Perfect Season Nearly Passed Yepremian Over

For the first and only time in major sports, a team achieved a perfect season, 26 years ago today.

The Miami Dolphins came to the Coliseum for the seventh Super Bowl with a 16-0 record and left at 17-0. They beat the Washington Redskins, 14-7, in a game remembered more today for an atrocious play by their kicker, Garo Yepremian, than for anything the teams’ stars accomplished.

The Dolphins seemed on their way to a 21-0 lead late in the game when a Miami drive stalled at midfield. On came Miami’s 5-foot-8 Cypriot kicker, Yepremian. His field-goal attempt was blocked, he picked up the loose ball, then threw the ugliest-looking pass in NFL history.

Mike Bass intercepted it and ran 49 yards for the Redskins’ only touchdown, flattening Yepremian in the process. Luckily for Miami and its 155-pound kicker, only two minutes remained.

The Redskins got the ball back with seconds remaining and a chance for a tie. But Miami defensive linemen Bill Stanfill and Vern Den Herder, on the game’s final play, sacked Washington quarterback Billy Kilmer for a nine-yard loss and the perfect season was in the books.

Happiest of all, of course, was Yepremian.

“I thought I’d given the game away,” he said afterward. “I prayed hard and God came through for me.”

Also on this date: In 1932, jockey Eddie Arcaro, 0 for 90 to start his riding career, finally brought home a winner at Caliente.