Tag: Jim Kiick

Flashback Friday: Dolphins 1972 perfect team celebrates 50th anniversary

It’s a special anniversary for a perfect team.

On this first Friday of April, following a momentous month of March in Miami, it’s a perfect time to reflect on the Dolphins’ banner accomplishment – the 1972 undefeated season.

It was 50 years ago that head coach Don Shula and his Dolphins steamrolled through the NFL to go 17-0, capping the only perfect season in NFL history, with a 14-7 Super Bowl victory over the Washington Redskins.

A team loaded with Hall of Fame players such as Bob Griese, Larry Csonka, Paul Warfield, Jim Lager, Larry Little and Nick Buoniconti helped lead the Dolphins to domination. They were the NFL’s top-ranked offense and defense in 1927, shutting out their opponents three times during that season.

In 17 games, including the postseason, Miami’s perfect defense only gave up 20 or more points on three occasions. When the season hit mid-October, the Dolphins’ defense hit its stride. From Week 6 through Week 19, Miami didn’t allow over 100 passing yards. They created 46 turnovers in the regular season, and in the playoffs, the Dolphins’ defensive unit caused 10 turnovers, including three in the Super Bowl.

The Dolphins had the offensive magic of the perfect backfield led by Ohio’s own Csonka. Mercury Morris was the charismatic running back to play alongside Csonka. The pair both exceeded 1,000 yards in the regular season, which was just 14 games. Jim Kiick added a complimentary punch to Shula’s rushing attack, as the trio combined for 2,638 yards and 23 touchdowns on the ground.

As for the passing attack, Griese started the season off with five straight wins before an injury led to veteran quarterback Earl Morrall taking the reins, and he did so, well, perfectly.

Morrall, in his 17th professional season, rattled off a 9-0 record to help Miami not lose a step in their quest to return to the Super Bowl. The 1971 team lost to the Dallas Cowboys 24-3. Making it back in 1973 ade in two Super Bowls in a row for Shula and the Dolphins, the franchise’s only victory in the big game. While he led Miami two another two appearances in the 1980s, they weren’t able to capture another Lombardi Trophy.

The 1972 Dolphins have been a timeless tribute and a major source of pride for the organization and their legions of loyal fans and supporters. Whether it’s rewatching highlights of a graceful Warfield corralling a perfect pass from Griese in the championship game, seeing Csonka run through a would-be-tackler, or the simple joy of a cork-popping soundbite following the last fallen unbeaten in today’s game, that team continues to provide this community with palpable pride.

In a season of newfound hope in South Florida, coinciding with this special anniversary of perfection, perhaps there’s magic in the air in Miami Gardens, as the ghosts of 1972 will, without a doubt, be all over the sidelines in 2022, in person and in spirit.

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The most telling stat of former Dolphins RB Jim Kiick’s career

The most telling stat of former Dolphins RB Jim Kiick’s career

Larry Csonka was the thunder of the legendary Miami Dolphins’ backfield. Mercury Morris? He was the lightning. The duo offered a blend of power and speed that strained opposing defenses on a down by down basis — and made the Dolphins a difficult team to scheme up how to stop. If you crowd the inside Miami hit you outside and vice versa.

But Jim Kiick? The news of Kiick’s passing yesterday is the latest gut-punch in a challenging 2020. But in remembering Kiick on the field, he wasn’t thunder nor lightning. No, instead he was like the storm clouds — he was everywhere. At the time of Kiick’s departure from the Dolphins in 1975, he was second on the team’s all-time yards from scrimmage list with 5,854 yards. That figure is still good for a top-10 overall rank in franchise history today. But remember — Kiick was the third wheel in Miami’s backfield. Csonka averaged over 15 rushing attempts per game from 1972 through 1974. Morris averaged over 12. Kiick? He logged 9.8 attempts per game in 1972 and saw that number dwindle to 5.4 and 6.1 attempts per game in ’73 and ’74.

But, unlike Csonka and Morris, Kiick was involved in the passing game. He caught 40+ passes in three of his first four NFL seasons. While Csonka and Morris combined to catch 40 total passes combined from 1972-1974, Kiick hauled in 66 by himself over that stretch — if there’s a will, there’s a way. And despite losing his starting role to Mercury Morris, Jim Kiick was determined to find a way to make an impact.

And by the time it was all over, despite Morris’ brilliance in both the 1972 and 1973 seasons, it was Kiick who owned more yardage production on the team’s all-time list — Morris checks in 12th on the team’s all-time yards from scrimmage list with 4,368 yards; nearly 1,500 yards behind Kiick.

Celebrating the life and legacy of former Dolphins RB Jim Kiick

Celebrating the life and legacy of former Dolphins RB Jim Kiick

The Miami Dolphins family has endured another loss in 2020. A little over a month after the passing of Dolphins legend and all-time great coach Don Shula, one of Shula’s former players, running back Jim Kiick, passed away at the age of 73 after a lengthy battle with Alzheimer’s disease.

