The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

DICK Anderson remembered it as clear as day. When you go through a perfect season, how could one forget.

As a defensive end, Anderson helped the Miami Dolphins posted a historic and unprecedented 17-0 win-loss record as they went on to clinch the 1972 National Football League’s Super Bowl or World Championship title.

The Dolphins not only became the only team in the NFL to record such a feat, but they did it be securing the team rushing record by averaging more than 200 yards per game on the ground for an entire season, while the defense allowed only 171 points. They were also number one in offense and number one in defense.

Anderson, one of the 47 members of the team coached by legendary Don Shula, was in town last week as a part of the Dolphins’ Hall of Fame quarterback Dan Marino and Friends launching of their five-year deal that will showcase the Bahamas as the official island destination of the Dolphins Legends.

At 6-feet, 2-inches and 196-pounds, the 67-year-old Anderson recalled how gratifying it was the Dolphins to return to the Super Bowl after losing the year before to the Dallas Cowboys.

“So coach Shula drives you very hard and we had a great coaching staff and because we didn’t have free agency in those days, the same guys played together,” said Anderson, who wore number 40 on his jersey. “The trainer was longer and harder, but we spent more time together as team-mates.

“So the team unity was very important and that was why we had the success that we had. We had a remarkable group of fellows and we just took it one game at a time. Once we got to the playoffs, being undefeated was not what we were thinking about. We had to win each playoff game to get to the Super Bowl. So once we won the Super Bowl, no one thought about it for another ten years.”

Anderson, who spent his entire nine-year career with the Miami Dolphins, setting numerous team and individual records for interceptions and return yardage, said he remembered when the Chicago Bears went to a Monday night football game in 1985 undefeated it really struck home about how significant their feat was.

“Since 1920 when the NFL got started, no team ever went undefeated and after we did it, no other team has been able to accomplish that feat,” he stated. “It becomes more and more important to us as the older we get because we really didn’t realise when we did it, that it would be a record that is still standing today.”

Anderson, who was drafted out of Colorado in 1968 in the third round by Miami, said he was impressed with the start of this year’s Dolphins, who had reeled off their first three games before they went on a four-game skid and struggled the rest of the regular season, before they missed out on a trip to the playoffs with an 8-8 win-loss record.

“In their last two games, they should have won them and get into the playoffs,” said Anderson of the Dolphins’ 19-0 shutout at the hands of the Buffalo Bills and 20-7 decision against the New York Jets. “It was situations where they just didn’t perform. The other teams had some pride and they just played harder.

“You never know from week to week what the preparation is, but in the end, you have to play together as a team and that is what is so remarkable about football. If one person makes a mistake, it could cause you. If you go back to our 1972 team, we can say that our success was based on the fact that we didn’t make any mistakes.”

A three-time All-Pro selection, Anderson played in 98 consecutive Dolphins games (109 including postseason) until stretching ligaments in the 1975 Pro Bowl which caused him to miss the entire 1975 season and the beginning of the 1976 season.

Andersonwas named NFL Defensive Player of the Year in 1973 by the Associated Press after his third career eight interception season (1968, 1970, and 1973). The eight interceptions during his rookie campaign is still a team record, and his two interceptions at Boston (11/24/68) also set a Dolphins rookie record, which has since been equaled three times (Jake Scott 12/7/69; Don McNeal 10/12/80; Jarvis Williams 10/9/88).

His 34 career interceptions rank second all-time on the Dolphins list, one behind Jake Scott’s 35. Anderson had his best game as a pro as the Dolphins defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers, 30-26, on a Monday night (12/3/73) during the Dolphins perfect season. In that game he set a club record with four interceptions (all in the first half) for 121 yards, returning two of them for touchdowns (27 and 38 yards).