Cote: As ‘72 Dolphins leave us 1 by 1, an ode to Miami’s family heirloom | Opinion
When Manny Fernandez passed away quietly at age 79 this week at his home in a small Georgia town called Ellaville, a subtle-yet-seismic shift occurred — mostly symbolic, but still sadly notable.
For the first time, there are more players deceased than living from the Miami Dolphins‘ historic 1972 Perfect Season team.
Fernandez was the 24th member of that exclusive 47-man club to pass away. The number of ‘72 Fins still alive is down to 23. All seven on that coaching staff have died.
“We survivors,” the old fullback Larry Csonka, now 79, calls the history-making teammates still with us. “You know that when we start calling each other, there’s probably been another passing. We feel the loss. It’s like losing someone close in your family, because that’s what they are.”
Guard Larry Little, a Pro Football Hall of Famer like Csonka, saw that a friend on Facebook had posted that Fernandez had died. Little hadn’t heard. He googled Fernandez’s name and saw it was true. Then his phone rang in Miami. It was Csonka calling from North Carolina.
The old-timers try to stay in touch. Their famous bond is being the first, and still only, NFL team to ever go undefeated: 17-0. Their other bond, alas, is counting the number of brethren they have lost. Fernandez was the 12th just since 2020. A disproportionate number of the departed suffered football-related brain trauma: CTE, or Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy. “We survivors” are all in their mid-70s or older.
Little, now 80, said he believes the ‘72 Perfectos are underappreciated, historically and perhaps even in their own city.
“I don’t even know if the younger guys playing for the Dolphins now even know our history,” he told us. “I don’t know if they appreciate it.”
The Dolphins host an alumni weekend once a year for all former Fins. They should institute an annual celebration for just the Perfect Season team, too, or maybe for the ‘72-73 teams that won back-to-back Super Bowls.
Those were the glory days for Miami’s flagship sports franchise. The days that this club has spent more than 50 years trying and failing to replicate.
▪ Here is the roll call, an honor roll, of the 1972-season players (24) and coaches (seven) who have passed on, listed by year of death from most recent to most distant. HOF indIcates Pro Football Hall of Fame member and DHR indicated Dolphins Honor Roll inductee:
2026: May 24: DT Manny Fernandez (DHR) at 79. Cause of death yet to be announced, although Fernandez had begun to experience memory loss and feelings of aggression, symptoms associated with CTE, the degenerative brain disease linked to repetitive head trauma and by extension to football.
2025: Feb. 5: WR Howard Twilley at 81 from cancer.
2024: Sept. 21: RB Mercury Morris at 77 from liver cancer; April 3: LB Mike Kolen at 76 from Alzheimer’s at time of death.
2023: Sept. 24: CB Tim Foley at 75 from long illness complicated by broken femur; Sept. 21: RB Hubert Ginn at 76 from CTE and dementia; and March 19: DT Mike Kadish at 72 from Parkinson’s.
2022: June 27: WR Marlin Briscoe at 76 from pneumonia and circulation issues.
2021: March 21: Offensive coordinator Howard Schnellenberger at 87 from subdural hematoma leading to decline.
2020: Nov. 19: S Jake Scott (DHR) at 75 from fall down stairs and spinal injury; June 20: RB Jim Kiick at 73 from advanced CTE and Alzeheimer’s/dementia; and May 4: Head coach Don Shula (HOF/DHR) at 90 from natural causes related to congestive heart failure.
2019: Aug. 29: C Jim Langer (HOF/DHR) at 71 from heart-related issues; July 30: LB Nick Buoniconti (HOF/DHR) at 78 from CTE and pneumonia; and Jan. 12: OG Bob Kuechenberg at 71 from CTE-related issues.
2018: May 12: DT Jim Dunaway at 76 from lung cancer.
2016: Nov. 10: DE Bill Stanfill (DHR) at 69 from CTE, complications from surgery after fall; and Aug. 1: FS Mike Howell at 73 from multiple health issues.
2015: July 17: Defensive coordinator Bill Arnsparger (DHR) at 88 from heart attack; and May 15: PK Garo Yepremian at 70 from neuroendocrine cancer.
2014: April 25: QB Earl Morrall at 79 from Parkinsons’ and advanced CTE.
2012: Sept. 12: Defensive line coach Mike Scarry at 92 from natural causes; and June 14: LB Jesse Powell at 65 from cardiac arrest.
2011: April 26: TE Jim Mandich (DHR) at 62 from cholangiocarcinoma of the bile duct.
2009: Sept. 16: Offensive line coach Monte Clark at 72 from bone cancer.
2006: Oct. 26: FB Charles Leigh at 60 from lung cancer.
2005: Feb. 27: Offensive backs coach Carl Taseff at 76 from progressive supranuclear palsy.
2001: June 1: Defensive backs coach Tom Keane at 74 from undisclosed cause.
1996: Feb. 24: P Billy Lothridge at 54 from heart attack.
1994: Sept. 5: LB Bob Matheson at 49 from Hodgkin’s Disease
1989: Aug. 19: OT Wayne Moore at 44 from heart attack.
▪ Here are the 23 Perfect Season players still with us, listed from oldest current age to youngest:
84: OL Howard Kindig and TE Marv Fleming.
83: OT Norm Evans and WR Paul Warfield (HOF/DHR).
82: WR Karl Noonan.
81: QB Bob Griese (HOF/DHR) and P Larry Seiple.
80: DE Jim Riley, OG Larry Little (HOF/DHR) and S Dick Anderson (DHR).
79: OG Al Jenkins, DT Maulty Moore, CB Lloyd Mumphord and FB Larry Csonka (HOF/DHR).
78: DT Bob Heinz, QB Jim Del Gaizo and S Tom Curtis.
77: CB Curtis Johnson, LB Doug Swift, DE Vern Den Herder and WR Otto Stowe.
76: LB Larry Ball.
75: RB Ed Jenkins.
It is a finite period of time before all of the men who created the historic Perfect Season, the only ones who can recall it from the inside, have lapsed from living witnesses to a memory. Ten of the survivors are in their 80s now and three others, including Csonka, are staring down at that number.
Any Dolfans old enough to have special memories of ‘72 can relate to the mortality attached to it. We can relate to aging, to saying goodbye to loved ones, to seeing grandkids go from babies to high school graduates in what seems a minute and a half.
And so the men of the Perfect Season — the only people on Earth with this piece of NFL and sports history, with this bond — leave us one by one.
South Florida is blessed to have had a lot special to cheer in sports. The Miami Hurricanes’ five national football crowns in a 19-year span. The Heat’s Big 3-era double champions. A couple of Marlins World Series and two Panthers’ Stanley Cups. Heck, Lionel Messi plays soccer in this town.
But the ‘72 Dolphins were the first team to put Miami on the national sports map, and the only team — ever, in any major professional sport — to be absolutely perfect.
Manny Fernandez is the latest goodbye. The two best games of his career were in the Dolphins’ two Super Bowl wins. He played defensive tackle at only 250 pounds.
“When the game started, he was a giant,” Csonka said.
The Perfectos still with us try to get together someplace once or twice a year, even if it’s just a handful.
“Smoke cigars, sit around a fire and drink cold beers,” says Csonka with a smile. “A lot of our guys have brain fog from playing. I have a degree of it. But the clarity comes out in the intensity and humor of the stories and the beauty of reminiscing.”
What these men accomplished is worth remembering and revering even as their number dwindles. Maybe more so because of that. The ‘72 Dolphins will always be South Florida sports’ family heirloom.
This story was originally published May 27, 2026 at 2:53 PM.