During the golden era of Miami Dolphins football in the early 1970s, Kiick served as one third of Miami’s signature offensive backfield with Hall of Fame fullback Larry Csonka and Mercury Morris. En route to the NFL’s only perfect season of the Super Bowl era in 1972, Kiick, Csonka and Morris combined to rush for over 2,600 yards in 14 games. Wearing you out up front was exactly how the Dolphins planned to claim victory; and that’s exactly what they did.

Kiick currently sits 5th on the Miami Dolphins all-time rushing leaders list with 3,644 rushing yards. He trails only Larry Csonka, Ricky Williams, Ronnie Brown and Mercury Morris.

Kiick tenure in Miami ran from 1968 to 1974 and wasn’t alway smooth sailing — his tightly knit friendship with Larry Csonka at times took center stage. His friendship with Csonka was so close that the duo, along with WR Paul Warfield, left Miami to play for the Memphis Southmen of the World Football League in 1975. The league failed to make it through its first season before folding.

Kiick’s role on the Dolphins was much more prominent before the Super Bowl championship seasons of 1972 & 1973 — but ultimately Kiick logged 97 games for the Dolphins over 7 seasons and he scored four touchdowns in the 1972 playoffs to help the team run the gauntlet and win their first Super Bowl that season.

Life after football for Jim Kiick involved becoming a detective for Broward County — providing more positive contributions to the South FLorida community well after he bid farewell to the gridiron.

Miami Dolphins great Jim Kiick dies at age 73

Another member of the great Miami Dolphins teams, Jim Kiick, has died. The running back was 73.

Miami Dolphins running back Jim Kiick, one of the great players in the team’s dynasty of the ’70s, died at the age of 73, the team announced Saturday.

Kiick combined with Larry Csonka and Mercury Morris to form a powerful backfield that was the mainstay of the offense of the 1972 Super Bowl champions, the only perfect team in NFL history.

Kiick was a key to the 1972 Dolphins team that went 17-0 and won Super Bowl VII and repeated as champions the following year by winning Super Bowl VIII.

In his seven seasons with Miami, Kiick picked up 3,644 yards on 997 carries, recording 28 touchdowns. He also caught 221 passes for 2,210 yards with three scores. He missed one game over the seven seasons and was twice selected to the AFL All-Star Game. He won Super Bowls VII and VIII with the Dolphins.

His friendship and on-field pairing with Csonka led to the two being dubbed “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.” A TV film was made of their exploits, showing them riding horseback into the sunset on Miami Beach, and they even posed for a poster dressed in western garb.

In March 1974, he was selected by the Memphis Southmen in the third round (27th overall) of the WFL Pro Draft. In 1975, Kiick and teammates Csonka and Warfield played for the Southmen of the World Football League.

The trio’s press conference in March 1974 announcing what was then the richest three-player deal in sports was national news and shocked the sports world. They signed three-year guaranteed contracts beginning in 1975 with a total value, including perks, of $3.5 million. Csonka’s salary was $1.4 million, Warfield’s $900,000, Kiick’s $700,000. Each player would also receive a luxury car every year and a three-bedroom luxury apartment.

Twelve games into its 18-game schedule, the second-year league failed in October 1975. Kiick led the team in touchdowns (10), “action points” (five), and points scored (75). He finished second on the team in rushing, with 121 carries for 462 yards and nine touchdowns, and tied for second with Warfield in receiving, with 25 catches for 259 yards and one touchdown.

Kiick returned to the NFL in a back-up role for the Denver Broncos in 1976. He rushed 32 times for 115 yards and one touchdown, and caught 12 passes for 92 yards and a touchdown. Kiick was released during the 1977 regular season and missed out on the Broncos’ playoff run to Super Bowl XII. (On the same day he was released by the Broncos, his house burned down and he got divorced.) He was picked up by the Washington Redskins on Dec. 1,[but Kiick played in just one game. He was waived in June 1978,  and then retired.

Kiick played college football at Wyoming from 1965-67, and was the Cowboys’ leading rusher each of those years. He totaled 1,714 yards and10 touchdowns on 431 carries, and 561 yards and five touchdowns on 52 pass receptions. He was the first player to earn first-team All-WAC honors three times.

Kiick was co-captain of the team as a senior and led undefeated Wyoming to the 1968 Sugar Bowl against LSU, where he rushed 19 times for 75 yards and a touchdown and caught five passes for 48 yards. Wyoming led 13–0 at halftime, but was outplayed in the second half and lost 20–13.

Kiick’s death comes six weeks after his coach in Miami, the legendary Don Shula, passed away at 90.