Exploring the Career of Hall of Fame Offensive Guard Larry Little

In 1969, Little was traded to the Miami Dolphins.  How he was traded to Miami is a humorous story, and Dolphins running back Larry Csonka described it in detail in the book.  Csonka actually had a say in getting team general manager Joe Thomas to sign Little. 

The Dolphins had a core nucleus of quality talent in 1969, but they were not a winning team.  George Wilson was their head coach that year, and he was a very relaxed and non-disciplinary coach.  In 1970, Don Shula became Miami’s head coach, and the whole atmosphere changed.  The Dolphins worked harder than they had ever worked before.

That 1970 season was very important for Larry Little.  It was the first year that he was ever on a playoff team.  That was also a year that the NFL, which had recently merged with the old AFL, saw a player’s strike.  It set every team back a couple of weeks. 

When the strike was settled during the hot month of August, Don Shula was not happy.  This was his first year with his new team, and he had lost a couple of valuable weeks of training time, thanks to the strike. 

To rectify that situation, Shula instituted four-a-day practices during that 1970 training camp.  Most teams have two-a-day practices during training camp.  Some coaches have even gone as far as three practices a day during training camp.  But Shula took things to a new level by instituting four-a-day practices.

Such a measure was not only giving the Dolphins players a crash course in getting the plays down in Shula’s playbook.  It was also testing how tough their physical endurance could be.  Shula wanted a team that could win a lot of home games in the relentless Miami heat and humidity.  The 1970 Dolphins survived Shula’s training camp and went to the playoffs for the first time in their history that year.  A year later, they managed to win the AFC Eastern Division title, and their success was only beginning.

In that famous marathon AFC Divisional Playoff struggle on Christmas Day, 1971, Miami came from behind to defeat the Kansas City Chiefs in double overtime, 27-24.  In that game, Larry Little suffered a hip pointer injury in the first quarter.  Unbeknownst to me, he did not get any help from a trainer on the sidelines, nor did he ever apply an icepack to his injury.  Guys like Little were made of pretty stern stuff in that era.

The Dolphins would go on to play in Super Bowl VI that year against Dallas.  Although they lost to the Cowboys, everyone could see that they were a team to be reckoned with.  The following year in 1972, we all know what happened in Miami. 

The Dolphins did not lose a single game, as they went on to achieve perfection with a 17-0 record and a victory in Super Bowl VII against the Washington Redskins.  In 1973, Miami won a second straight Vince Lombardi Trophy as they defeated the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl VIII, 24-7.