretty damned impressive.

I love this video and have enjoyed going through it. I had a great source for old photo’s but the site is gone, next time I’ll save them. I went through Surferosa’s old picture thread and all mine are now the dreaded redx. What did YOU see in the video?

 

[cnc66]

Stats on the QB's 1966, you can see how Stofa looked so good to us

NAME--ATT. -CMP. -YDS. --PCT. -TD -INT -LG -SACK -RATING
Stofa ------57 ----29 -----425 ---50.9 ----4 -- 2 ---48 ---3/29 ------84.3

Norton----55 ----21 -----192 ---38.2 ----3 ---6--- 43 ---2/13 ------27.0
Wilson--112-----46------764----41.1----5---10---80t---11/77-----42.4
Wood---230-----83------993----36.1----4---14----71---20/207---30.5

 

[Mike13]

Very cool.

 

[PHINATIC13]

:dolphins:Thanks for the link. CT & cnc66 props out to both of you for your time and effort.Btw at rapidshare I downloaded the first one "1966" then went to download the next one,they said I had to wait like 78 mins before I can "get" another one.Is this normal(free - no account)?......anyway it's worth the wait I'll download them all eventually.:dolphins:

 

[cnc66]

:dolphins:Thanks for the link. CT & cnc66 props out to both of you for your time and effort.Btw at rapidshare I downloaded the first one "1966" then went to download the next one,they said I had to wait like 78 mins before I can "get" another one.Is this normal(free - no account)?......anyway it's worth the wait I'll download them all eventually.:dolphins:

I forgot to bring this link over...I have edited it into the first post, sorry.
This is a "zip" file and contains the 1966-1973 files in one "long" download. It saves waiting 90 minutes inbetween each download.

http://rapidshare.de/files/23947999/Dolphin_Highlights_1966_to_1973_Crunch_rmr.zip.html

 

[PHINATIC13]

I forgot to bring this link over...I have edited it into the first post, sorry.
This is a "zip" file and contains the 1966-1973 files in one "long" download. It saves waiting 90 minutes inbetween each download.

[URL="http://rapidshare.de/files/23947999/Dolphin_Highlights_1966_to_1973_Crunch_rmr.zip.html"]http://rapidshare.de/files/23947999/Dolphin_Highlights_1966_to_1973_Crunch_rmr.zip.html[/URL]

Thanks cnc66,I'm at work now but I'll definitely download this when I get home.

 

[dirwuf]

You all don't need to fuss so much with the videos, half-hour season highlight films are available on DVD or VHS at:

http://www.nflfilms.com/specialorders/

You can order any Dolphin highlight film (EXCEPT 1967)...they're a bit pricey however, $50 per season.

If you don't want to pay so much, I've seen people on the internet "trading" bootleg copies...I'm not going to direct you to any specific site, just use common sense and google.

 

[cnc66]

You all don't need to fuss so much with the videos, half-hour season highlight films are available on DVD or VHS at:

http://www.nflfilms.com/specialorders/

You can order any Dolphin highlight film (EXCEPT 1967)...they're a bit picey however, $50 per season.

If you don't want to pay so much, I've seen people on the internet "trading" bootleg copies...I'm not going to direct you to any specific site, just use common sense and google.

thanks for shareing that with us wuf, I checked it out, pretty cool...if only I had the two grand to own them all to date. I WILL likely get some of the early one's, thanks again.

 

[CrunchTime]

I dont have any footage from those early George Wilson days.......home VCRs did not exist.

I do have some footage of the 1971 Christmas Day playoff game against the Chiefs...still considered to be the longest game ever played and what is most important the turning point of the Dolphins.After losing to the Cowboys in the 1971 SB they never looked back and won two consecutive SBs.

However if there is any particular play that interest anyone from the footage of these highlights I will make a gif from it to share on this thread.Its not an imposition.I do it with pleasure to share with my fellow finfans.