USA Today article: In the AFL, Dolphins flourished

[HughC]

Something to pass the time until training camp starts:

USA Today's doing a series of articles on the ten AFL teams as this is the 50th anniversary of the start of the AFL. Here's one on the Dolphins.

After slow start in the AFL, Shula-led Dolphins flourished

Miami had a talented roster — featuring future Hall of Famers in linebacker Nick Buoniconti, fullback Larry Csonka, quarterback Bob Griese and guard Larry Little — but it took Shula to mold it into a winner.

"Yeah, they were 3-10-1 and they took their knocks," Shula says of the 1969 club, which struggled in the AFL's final season. "And then we were able to turn things around."

Indeed they did, going 10-4 and reaching the playoffs in 1970. During the next two seasons, the Dolphins notched playoff wins vs. the three NFL teams that had been folded into the AFC — Baltimore, the Cleveland Browns and the Pittsburgh Steelers — before topping the favored Washington Redskins 14-7 in Super Bowl VII, completing a perfect 1972 season. Shula and Co. won another Super Bowl after the 1973 campaign.
Shula's new team whitewashed his old one, the Colts, 21-0 in the 1971 AFC Championship Game to reach its first Super Bowl (a 24-3 loss to the Dallas Cowboys).

Here's the link to the full column: http://www.usatoday.com/sports/football/nfl/dolphins/2009-06-22-sw-dolphins-afl_N.htm

 

[dan lake worth]

That 1971 victory against his (SHULA)old team was a defining game for the Dolphins-that seemed to build confidance in team that was up and coming...those were some fun times.

 

[72champagne]

"Yet Shula's arrival in Miami served as a final chance for the AFL to tweak its older rival."

Huh? The Jets had already beaten the Colts in the Super Bowl.