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.
Our thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of Jim Kiick. pic.twitter.com/ufih9qRDMt
— Miami Dolphins (@MiamiDolphins) June 20, 2020
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.