Fins Flashback: 1972 AFC Championship Game with Larry Seiple

of Miami Dolphins football. And on today's show, we're gonna talk to a legend of Miami Dolphins lore about another Dolphins legend, Larry Siple joins us here on the Drivetime Podcast to recall the nineteen seventy two a f C Championship game, the victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers that would send the Dolphins to the Super Bowl and an undefeated season.

We're gonna talk to Larry about that game, his multi position versatility, but also the great Jim Kick as Larry tells us about his selflessness, his durability, and ultimately his football to talent that made him such a great running back and part of the greatest backfield in the history of the National Football League. We'll talk about all that and more here on this Friday during edition of the

Drive Time Podcast. And Jim Kicks certainly enjoyed a storied career in the National Football League with the Miami Dolphins, and his legends certainly went beyond the football field. The famed nineteen sixty nine dubbing of Butch Cassidy and Sun Dance Kid that was from Bill Broucher of the Miami Herald, who famously named Sonka and Kick, Sun Dance and Butch. And they became such icons in that way that a television movie was actually made of their exploits that showed

them riding horseback into the sunset on Miami Beach. They

also posed for a poster dressed in western garb. They were larger than life in South Florida, both on the football field as well as away from it, and as I'm sure some older Dolphins fans can attest to, if you just go to his Wikipedia page, there's all kinds of interesting facts and tidbits, like a former criminal Ron Davis, who passed himself off as Jim Kick and went on to make public appearances, got engaged, and even rented a luxury home on Key Biscne before he eventually was caught

passing himself off as Jim Kick. So he was quite a legend away from the football field when it came to the football field, though, he was even better between the lines. As a Miami Dolphins running back, he was a fifth round draft pick out of Wyoming and nineteen sixty eight, played with Miami from nineteen sixty eight all

the way through nineteen seventy four. He rushed for three thousand, seven hundred fifty nine yards in his career, thirty three touchdowns, and caught the ball for two thousand, three hundred two yards. Really a multipurpose player at a time when maybe players like that didn't quite exist like they do in modern day football. But Jim Kick ahead of his time that way and made up one third of the greatest running back triumviran in the history of the National Football League.

Jim Kick gone to student at age seventy three, passed away last week, and we wanted to pay some tribute here to Jim on the Friday Fins flashback here and take a look at one of his more fame performances. So we're gonna go back to the nineteen seventy two a f C Championship and talk to his friend and fellow Dolphins legend Larry Cipal. Do you want to talk about unique football history and football background? Cipal lived it. He was a punter, He was a half back. He

was a tight end. He was a running back in college there at Kentucky. A seventh round draft pick of the Dolphins in nineteen sixties seven, came to the league serving primarily as a punter, although he did have some statistics as a rusher and pass catcher both at tight

end and tail back. He needed five hundred and seventy seven yards and scored five touchdowns in nineteen sixty nine, and he had a big big play in that nineteen seventy two a f C Championship victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers, a thirty seven yard rush that kept a crucial drive alive. We'll talk about that season, that unique career, that thirty seven yard run in the a f C Championship game, Jim kicks, touchdowns, and most of all, Larry's memory of

Jim Kick. Let's go ahead and get now to my interview with former Dolphins great punter, halfback tight end number twenty himself, Larry Ciple and writing Shotgun now on the Drive Time podcast. Is an eleven year veteran of the National Football League, each with the Miami Dolphins. He's a two time Super Bowl champion and a member of perfect Ville. Larry Ciple, Larry, welcome in, sir, Well, thank you, Travish.

We're very we're very happy to have you in and unfortunately under some difficult circumstances, the passing of the great Jim Kick. Of course, we'll talk about Jim here in just one moment, but Larry, first, I want to know where are you at these days. Are you still in South Florida and what are you up to. I'm not in South Florida, but I'm in Central Florida, Okay, but we live in the Villages. We've been here about eleven years and it's right outside of Orlando, about fifty miles

northwest of its stay in Florida. That seems to be the case for a lot of the Dolphins alumni. It seems like people get out there and they don't want to leave. Well, you can't. You can't beat the weather, number one. You gotta fight a little hurricane every once in a while, but other than that, it's just perfect place to beat. Well this time, you're definitely a little bit warm down there, but hey, you pay that off in the wintertime when the weather gets just perfect in Florida,

