Get me rewrite. Who’d believe that fairy tale?
“I’m having a tough time living that one down,” Auer said, chuckling.
The Dolphins’ first hero is 63 today, living in Winter Park, anything but retired. He owns a computer consulting and training firm, and – remember that dune buggy with the rollbars? – fledgling NASCAR team.
He’s not sure even his racecar driver knows his background.
“I don’t make a practice of telling people.”
History somehow has passed down only one indelible snapshot of that first Dolphins year, and it is Auer’s improbable fireworks that launched a franchise. Forty years on, it’s as if everything else about 1966 has disappeared, except that.
“A storybook thing,” Auer called it.
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1965
March 3:
American Football League Commissioner Joe Foss meets with Minneapolis lawyer Joseph Robbie in Miami, and Foss encourages Robbie to apply for an expansion franchise in Miami.
August 16:
AFL awards its first expansion franchise to Joe Robbie and TV star Danny Thomas for $7.5 million.
November 27:
Miami picks Kentucky quarterback Rick Norton and Illinois running back Jim Grabowski in the first round of the AFL’s college draft.
Timeline 1965-1969
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DOLPHIN TRIVIA:
DOLPHIN TRIVIA:
Which Dolphin complained about the car the team gave him as part of his contract?
Name the only Dolphin ever to intercept Joe Namath for a touchdown.
Cookie Gilchrist.
Pete Jaquess in 1966.
1966
January 29:
George Wilson is named the Dolphins’ first head coach after eight years coaching the Detroit Lions.
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Quarterback Dick Wood and head coach George Wilson during the first training camp, July 26, 1966. (Bob East/Miami Herald)
September 2:
In the franchise’s first regular-season game in front of 26,776 at the Orange Bowl, the Dolphins’ Joe Auer returns the opening kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown, but Oakland wins, 23-14.
DOLPHIN TRIVIA:
Which quarterback led Oakland to victory in the first regular-season game ever played by the Dolphins?
Tom Flores, who later coached the Raiders to two Super Bowl victories.
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Joe Auer takes the opening kickoff and runs 95 yards for a TD with 26,776 fans going nuts as he is pursued by Oakland’s Mike Mercer (10) and Rodger Bird (21). Auer, a hometown hero, played at Coral Gables High. Auer finished the season with 416 yards rushing, 22 catches, and averaged 24.9 yards on kickoff returns. Oakland won, 23-14. September 2, 1966. (John Pineda/Miami Herald)
October 16:
After going 0-4 in the preseason and opening the regular season 0-5, the Dolphins win their first game, beating Denver 24-7 in front of 22,191 at the Orange Bowl.
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DOLPHIN TRIVIA:
What was the shortest field goal ever missed by a Dolphin, and who missed it?
Nine yards, Gene Mingo in 1966 (the goalposts were on the goal line then).
1967
September 17:
Quarterback John Stofa breaks his right ankle, and rookie Bob Griese leads the Dolphins to a 35-21 victory over Denver in the season opener at the Orange Bowl. Griese throws a 68-yard TD pass to Joe Auer.
Bob Griese, soon to be known as the general, is Miami’s ‘smart’ quarterback in battle with Houston in the Orange Bowl, 1968. (John Pineda/Miami Herald)
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November 26:
Dolphins end an eight-game losing streak