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The Miami Dolphins in their first 50 years won a unique place in professional football history for the first — and still only — unblemished year, forever capitalized as the Perfect Season. Say “1972” in South Florida and it means only one thing, conjuring the ageless snapshot of Coach Don Shula riding jubilantly on the shoulders of celebrating players after that early Super Bowl, the first of two straight won by Miami.

Shula, the winningest coach in National Football League history, and Dan Marino, who would retire as the most prolific quarterback the sport had ever seen, stand tallest as the most accomplished,

defining figures from the franchise’s first half century.

I think of something else unique about this club, though, something that separates it from any team before or since. I think of the beginning, of that very first night, and wonder if any franchise ever, in any sport, launched quite like this one did.

No way.

The opening kickoff from the Oakland Raiders boomed into the humid night air. It was Sept. 2, 1966. Vietnam and anti-war protests were escalating. There were race riots in America. The Beatles reigned.

I was there in the Orange Bowl that first night, at age 11, with my father. We only went because my dad had scored free

Greg Cote (Miami Herald)

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