especially in South Florida. There and Larry, we have you in here again today to talk about, or pay tribute rather to Jim Kick and in particular the nineteen seventy a f C two excuse me a f C championship game. Now, you were known, Larry for tucking the football and taking off of some big runs out of that punt formation, but this game was your only career playoff rush, and boy didn't pay off a thirty seven yard gallop that

kept a crucial drive alive in that game. Can you walk us through that play and the decision to take off and run when the stakes were that high? Did did Don Shula give you the green light on those types of players or how did that work for you? Guys? Welliot, we had talked about it all a week before the game, about how Pittsburgh would set up their wall on their punt returns, and he said he wanted to go ahead and run a fake, he said, but then let me make the call. Talking to he was going to make

the call and he would have. Uh, I just had ansty pants, I guess because I couldn't wait for him to say, yes, let's do it. So it turned out that they were left. I went right and we left out Bob Mathewson block the only guy that had a chance to catch me um and so it ended up working out well for us and put us back in

the position to score touchdown. We talked a lot about Bob Matheson on the podcast last week because we honored the great legendary Bill Aren't Barker and spoke to A. J. Dewey about the Dolphins defensive coordinator there for so long. I'm curious. Was it entirely up to you when the ball was snapped to make that decision or was it kind of something you read pre snap like did? Was it always on your shoulders to make the decision you're

gonna run or pump the football? It wasn't to the point where he had given me you know you can do it. He told me one thing, He said, if you're gonna do it, you better make it. Don't make it, you'll pay the consequences. So basically I had a green light, but I wasn't gonna be crazy about it. What were the consequences? I have no idea. I've always made. It wasn't a problem. You knew better than to ever have to face those You better guess right. If you're gonna

guess guess right, that is too good. And and and Larry. There's obviously several unique things about your career being on a Super Bowl championship team, an undefeated Super Bowl championship team, punting, playing tight end, running the ball out of that punt formation. I'm curious from your perspective, what was it like balancing your career as both a punter and a tight end there for the Dolphins. I'm gonna tell you what, it was a lot of fun. I didn't play much tight

end when once Chula came in in nineteen seventy. My my tight end duties were like sixty eight and sixty nine, which was fine. But I did enjoy it the fact that I got to play a little bit. It didn't affect my punning, I don't think, but only coaches can tell you that. I can't. But it didn't bother me. I kind of enjoyed it and had a good time.

Don't it now help help a younger fan here understand how that worked in those times, because I know that we had players that were two way players, but typically you had someone that was like a nose tackle and an offensive guard or something that was a little more translatable. Punting and playing tight end. Those two just don't seem

to mesh very well. Was that commonplace in that era? No, it wasn't really commonplace, but there were there were a couple that did something, you know, running backs or something like that. The only reason I got into it is deb Moreau was our tight end. Well he went down and got hurt. They had nobody else. So once they had another guy, and I can't remember who it was, to be honest with you, I'm seventy five, so you gotta give me a little bit of break here. I

can't remember his name or who he was. But then you know, once that once he got hurt during that week of practice, they moved me over as a backup, and I ended up playing a little bit more and then doing a little bit more, and in sixty nine I had a pretty good year because the quarterback at the time was Rick Norton, and Rick Norton and I played together in college, so he knew me, I knew him, So it worked out pretty good. Being able to catch a lot of balls and then score a couple of touchdowns.

So and then of course you would go on to play for that nineteen seventy two team with Bob Greasy there and in that Super Bowl championship year, the perfect season and led in large part by a backup quarterback and Earl Morrall who replaced an injured Bob Greasy and helped that Dolphins team stay unbeated all the way through to the a f C Championship game. What was that like for a team that had such high expectations coming off a season where you played in the Super Bowl

the year before? What was that like for you guys to see your starting quarterback go down and what did that do to the expectations for that team in nineteen seventy two, which eventually would go undefeated? You know, it was it was It was a great thing that you know, Shula had brought him in the training camp before that, and you know, didn't have any idea that Bob was going to go down, obviously, but it worked out great

and everybody was happy with it. He did a heck of a job with it, and you know, everything worked out well and Bob was able to heal. We would kept we kept on winning and uh, you know, and then they brought Bob Ben for the championship AFC Championship game, and in that a f C championship game a pretty unique thing or a unique situation for people that are you know, more familiar with football today, where you get the home field advantage based upon your regular season record.

