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GR: So let's jump into the into the Dolphins now. As we mentioned in the intro you've authored two amazing books regarding the undefeated 1972 Miami Dolphins.
There's Still Perfect: The Untold Story; of that team and then Perfection with Bob Griese. How did those two masterpieces come about? Did the team come to you? Was it your idea to write them? Did Dick Anderson or somebody from that team come to you or how did how did that all unfold?
DH: I came here in 85 and worked for the Miami Herald for five years, and then I was a columnist. And in that time, you can't help but hear about the 72 Dolphins, and I'd done stories on these guys, and these were amazing personalities. I'm thinking as a writer, you know, they're not only characters, but they're full of stories, And, it's at the right time in their lives where they'll tell you all their stories.
They're far enough away from their playing careers and they have such good stories to tell that I thought, you know, I looked and no one had done a book on 'em. And now here we are. We're going to be 30 years removed from it. And I thought I want to do a book on these guys.
So I started, I just went down a list, started calling one of them and interviewing them and met with Mercury Morris at a restaurant in South Miami and Bob Kuechenberg at the Hotel in Hollywood. And I talked to guys on the phone for a couple hours and everybody was great with their time. I went up to Cairo, Georgia and saw Bill Stanfill and they're paying the cost of playing football, like Bill Stanfill. He'd have a can of soda on his desk and it'd be half full. And that's all he could drink because he couldn't tilt his neck any further back because it was fused from playing football. So, all these guys, but they all had incredible stories to tell about that season and that team. And, I just saw it as a writer. I thought, boy, this would be a great thing to put together. And coach Don Shula was all for it once he agreed to write the forward, so it made column material for years and years, including the one guy who wouldn't talk for the story, and that was Jake Scott. So I told our editors, look, this guy lives in Hawaii. And in fact, I asked Jim Mandich, since he was good friends with Jake. Hey, can you set me up with an interview? I can't get him. And he said. "Howard Cosell, the New York Times." He went through all these guys who come to him through the years trying to get him, he won't talk. So I told my editor, Hey, if we ever get any extra money, send me to Hawaii and I'll try to find Jake Scott. And he goes, oh yeah, send you to Hawaii. Sure. Well, about three years later, my editor, Brian White, had a change of heart.
He became the sports editor and he said, hey. We're going to send you to Hawaii to find Jake Scott and I found his address and I drove in there and some guy was in the driveway getting in an SUV. And I said, "Jake?", because I didn't know what he looked like exactly. And he goes, no, Jake's up in the house. So I went knocked on the door. here came Jake Scott through the door. And, he goes, I don't want a story done on me. Don't want a story. And we talked for a few minutes. He goes, I tell you what, meet me at this bar in Hanalei Hawaii at five o'clock and I walked in there and there he is sitting at the bar and if you ever watch the movie The Descendants with George Clooney, Beau Bridges is sitting in the seat Jake sat every day at five o'clock and the two people on either side of him are the people Jake sat with every day at five o'clock.
I walked out of that bar at 2:30 in the morning with a story. So, he was great.
