American football’s Miami Dolphins are an NFL franchise who call the greater Miami area home and play in the American Football Conference (AFC) East division of the National Football League (NFL).
Joe Robbie, a politician and attorney, and Danny Thomas, a comedian and actor, co-founded the Dolphins who have been around longer than any other state’s professional sports franchise.
The Dolphins are the only team in the AFC East that was not a founding member of the American Football League (AFL). Along with the Atlanta Falcons, the Miami Dolphins were the first teams in the southeast to play professional football.
They began playing in the AFL in 1966 and the last professional football club to call this area home was the Miami Seahawks, who competed in the All-America Football Conference in 1946 before morphing into the first version of the Baltimore Colts.
Why Are They Called The Miami Dolphins
Consider for a second that the Miami Dolphins’ initial owner preferred a Philadelphia home for his team so the Dolphins aren’t the team they would have picked if they stayed in Philadelphia, but that’s fine.
Since Philadelphia already had the Eagles, the then-commissioner of the American Football League (AFL) convinced the owners to relocate to South Beach, Florida, where there was now no franchise.
A “name-the-team” contest was launched so that the new football team might adopt a moniker and over 600 people recommended “Dolphins” as the team name out of approximately 20,000 total submissions.
Joe Robbie, who owned the team said he liked Miami Dolphins as a name because, “The dolphin is one of the fastest and smartest creatures in the sea.”
For their first several seasons, the Dolphins called Saint Andrew’s School in Boca Raton, Florida, home for its year-round training camp and practise facilities. Miami joined the NFL as a result of the 1970 AFL–NFL merger.
Super Bowl VI was the franchise’s first trip to the big game, and they lost to the Dallas Cowboys, 24-3. The Dolphins won all 14 games they played in during the regular season and all three games they played in the playoffs, including Super Bowl VII, to complete the only flawless season in NFL history.
They were the first team to go undefeated in the regular season in the Super Bowl era (which began with the AFL-NFL merger) and the third overall in NFL history.
The Dolphins became the first team to make it to three straight Super Bowls and the second team overall (the first AFL/AFC club) to win back-to-back championships when they triumphed in Super Bowl VIII the following year.
Most of the Dolphins’ early history was spent with Don Shula at the helm. Shula is the all-time leader in wins by a head coach in the NFL. Only two of Shula’s 26 seasons with the Dolphins ended in a losing record.
Dan Marino, an NFL quarterback, became one of the league’s most prolific passers and set a number of passing records from 1983 to the end of 1999. As quarterback for the Dolphins, Marino won five division titles, led the team to the playoffs 10 times, and took them to Super Bowl XIX before he retired in 1999.
Where Do The Miami Dolphins Play
The Hard Rock Stadium is located in Miami Gardens, Florida, a northern suburb of Miami and is where the team plays all of its home games.
Who Owns The Miami Dolphins
Presently, Stephen M. Ross is the owner of the team.