Larry Little – October 18, 2022
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Tuesday, October 18, 2022
Hall of Fame G Larry Little
(What does it mean to you? You’re looking forward to the reunion but what’s 50 years mean to you?) – “Well, 50 years means that we have gone 50 years and we’ve been often imitated but never duplicated. It’s definitely a great deal to me because I never thought our record would last this long or actually, because I felt some other teams would come along and at least tie us. Not that no team will ever surpass us. But you know, to tie us but not surpass us.”
(Did you at the time think it was – did it resonate, ‘Oh, we went undefeated. Boy, this was historic’ or did it…?) – “No, it never resonated with me because that was one year, and who would have thought 50 years later or 49 years later it’s still the record still standing.”
(I had a question related to you going to Booker T. You’re one of the few Dolphins who spent time at a high school locally and I wanted to know what did it mean for you being a trailblazer from Booker T. in the Overtown area and making it all the way to the Hall of Fame?) – “Well, it meant a great deal to me. You know, when I was a kid going to the Orange Bowl to see football games, we used to go see the University of Miami play. I could walk from my house to the Orange Bowl and during that time it was segregation and we had to sit in the bleachers and for me to come back to Miami when I’ve actually went out with the Chargers and played in the Orange Bowl, it meant a great deal to me, but then be traded here and finishing my career here in Miami means a great deal to me. To be the first – I wasn’t the first – some other guys went to play pro football, but to reach the level that I reached playing the game of football.”
(I was just curious how much you’re watching the Philadelphia Eagles right now. Their 6-0 start right now and also what odds would you give them and also what do you think’s the most important trait for a team if they want to finish a perfect season?) – “I’m glancing at them right now. I’m not looking very hard at him right now because they still have some games to play, but but they look like they have a very good football team from what I’ve seen so far. And you know, they’re a good football team, but it’s early in the year. I don’t even start thinking about them going undefeated because they have to actually play the Cowboys game in Dallas. So I think that would be a real big game for them.”
(What about the second part there? What do you think is the most important trait for a team if they want to be perfect? What do you think is the most important trait that you guys had?) – “To believe in it to believe in one another, to believe in your coaching staff, and we had a great coaching staff. We only had six coaches, compared to what, 25 now? And just believe in yourself. Believe you can get it done, although we didn’t talk about getting it done in 1972. But we knew we had a good football team from the year before and we wanted to redeem ourselves and we lost by losing a game against Dallas in the Super Bowl, but we didn’t ever even think about going undefeated. We only want to get back to the Super Bowl and win it.”
(I wanted to ask you a little bit about your offensive line and it’s obviously the best offensive line this team has ever head, and yet the way it was put together was rather interesting. I know you arrived via trade. What do you remember about that trade? Were you kicking and screaming about coming to Miami? Were you happy? Did you think that it was going to happen in the first place?) – “Well, actually, I was disappointed when I was traded to Miami because although in San Diego we didn’t win any championships, but we had a good football team. Some great talent on it. And coming to Miami being an expansion team, which they were at the time in 1969. And I didn’t know we would turn around as quickly as we did, and we probably wouldn’t have if Don Shula hadn’t come in to be our coach. And I had a good offensive line coach in San Diego by the name of Joe Madro. But then I got into Miami, I had Ernie Heffley my first year who wasn’t a bad offensive line coach. But then the next year when Monte Clark came, he made all of us into better football players up front.”
(And have you thought about how different would your life be had you lost even one game in 1972?) – “I don’t think – I think it would have been the same because you have other teams now that got close. The Bears were – it was the same with them – and the New England Patriots that lost one game. So I don’t think that much would have changed as long we won the Super Bowl. Just like for next year – it’ll be 50 years also from the 1973 team.”
(Were you one of those guys on the sideline on that Monday night game in 1985?) – “Well actually, I wasn’t because I was coaching at the time at Bethune-Cookman. And although I wasn’t here physically, I was there mentally because my team had a meeting earlier that night to watch the game on TV. Normally I kept them till 10 o’clock. I had them till 9 o’clock that night. They weren’t …. (laughter)”
(I’m curious – 20 years ago, 25 years ago, we’d hear like Nick Buoniconti call it “The Forgotten Team” – you guys, because the idea was you didn’t get your due for going undefeated. Do you think that’s changed in the last 10-20 years as really the years mount on what an achievement it was?) – “I think it does now because 20 years are good, but 50 years are just amazing. For us still be the only undefeated team in history, I like to say they like to say – once a team is getting close to going undefeated, they bring it all back from the day they start talking about us again, because other than that they forget about us. But you know, I’m happy that we are still being recognized because that is a tremendous accomplishment that we had. I’m quite sure the other guys that you’re going to talk to would feel the same way.”
