MIAMI — Miami Dolphins fans have spent this week in the afterglow of a successful NFL draft — one that has them daring to dream that happy days are here again (or at least getting close).
Chances are it did not occur to most Dolfans that it was one year ago this week when the architect of the franchise's happiest days passed away.
Don Shula died one year ago Tuesday, at age 90. It is an anniversary worth noting, not with sadness but with fond memories and gratitude.
"Hard to believe it's been a year since he's been gone," Larry Little, the old guard, said Wednesday. "Some people you think are going to be around forever, and Coach Shula was one. I think of him often. I'm still missing him. "
Eldest son Dave Shula returned to coaching after a 22-year-absence in 2018. He is Dartmouth's wide receivers coach. The team's first spring practice was on the anniversary of his father's passing.
"Life goes on as he would want it," Dave said Wednesday. "I certainly think about it every day. During the season when the last [unbeaten] team lost, we shared some good memories and laughed that Dad was still undefeated. He left this Earth undefeated. And the '72 guys in heaven now — they're running the table up there now, still undefeated, too."
Little, safety Dick Anderson and running back Mercury Morris are the only teammates left from the halcyon days — the back-to-back Super Bowls in 1972-73 including the Perfect Season — who still live in close proximity to one another in Miami.
If not for the lingering cloud of the COVID-19 pandemic they would have gathered to mark the anniversary and maybe raise a toast to the man who made them champions,
"Absolutely," Anderson said.
Instead the day passed without ceremony, just as Shula's death last year could not be given the public memorial it deserved. The Dolphins wore uniform patches honoring the Hall of Fame coach, but with crowds limited to 20% capacity because of the pandemic, the club could not stage a proper public farewell.
"I was waiting for a big celebration, but it couldn't happen," Little said.
This coming season NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said he hopes the league is back to full stadiums, but that has not been determined. It is expected the Dolphins will do something in the way of a ceremony for Shula, though no details have been put forth.
A club spokesman said Wednesday, "Those efforts are ongoing and looking to do something possibly in-season."
For the glory-days Dolphins, now all 70 and older, losing Shula and now the one-year anniversary were reminders of their own mortality.
So is the fact that 16 players from the perfect '72 team, more than one-third of the roster, have now passed away. Howard Schnellenberger, the offensive coordinator back then, was the last coach from that team still with us but he passed away in March at 87.
The men who made NFL history still unmatched keep fading away.
"Howard this year, Jake [Scott] last year ... " Little said.
Little's mother passed away two years ago. She lived to be 100 and died a week later. In January Little spoke at a college coach's funeral.
"Death is a part of life," he said.
Anderson and Scott were fellow safeties and buddies for life, but "I didn't realize he'd gotten that sick," Anderson said.
Scott had flown from his home in Colorado to Philadelphia to see a specialist in cognitive issues, fearing he suffered from the type of concussion-related brain trauma that plagues so many former players.
"Jake used to tell me, 'I hit with my head, you hit with your shoulders,' " Anderson said.
Scott fell down stairs this past November and had surgery to repair a spinal injury. He died in a hospital 10 days later.
Anderson? He seems as sharp and fit as one can be at 75.
"Other than the seven knee operations," he said.
One year later, all Don Shula meant to South Florida, to the Miami Dolphins and to the former players he made champions towers in the mind, undiminished. If anything the appreciation grows.
The players of his from magical 1972-73 thin out in number, year by year, but to the ones still here, Shula will be their coach for as long as they live.
