Dolphins memories through their 50-year history

_1967: Dolphins general manager Joe Thomas has a pre-draft meeting with QB Steve Spurrier in a Gainesville lawyer's office. The entire time, Spurrier plays solitaire. Thomas and the lawyer must interrupt the card game to talk with him. That decides Thomas' choice for the No. 4 draft pick: Bob Griese.

_1968: Payday for the Dolphins is followed by the curious scene of Dolphins racing each other to the bank. "We weren't sure all the checks would cash," as punter Larry Seiple said. They all did. And for reason: Long-distance calls needed approval. Locker-room towels were counted. The business manager once fronted $11,000 of his own money to travel to a game.

_1969: Larry Little, who goes on to a Hall of Fame career, walks into a bar and tells former high school teammate Mack Lamb he was traded to the Dolphins. Lamb, a Dolphins cornerback, says, "We'll be teammates again." Little says that won't happen: "I was traded for you."

_1970: Robbie needs a coach and calls the home of Baltimore's Don Shula who ... "Call me back," Shula says. A couple assistants are fighting on his front yard and he needs to go break it up before becoming the Dolphins next coach.

_1971: WIOD radio attempts to show advertisers how many fans listen in the Orange Bowl through play-by-play announcer Rick Weaver's idea to have them wave white hankies. Soon, tens of thousands white hankies wave after Dolphins touchdowns. Weaver, ever the capitalist, patents the idea and prints tens of thousands Dolphins hankies. Most all of them never sell as fans prefer the homemade variety.

_1972: They're Super Bowl champs! They're 17-0! The players pick up Shula on their shoulders, Shula pumps a fist in the air and ... "Hey!" Shula yells. A teenager pulled his watch off his wrist. Shula gets down from his ride, chases the kid down and gets his watch back _ victorious again.

_1973: After a hunting trip to the Everglades, Manny Fernandez and Bill Stanfill show up to Dolphins camp with a 4-foot alligator. Now comes the question of what to do with it. They put it in Shula's private shower. A few minutes later, they hear a scream and see Shula running, naked, through the locker room. "You're lucky the snout was taped," Jim Kiick says. "We took a vote and taping it barely won."

_1974: "The Exorcist: Archbishop Ousts Devil in Dolphins Leaders," the Miami News headline reads after Miami Archbishop Coleman F. Carroll attempts to broker peace between Robbie and Shula, whose private feud went public at a Super Bowl celebration.

_1975: With Larry Csonka, Paul Warfield and Kiick off to the World Football League, Jake Scott bluffs the Dolphins that he has an offer from the upstart league, too. That's how he becomes the NFL's first $100,000-a-year defensive back. Jim Mandich, Stanfill and Fernandez followed to bluff their way to bigger contracts, too. Mandich gets a red Cadillac as part of his deal.

_1976: Fernandez, whose 17 tackles defined Super Bowl VII, retires when his body gives out. He tried everything to patch is body together. Xylocaine. Cortisone. Aristocort. Indocin. And Butazolidin, which was later outlawed for humans but remains legal for racehorses.

_1977: Griese wears prescription glasses because of problems with contact lenses. What if it rains? "I'll show you," he says on The Don Shula Show. He hits a button and mini-windshield wipers work.

_1978: A young coach looking for a job offers to break down film for the Dolphins. Shula says, "That's what I want my assistants to do." Bill Belichick thanks him and moves on.

_1979: Howard Schnellenberger tells Shula he's leaving the Dolphins' staff to take the University of Miami job. "Are you sure?" Shula says.

_1980: The traditional Dolphins prank of veterans telling rookies to go to a particular supermarket for a free Thanksgiving turkey (there are no free turkeys) gets a twist. Nat Moore, a Miami native, begins passing out turkeys to the less fortunate. A new tradition begins.

_1981: Six seconds before half. Ball at their 40. "What about the hook-and-lateral?" Shula says on the sideline. Don Strock to Duriel Harris, who laterals to Tony Nathan. Touchdown. The Dolphins lose an epic playoff game but have a play for the ages.

_1982: David Woodley is asked about being the Super Bowl's youngest quarterback ever. His comeback: "I'm the lowest paid, too," he says.

_1983: Shula is nervous. The Jets are drafting and can take Shula's choice. "With the 24th pick," NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle says, "the New York Jets pick Ken O'Brien." Shula turns to pro personnel director, Chuck Connor. "Who's he?" Shula says of O'Brien. The Dolphins pick Dan Marino.

_1984: Marino rewrites the NFL passing records with 48 touchdowns. Someone once asks Shula about the troubled running game. "Other teams probably want us to run," he said.

_1985: Shula, already basking in the Dolphins stopping Chicago's undefeated season in the Orange Bowl, is delighted by a story from the Bears halftime locker room: Coach Mike Ditka and defensive coordinator Buddy Ryan got in a fist fight.

_1986: Trailing the Los Angeles Rams by two touchdowns, Marino says in the huddle, "We're not running the ball again until we're ahead." They don't. They win in overtime.

_1987: Joe Robbie Stadium opens with its namesake in a black tuxedo and aqua cummerbund. "You can't say you're a rich man," he says in a telling statement, "if you're $100 million in debt."

_1988: Jim Jensen kneels before a cheerleader in pre-game introductions and offers an engagement ring. He wanted to put it on her finger, but they were both shaking too much. "I kind of flicked it to her," he said.

_1989: Marino and offensive coordinator Gary Stevens yell after practice. Arguing. Pointing fingers. Reporters ask what it's about. "Gary thinks his great University of Miami team could beat my great Pitt team," Marino says.