You guys didn't have that advantage in the alternating a f C championship site. Every year it alternated between you know, certain teams, and you guys had to go on the road for that game in Pittsburgh. Was that something that kind of bothered you guys or was it a little bit to me stuck in your craw that we should have had that home field advantage in that game? Well, no, because that's the way it was, I mean, all the way through until nineteen seventy two, and they changed it

later on. But you know, we had no no greed for no no problem with it. But you know what was even ironic is that you're in in January, You're in Pittsburgh and it's sixty degrees and we're loving every minute of it. I mean, in any better for us at that time? Yeah, I think that was kind of the football gods smiling down to the Dolphins that day.

We had we had Larry Little on the podcast a couple of weeks ago, and he said the exact same thing, How you guys were up there sixty degrees in Pittsburgh in January, just completely blown away by the fact that the weather did kind of it played along there for you guys and benefited. So you win that game, you go on to the Super Bowl. But in that game, Jim Kick had two rushing touchdowns as the Dolphins do defeat the Pittsburgh Stealers seventeen to head back to their

second consecutive Super Bowl. Now, Jim was part of, in my opinion, I think most offense fans opinions, the best backfield in the history of the National Football League. And we'll get to that here in just one moment. But both of those touchdowns that he scored were short runs two yards and three yards, and that was usually Larry Sonka's territory, right. Was there something different in that game

plan that week to get Jim those goal line carries? Well, everybody knew that they were going to key on zomb you know, most of the time, because he was he was the boll. I mean, gaven the ball up the middle, he ran through about two linemen and then he hit a couple of linebackers. So everybody knew that. So what they did was that they forced to be the league guy and gave the ball to kick. And then Kim

was a tough player. It was extremely tough. He had problems all the way through, and he never missed the down, never complained. He lined up every down and he played every down, and he was in those That blue collar mentality certainly fed the Shoe La brand of football very well. And as a younger fan, I talked about, you know,

the kind of the vision. I half the Miami Dolphins in that era was plunging into the end zone against the Vikings in the Super Bowl, the second Super Bowl win for the Miami Dolphins in the history of the franchise. There and he did score the third touchdown in that game, so kick had to zonc had one, and as that triumvirant accounted for all three Dolphins touchdowns. Now, Jim was a Pro bowler his first two years in the National Football League, and he really shared the load with Larry

Sonka early on. Then Mercury Morris was there but didn't really get the touches, didn't get heavily involved until that nineteen seventy two season. But I'm curious, Larry, did you guys as a team know that you had something pretty special there early on with those three backs in that backfield. I think surely had an idea. Yes, I think we did too a little bit as you watch them in practice. Uh, you know it was it was always, you know, kickings on, kickings on, and then all of a sudden they throw

in Mercury. That was a kind of a change of pace because Mercury was the outside guy, and you know, it didn't send him up the middle very often, but they did send him around the outside, and he was put quick and pretty fast. Jim was more of a patient runner. He takes his time till he found a hole and he'd hit the hole as quick as he could. But yeah, we we knew we had something special one

with the three backs like that. And I would assume that patient style really served him well in the passing game too, because you look at their passing stats and Jim was always thirty forty forty five catches every season just about and you know, you look at running backs in today's NFL, and typically if a back is faster, maybe smaller, he usually contributes in the passing game. And Mercury certainly had the speed, but Jim was the one that got all the passing option or the past targets

as the out of the backfield. Out of those three, what was it about him that made him such a good pass catcher as a running back? Well, I had good quickness number one, and Shula had. His design of offense was to get the balls to the backs as much as possible so that they could end up running down the field more than anything else. So Jim, you know, will come out. We had what they called the halfback option, or he had an option to go in or out. And you know, Jim caught a lot of balls just

