Miami Dolphins

The Miami Dolphins are an organization that has been around since 1965 and have the famous Joe Robbie as their original founder. The Dolphins are the oldest professional sports team in the state of Florida. Florida is known for their sports teams and the amount of them, so to be the longest-standing is quite the feat. The Dolphins are also known as the first professional football team to be formed in the Southeast, alongside Atlanta. The Dolphins are known to have plenty of success and a ton of history behind their franchise.

Located in Miami Gardens, Florida, Hard Rock Stadium is the home of the Miami Dolphins. The facility opened back in the late 1980s, and it has seen a ton of name changes over the years. It started as Joe Robbie Stadium and has seen names such as Pro Player Park, Pro Player Stadium, Dolphins Stadium, Dolphin Stadium, Land Shark Stadium, and Sun Life Stadium. It became Hard Rock Stadium in 2016, and the contract runs until the year 2034.

Hard Rock Stadium is actually one of the more popular places for a football game in the country. The Stadium has seen six Super Bowls played there, a Pro Bowl, a World Series, a BCS National Title, and the World Baseball Classic. The Orange Bowl and the Miami Open Tennis Tournament are part of the annual events held there each season as well. Hard Rock Stadium used to be the home for the Miami Marlins until they moved to their own park back in 2012.

While capacity was set at 75,000 – the 2013 BCS National Championship actually saw a record of over 80,000. With some construction, they list capacity now of just over 64,700. The last time the stadium held a Super Bowl was just before the start of COVID – and the Kansas City Chiefs beat the San Francisco 49ers in front of 62,417 fans in Super Bowl LIV on February 2nd, 2020.

The Dolphins were the first professional American Football team in Florida and originally called the Seahawks. This was before their time with the National Football League. Obviously, Miami is known for its warm climate and growing population, so, to no one’s surprise, the National Football League wanted to come there. In 1965 the team held a contest to name the franchise. Over 19,000 entries were submitted, with over 1,000 different team names suggested. The winning name – Dolphins, was submitted by 622 fans, so that’s how it came into existence.

The team stayed pretty universe in the colors with aqua and coral through the 2012 season. Then for the 2013 season, the franchise chose to go with a new look of the logo and uniforms, went with a more stylized aqua dolphin, and brought navy into the mix for the first time. Even to this day, aqua, coral, and navy are the main colors of the Dolphins. You can sometimes find shares of orange with the color scheme – one of the more iconic logos of all time in professional sports.

Obviously, the Miami Dolphins are going to be known for their back-to-back Super Bowls and their 17-0 season. Those are two major marks for the franchise. Don Shula is known as one of the winningest head coaches in league history, with more than 250 wins.

Dan Marino became the first quarterback in the NFL to reach over 5,000 passing yards in a season. Marino was also the first signal-caller to pick up 40 or more touchdowns in a season. Marino also still sits as the youngest quarterback to start a Super Bowl game, as he did it at 23 years old.

Another record that the Miami Dolphins can hang their hat on – the most consecutive home games won. The Dolphins won 27 games during the 1971-1074 seasons. The Dolphins won 31 overall, counting the postseasons.

As successful as the franchise has been in Miami, in the end, they have just two Super Bowl titles. The Dolphins won Super Bowl VII and VII in back-to-back seasons, 1973 and 1974. The 1973 team beat the Washington Redskins 14-7 and finished 17-0 on the season. The win for that Super Bowl came in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Then, the next season at Rice Stadium in Houston, the Dolphins topped the Minnesota Vikings 24-7 and finished with a 15-2 record.

The Dolphins have lost three Super Bowl games. The first came in the 1972 season, in which Dallas smacked them 24-3. After winning in back-to-back seasons, we never saw the Dolphins again in the big game until the 1983 season. That year, Washington beat them 27-17. Then, in 1985, the 49ers smacked Miami around, scoring 38 points.

Dan Marino has started the most games in the history of the Dolphins organization under center. Marino is not the winningest quarterback in franchise history but has the most wins. He has 147 wins, while Bob Greise is set with 92 wins. Ryan Tannehill, Jay Fielder, and David Woodley are next on the list as far as games played, with Woodley being wildly successful in his 40 games, with 27 wins.

There are 8 quarterbacks with postseason starts in the history of Miami Dolphins football. Just 5 of those guys have a win or more than one win. Dan Marino was 8-10, Bob Griese went 6-5, Earl Morrall went 2-0 for the Dolphins in 1973 before giving way to Bob Griese. David Woodley went 3-2, and Jay Fielder went 1-2. The three guys that made a start and did not win were Matt Moore, Chad Pennington, and Skylar Thompson.

The Miami Dolphins have had a ton of great players throughout their history. The Dolphins have ten players and a head coach that have spent most of their career with the team. The Dolphins have a handful of others that have spent parts of their career with the organization. Here is a look at the best of the best when it comes to the Miami Dolphins.

The very first Dolphins player inducted into the Hall of Fame was wide receiver, Paul Warfield. The former Ohio State wide receiver played from 1970-1974 and was inducted in 1983. After that – Larry Csonka and Jim Langer were next. Csonka, of course, was the fullback out of Syracuse, and Langer was a center out of South Dakota State.

The Dolphins have seen two quarterbacks go into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Bob Greise, out of Purdue, played under center from 1967-1980 and was inducted in 1990. Greise was the Super Bowl-winning quarterback in 1972 and 1973. Then, Dan Marino got inducted in 2005. The former Pitt Panther was the signal caller from 1983 – 1999. Marino never won a Super Bowl but made the game back in 1984.

Some other names in the Hall of Fame for the Miami Dolphins include Zach Thomas, Jason Taylor, Junior Seau, Cris Carter, and Thurman Thomas.

The Miami Dolphins are one of the few teams in the National Football League with their own fight song. The team came up with the song before the famous 1972 season. The team then came up with a new modern version of the fight song during the 2009 season with local artists. The team as cheerleaders known as the Miami Dolphins Cheerleaders. They have been with the franchise since the 1978 season. The official mascot of the Miami Dolphins is called “The Dolphin” and has been around since 1997. He is 7 feet tall. Lastly, the Dolphins have their own television network, which they started in 2010. This serves fans in several counties throughout South Florida.