The Miami Dolphins are a professional American football team based in the Miami metropolitan area. The team is part of the Eastern Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League (NFL). The Dolphins play home games at Sun Life Stadium in the northern suburb of Miami Gardens, and have their headquarters in Davie, Florida.
The Dolphins team was founded by attorney/politician Joe Robbie and actor/comedian Danny Thomas. They began play in the American Football League in 1966. The region had not possessed a professional football team since the days of the Miami Seahawks, who played in the All-America Football Conference in 1946 before becoming the first incarnation of the Baltimore Colts. For the first few years the Dolphins full-time training camp and practice facilities were at Saint Andrew's School, a private boys boarding prep school in Boca Raton. In 1970 the Dolphins joined the NFL when the AFL–NFL merger occurred.
The team made its first Super Bowl appearance in Super Bowl VI, but lost to the Dallas Cowboys 24-3. In 1972, the Dolphins completed the NFL's only perfect season culminating in a Super Bowl win, winning all 14 of its regular-season games, both of its NFL playoff games, and also Super Bowl VII. The Dolphins thus became the first NFL team to accomplish a perfect regular season. The Dolphins also won Super Bowl VIII, becoming the first team to appear in three consecutive Super Bowls, and the second team (the first AFL/AFC team) to win back-to-back championships. Miami also appeared in Super Bowl XVII and Super Bowl XIX, losing both games.
For most of their early history, the Dolphins were coached by Don Shula, the most successful head coach in professional football history in terms of total games won. His Dolphins teams posted losing records in only two of his 26 seasons as the head coach of the team. Six future Football Hall of Fame members played for Miami during the 1970s, including fullback Larry Csonka, quarterback Bob Griese, and linebacker Nick Buoniconti. During the period spanning 1983 to the end of 1999, quarterback Dan Marino became one of the most prolific passers in NFL history, breaking numerous league passing records. He led the Dolphins to five division titles, 10 playoff appearances, and Super Bowl XIX before retiring following the 1999 season.
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Famous quotes containing the word dolphins:
“headland beyond stormy headland plunging like dolphins through the
gray sea-smoke
Into pale sea, look west at the hill of water: it is half the
planet: this dome, this half-globe, this bulging
Eyeball of water,”
—Robinson Jeffers (1887–1962)