running that route by himself. And when they left in seventy four to go to the World League, uh, which kind of ruined us, to be honest with you, But they had to do it, which we understood. Then I had to had to take his place on third downs, come in and do a little bit of that. But that was about it. Jim was He was a good receiver, and it's a good running back. Yeah, because your your career kind of had some different avenues where you kind of branched off the tight end you're obviously, but you

mentioned coming in on a third down. What was that like for you? Changing your position once again there? Well, I was drafted as a running back, which I was in college, so I did have a little bit of knowledge of being a running back, and you know the the the third downs situations where you know to get outside and of the offensive line, defensive line, run your patterns, catch the ball, and then you know, do as much as you can damage damage why, I said, as you

possibly could. And we talked about Jim kick in the in the role he had in the backfield there with Son and Mercury Morris. I'm curious, Larry, what, since you were around him and around that team obviously, what was his response to kind of his changing role through the years and maybe that year when Mercury did get some more action, some more touches, How did Jim respond to that. Jim was pretty damn glared about it. I mean he didn't he wasn't complaining. The thing was, you know, we

play a game. Record didn't get many touches. He'd be in talking to Shula, so he give more touches A week after that, Well that week Jim Kick was in talking to so he give more week reps next week. So it was a constant battle between the two of them. But it never was a personal battle. It was more about, you know, time to play position, you know, time to play more that more, more touches of the ball. But it never affected there their own personalities. They never were

angry at each other or anything like that. It was always about competition and that's all. It was. Always always competing, Always competition the best thing for a football team. We see that now with a modern day Miami Dolphins under Brian Flores and the idea that maybe you want to be adaptable each week to have your game plan reflect the opponent you face. So Don Shula, Bill Arnsberger, those guys were definitely ahead of their time back in the sixties, seventies,

eighties and up into the nineties. But back to the game at hand, the game on topic here, is there a moment in that game that you felt like it really kind of turned in favor of the Dolphins because it wasn't back and forth affair. Was there a moment that really stuck out to you that you remember to this day. That really allowed you guys to go ahead and prevail and win that football game you're talking about,

the NFC Camp Ship game. Yes, sir, half time when we came out at halftime and he he put Bob Grief back in the ball game, and a couple of days later he hits Wall Warfield down the fl went for about sixty yards. Yeah. I think putting Bob in that ball game turned the game completely in our favorite at that time. And was that something The team was kind of rallying behind that decision to make the switch to go back to Bob. I think they did. You know, it sounded like it in the locker room, It sounded

like it on the sideline, It felt like it. I mean, I think everybody was kind of happy to be back where we were. Not that Earl was, you know, a detrimentarying like dead. He was probably the best thing that ever happened to us. When Bob did go down, Um, but Don made a decision to go ahead and replace him with with Bob at halftime, and I think it helped the team eventually. It's certainly got the Dolphins on the scoreboard. We talked about Jim kicks to rushing touchdowns.

Those both came in the second half of that game. I have one more question for you here, Larry. You know we talked about Jim Kick. Is unfortunate passing last week, gone too soon, certainly at age seventy three. I just want to leave you with the floor right here. Who was Jim Kick to you? And what would you say to him today if you could, if he was still with us. Just take the floor and talk to us about your friend Jim Kick. Well, first off, I'd like

to thank him for being a friend and being a teammate. Uh. He meant a lot to the team. He meant a lot to me because we were we ran around a little bit together in there in the late sixties, early seventies. And uh, I just I'm gonna miss him. That's a terrible disease. Uh God, I hope nobody gets it. But you know that's that's far fetched. I'm sure. I hope his family understands that he's going to be missed. He was loved by a lot of players. Um, I just uh,

I hope they're blessed and understand that he is. He is going to be remembered for a long, long time. That's certainly a legend of Miami Dolphins history. As you are yourself, Larry Ciple, eleven year member of the Miami Dolphins, two times Super Bowl champion, Larry, I really appreciate your time today, sir, Thank you so much. Thank you in a way, he goes Larry si well remembering the memory of Jim Kick, Dolphins running back who passed away last

week at the age of seventy three. Been a tough year for this organization, saying goodbye to a lot of memorable alumni, a lot of legends of the franchise. And let's just go ahead and wrap up this Finch flashback here on the Drive Time podcast. With that, everybody, have a good weekend. We'll talk to you next week.