(Going back to the question about referring to one of the best offensive lines we’ve ever seen in the NFL. Obviously, you have a couple of Hall of Fame running backs as well. I was curious how that undefeated team’s play style benefited the weather down here in South Florida as you guys ran the ball in this hot heat? Like how did those two things work together to make you guys the best versions of yourselves?) – “Well, you know, we could always tell when another team was sucking it up. They’re coming from the north. And late in games when we had to hold the football to keep the other team’s offense from coming onto the field. We relished that because we knew they were tired and we knew blocking and we knew (Larry) Csonka was going to running behind us. And Mercury (Morris) was going to be running behind me basically. And we relished that. We knew they were getting tired. See, what happened, too, a lot of people don’t realize this – before Shula came, we were on the other sideline. But when he came to Miami, he realized we could have be benefited by being the team that’s not in the hottest part of the stadium. So he changed sideline. He moved us to the other sidelines, so the other team can suffer like they’re doing now like they did against Buffalo this year.”
(You mentioned Coach Shula there. How tough is it going to be for you and your teammates to be out there celebrating this monumental moment, this 50th anniversary without Coach Shula?) – “Well, not only not having Coach Shula there with having, what, 16 other teammates not being there. It will be a joyous occasion for us and still is going to be a kind of sad occasion for us. Because, you know, we lost our last one this year who was one of my closest teammates, Marlin Briscoe. It will be sad not having Marlin there, just like all other 15 guys that that left us. But it will be a sad occasion by Coach (Shula) not being there because he was there for the last one. And some of the guys were there for the last one. They’re not here for this one and who knows, this is probably our last time being together as a group that went undefeated. I do know that Shula’s, his wife will be there on sat on Sunday, but it’s going to be a sad occasion.”
(You mentioned that you spent some time coaching at Bethune-Cookman. You also spent time coaching at North Carolina Central University. I wanted to know did you ever reach out to Coach Shula for some advice during that time or during your coaching tenure?) – “Well, when I first got into coaching, I had never coached before. So I asked Coach (Shula), with me not ever coaching before, what should I do first? He told me ‘no offense, no defense, and let your assistant coaches coach and don’t over-coach.’ That was the advice I got from him, and I also took the Dolphins playbook with me. And you know, and we ended up winning our first championship – we got a championship at Bethune my seventh year coaching and won it four years later in 1988. But taking some of his philosophies with me that I got from him, although I’ve never had a full coaching staff. I had nothing but part-time coaches. So one coach was my coach, he coached basketball, another coach coached women’s basketball, the other coach coached something else. So you know what, I was lucky enough to have those guys and they were good coaches also and we had some success there.”
(I wanted to ask you about the Hall of Fame. I’m sure it was an unbelievable honor for you and the teammates you have who made it to Canton. But as you know, there’s one teammate who has come very close and hasn’t gotten in yet. Bob Kuechenberg. How do you feel about that?) – “’Kuch’ (Bob Kuechenberg) had a great career and he had as good a career as any other offensive lineman in the Hall of Fame and I think he should be in the Hall of Fame. Although, you know, he was my teammate. And you know, it’s hard when you look at our offensive line with Jim Langer the center being in and me being in the Hall of Fame; it’s sort of like the Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker corps. You know, Jack Ham is in the Hall of Fame, Jack Lambert is in the Hall of Fame. And Andy Russell, he was a great linebacker for the Steelers. He’s not in the Hall of Fame. So it could be pertaining to something like that. But ‘Kuch’ deserves to be being in there, no doubt. He played 15 years, tough as nails and I wouldn’t say he was as good as me, but he was a great offensive lineman.”
(What are you doing now? Are you retired?) – “I’m retired. My last day of working was January the 14th of this year. But ironically, one of my former players who is a principal now here in Miami, he called me a couple of weeks ago and said, ‘Coach, I know you retire, but how would you like to work two days a week at my school?’ I told the man I’m enjoying laying in my bed. He said, ‘You don’t even have to come until 10-1.’ I said, ‘Man, I’m enjoying laying in my bed every day. Not having to get up in the morning.’ I love being in my shorts all day. I don’t want to be dressed anymore. I love doing what I’m doing right now. He said, ‘We’re going to keep going after you, Coach.’ I said, ‘Okay.’”
(One other thing – off topic of the ’72 Dolphins, but I know you did fundraisers in Virginia Beach and that was important to you. Have you followed up with what’s going on there with they’re now limiting the number of African-American commissioners or something at Virginia Beach?) – “No, I’m no longer involved in that project. My main focus right now is minority scholarships. And last year we gave away $41,000 in scholarships. $1,000 for 41 different students. Also I donated $20,000 to my alma mater, Bethune-Cookman College for scholarships. So this is what I’m focusing on right now.”
(So one of the cool things about the 72 team, the stats are crazy. Zero [losses], 2,000-yard rushers, most rushing yards by team in a season. But what I think has been the most interesting part of looking at all the history had been specific plays – the interceptions in the Super Bowl, the fake punts, things like that. Are there any kind of standout plays either that you feel like were great plays for you? Or plays that really stand out your memory when you think back on that season 50 years ago?) – “Well, we ran a play called Float 38. That was me pulling and Mercury (Morris) running behind me. And that’s where he gained most of his yards, on Float 38 running behind me.”