_1990: Every great man's funeral demands a great eulogy. Bob Kuechenberg said of Robbie, "All men are dreamers, but not all men dream equally. Joe Robbie was the ultimate dreamer, the greatest overachiever I ever met."

_1991: Marino signs an outrageous five-year, $25 million deal. His father, Dan Sr., a truck driver, is blessedly numb. "We never took a family vacation," he says. "We had bills to pay."

_1992: John Offerdahl and employees at his bagel shop stay up all night making 6,000 bagels. They distribute them in south Dade areas hit hardest by Hurricane Andrew. Offerdahl then goes to Dolphins practice and says only, "Everyone's trying to help."

_1993: Defensive tackle Alfred Oglesby leaves the Dolphins with one lasting memory: His claim of being kidnapped after missing a practice. "Lie to us and you're in the doghouse," Dolphins security head Stu Weinstein tells him. "Lie to the FBI and you're in jail." Oglesby confesses. He had been out partying.

_1994: The line is uttered that follows Marino from dinners to golf outings to even a meeting with England's Prince Harry two decades later. "Laces out, Dan," Prince Harry said from the scene in "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective."

_1995: Bryan Cox, who previously received the heaviest fine in NFL history for lifting two middle fingers to Buffalo while introduced before game, learns from his lesson. He spits at the crowd this time.

_1996: Rookies Zach Thomas and Larry Izzo get a haircut and proudly tell the barber they're football players. "What high school?" the barber asks.

_1997: Coach Jimmy Johnson throws a computer at Stevens on the flight home from a playoff loss to New England after watching the Patriots steal the Dolphins' signs. "How many times do I have to tell you?" Johnson yells.

_1998: After a goal-line stop of Buffalo's Doug Flutie for a playoff win, Johnson and the Dolphins celebrate in the locker room by busting open boxes of "Flutie Flakes" and stomping on the cereal.

_1999: In 48 hours, Johnson quits as Dolphins coach, returns as Dolphins coach, explains that his mother's death told him to open up to those he loves and gets married to his girlfriend, Rhonda Rookmaaker.

_2000: Two years into his Dolphins career, soft-spoken Patrick Surtain admits everyone is mispronouncing his name. It's not SUR-tain. It's Sur-TAIN.

_2001: Marc Buoniconti finishes his Hall of Fame speech in Canton by introducing, "My hero, my friend, my dad, Nick Buoniconti." Dad, crying before he even talks, bends over Marc's wheelchair and kisses him.

_2002: Ricky Williams carries the ball 383 times, then 392 times in 2003. Both are league highs and evidence to Williams he's being overused to the point he will quit the team and live in a tent in Australia for a while. "I felt I had to do it," he said.

_2003: After a sweaty, training-camp scrimmage against Tennessee, the Dolphins enter their locker room to what might have been Dave Wannstedt's best coaching move: Bud Light.

_2004: Did any Dolphin have more fun while playing than Channing Crowder? But the pain of a double hernia tells you how far even the most fun will go. He met a Santeria priest daily for a season, had crushed eggs shells rubbed over him, then pumpkins rolled over him before being released into the sea. He wore beads to fend off evil in games. The pain didn't go away.

_2005: Wes Welker, at 5-foot-9, is hitting it off with a woman in a bar. She asks what he does. "I play for the Dolphins," he says. She laughs at the idea and leaves without saying a word.

_2006: "Well, then, I have to say it," coach Nick Saban says after a December practice. "I'm not going to be the Alabama coach." Three weeks later he is the Alabama coach.

_2007: Within 15 minutes, Cam Cameron makes his only impact as Dolphins coach by saying they've drafted, "Ted Ginn's family," how he wants to "Fail forward fast," and, upon seeing fans giving thumbs down to the Ginn pick, "We've got to turn the thumbs this way (showing a thumbs up)."

_2008: "We've got to do something," coach Tony Sparano tells his assistants on flight home after a loss to Arizona dropped them to 0-2. "The Wildcat" play is unveiled in Dolphins' 38-13 win at New England the next week.

_2009: Brian Billick, new with the NFL Network, goes to interview new Dolphins owner Steve Ross. "You cost me $40 million." Ross says. What? When Billick's Baltimore team provided the lone win in 2007 for the Dolphins season, H. Wayne Huizenga called the next day. "The price just went up $40 million," he said.

_2010: Brandon Marshall says third-string quarterback Tyler Thigpen "gets it" more than starter Chad Henne. Which says all you needed to know about everyone involved.

_2011: How does greatness end? Jason Taylor, after his final game, tells his teammates in the locker room. "When it's over, it's over. And it's over. But I couldn't think of a better way to end it _ to beat the Jets!"

_2012: The Dolphins on "Hard Knocks" in one paragraph: Chad (Ochocinco) Johnson is arrested, Vontae Davis calls his grandma, Ryan Tannehill doesn't know many NFL teams, Chris Hogan is nicknamed "7-11," coach Joe Philbin is stiff and GM Jeff Ireland admits the Dolphins don't have a good receiver.

_2013: The worst chapter in Dolphins history as a joke: "Don't be bullied by high fares. Fly Incognito out of Florida or any place for that matter," Fort Lauderdale-based Spirit Airlines said in an ad.

_2014: A week after securing his third playoff-less season, Philbin is told after beating Minnesota he's being brought back. His team goes out and loses to the Jets to assure they finish 8-8.

_2015: In October, the head coach and defensive coordinator are fired. In November, the offensive coordinator is fired. It's December. And, if 50 years have shown anything, it's that there's still time for more change.