(And then another question that I think has been interesting is the difference in the game in 2022, versus 72. Particularly the difference in offensive line play?) – “Guys hold every play now. We couldn’t hold back then. We had to keep our hands inside, and they’d be – they could call a holding penalty on every play in every game if they wanted to, and they have a lot of fat guys playing now, too, and there’s a lot of belly bumping out there. I was big then, but I wasn’t fat. I’m kind of fat now.”
(And in some of your previous interviews on the subject, you talked about how important losing 20 pounds before that season was to help you kind of block on the outside. Could you talk a bit more about that?) – “Oh, well, Shula made me lose weight. When he came to Miami, I went to his press conference and after the press conference they introduced him. And I said, ‘Coach, my name is Larry Little. I’m your right guard.’ The first thing he said to me was, ‘How much do you weigh?’ I said 285. And he walked off. Didn’t say another word to me and when I got my letter and to come to training camp, the letter stated that ‘I want your weight to be 265 pounds.’ And at that time, I was still big for an offensive lineman compared to the style of the offensive lineman today. So you know, I worked out to keep my weight down and that helped me a lot. Because, like you said earlier, this sweltering heat down here in Miami, I could play a whole game without really getting really, really tired.”
(You touched on this a little bit talking about offensive line play I wanted to ask you just help us get into the mindset of an offensive lineman. Coming off of Tua’s injuries. He took those two big hits in those two games. He’s coming out of the concussion protocol. He’s going to be back out there on the field. Obviously, the linemen – your goal is to protect the quarterback on each and every play, but what’s going through their head now knowing he’s coming back from such an injury, knowing that they’re going to have to take that extra step to protect him even more after what he’s coming out of this concussion protocol?) – “I was told not to talk about that today.”
(Or maybe your thoughts just as a lineman in general after …?) – “Let me put it this way. It’s very similar to actually in 1972 when we lost about Bob Griese and Earl Morrall came in. And at the time Earl was 38 years old with no escape ability. And we knew we had to block a little harder and longer for Earl than we had to block for Bob. But then that year, Earl had the longest run from scrimmage out of any of our backs. Earl ran a 38-yard touchdown against New York Jets. So what your mindset is always to play hard. You knew you had to block off for your quarterback and we had to block that way for Earl more so than Bob. Not more so than Bob, but a little longer than Bob.”
So you’re conscious of that. In your head you’re thinking maybe a little bit more about who’s that back there under center at the time when you’re figuring out your game plan?) – “Not really. Just want to do the best job you can with what you have and no linemen like to get beat. It’s embarrassing and nowadays, too, and it started late in my career when they call your name out for holding. You don’t want to hear your name, ‘holding on No. 66.’ Oh no, goodness. No, you don’t want that. But playing offensive line, you have to have a lot of pride to be a good offensive lineman. You just can’t go out there and say I can’t – you have to have the mindset that you can’t let this guy in front of you beat you, and that’s what I had. I played some great defensive linemen, too – Mean Joe Green, Curley Culp, Mike Reid, Merlin Olsen. You have to go out there and say, ‘I’m not going to let this guy beat me because that’ll be embarrassing to me.’ It was embarrassing to me to get beat by anyone.”
(Give me your thoughts real quickly on – you mentioned earlier, “Wow, it’s been 50 years.” Are you surprised that no other team has been able to duplicate what you guys did 50 years ago. Tom Brady even just went out on social media and said bluntly football is hard. And not only is football hard, but going undefeated as he learned, he made it through the regular season but going undefeated and winning the Super Bowl. Are you surprised that no other teams have been able to do that over the last five decades?) – “Yes, I am. Like I said earlier, I never thought that we would be on top of the mountain by ourselves. I thought we would’ve been joined by someone else and it hasn’t happened.”
(In reading up and just learning more about the history of you know the 70s and the Orange Bowl specifically, I came to learn about Dolfan Denny, the superfan who’s in all orange and getting the crowd hyped up. I was just curious if you knew of him, if you noticed him while you were playing and just what impact he had hyping up the crowd back in the day?) – “I knew Dolfan Denny. I do know, too, that I believe he worked for Southern Bell with my sister, too. But I never paid that much attention to what he had when he was hyping up the crowd and not because my total concentration was on the game. But I knew of him for sure.”
(Could you tell that he really had an impact on getting the crowd hyped up when you guys were playing at home?) – “I think what really got the crowd hyped up that we noticed when they started you bringing out the white hankies. More so than Denny hyping up the crowd. I mean, at the Orange Bowl we’re seeing 80,000 people standing there waving those white handkerchiefs. I mean, that did a lot for us.”
(I wanted to ask you about Don Shula’s legacy. What does he mean to South Florida and the city of Miami?) – “Well, he is South Florida, although he wasn’t born and raised here. Shula is South Florida. What do you have a highway named after him? He had a hotel and country club named after him because of what he accomplished as a head coach and still being one of the head coach in the history of the NFL. And his legacy will always be around Miami, no matter how many years to come. If you want to know who Don Shula was and what he meant to not only Miami, South Florida.”
