Firebirds stint drove Dolbin to NFL career
Editor’s note: First in a series profiling former players for the Pottstown/Pennsylvania Firebirds minor-league football franchise that was situated in the Pottstown community for the three years between 1968 and 1970. The Firebirds, a “farm” team for the National Football League’s Philadelphia Eagles, achieved fame by winning Atlantic Coast Football League championships in 1969 and 1970 before it was merged into another ACFL franchise the next year.
It’s no exaggeration to say, in terms of his athletic and vocational pursuits, John Tice “Jack” Dolbin had a most unique life.
How many players made it to the National Football League by working their ways through minor leagues, not to mention short-lived entities like the World Football League?
How many of those players got to play in Super Bowls during their pro careers?
How many of them studied for, and became, medical professionals? And how many of them used their medical skills to help a teammate recover from injuries in sufficient fashion to be able to play for an NFL championship?
Jack Dolbin qualified on all those counts.
A key part of his legacy was forged locally, the Pottsville native spending the 1970 football season as a member of the Pennsylvania Firebirds minorleague franchise and helping it win a second straight Atlantic Coast Football League championship.
The pinnacle of Dolbin’s athletic career was the five years (1975-79) he played for the National Football League’s Denver Broncos, which included an appearance in Super Bowl XII. But Dolbin, who died in 2019 at age 70, considered his season with the Firebirds a memorable one.
Josh Dolbin, Jack’s son and one of his four children, recalled how his father talked about the Firebirds “all the time.”
“There was no doubt he would have gone back to Pottstown,” Josh said. “He spoke fondly of Pottstown and his time there.”
Jack played college ball for Wake Forest University, graduating from
the North Carolina school in 1969. Injuries sustained during his college time — an ankle his sophomore year, a knee as a senior — factored in his not getting drafted by any NFL teams.
So he landed in Pottstown at the urging of Firebird head offensive coach Ron Waller. Listed as a split end, Dolbin’s statistical output included 42 receptions for 757 yards (18.0 ypc) and five touchdowns, helping Pottstown go 11-1 and win the ACFL championship over the Hartford Knights, 31-0, on Dec. 12, 1970.
From Pottstown, Dolbin’s next stop was the World Football League’s Chicago Fire in 1974. He had 54 receptions for 942 yards — an average just under 17.5 per catch — and seven touchdowns for the Fire, which underwent a name change (Winds) but lasted only five games into 1975.
Better times awaited Dolbin, however. He made the Broncos’ roster in 1975 — he was a 26-year-old rookie — and stuck with the American Football Conference franchise five years. He started for the Broncos in Super Bowl XII (1977).
Dolbin played in 62 consecutive games for the Broncos (starting 33) during his tenure with the team. For his NFL career, he had 94 catches accounting for 1,576 yards and seven touchdowns; the 1977 Super Bowl season saw him compile career highs in receptions (26) and yards (443) and match his best in touchdowns (three).
Denver had a combined 47-27 record in Jack’s time with the team, and it posted winning records the last four years he was a Bronco.
A graduate of the National College of Chiropractic who became a nationally recognized expert on chiropractic and sports, Dolbin holds a unique place in Bronco history.
Prior to Denver’s AFC championship game against the Oakland Raiders in 1977, quarterback Craig Morton spent the week in the hospital with a hip injury suffered in the AFC Divisional Game win over Pittsburgh.
“The doctors kept trying to drain my leg, but they were not having much success,” Morton noted in a Dec. 30, 2020 interview with Broncos team historian Jim Saccomano. “My hip pointer just kept hemorrhaging, and my leg got about two inches filled with blood all over. It was just completely filled with blood and nothing could happen.
“Not only did I have to go in (hospital), but I was there a week. I went in, and then I never practiced for the Raiders. I just stayed in the hospital. Red (Miller, head coach) had practices closed. Nobody knew I was not there.”
Fortunately for Morton, Dolbin was there offering his chiropractic expertise.
“Physicians frowned on him getting involved in my treatment, but hey, I needed to play,” Morton said. “Jack would come to the hospital and perform a galvanic stimulation on me, which was the new machine ... something he knew about because of being a chiropractor.
“He tried to get the blood circulating, and nothing was really working. Jack was doing treatments on me the previous weeks also, and they really helped a lot. I’d go over to his house and not tell any of the doctors anything because they thought it was quackery.
“But we did it regardless, and it helped. Then, when my leg got so full of blood, the only thing they tried to do was put needles in there and tried to extract the blood, but it wasn’t working. This is all week long in the hospital. But Jack’s consideration and work on me was as valuable as what I received from the doctors.
“Plus, Jack was a wonderful man, my teammate, and everything he did was from his heart with his chiropractic training.”
Dolbin’s expertise in his field helped get Morton able to play in Denver’s 20-17 victory over the Raiders Jan. 1, 1978. It got the Broncos to Super Bowl XII, which ended up a 27-10 victory by the Dallas Cowboys.
When he retired from football to focus on his chiropractic practice, Dolbin boasted the distinction of having earned championship rings from both the NFL and semi-pro football. Saccomano noted Jack once told him, “Jim, I am as proud of my Pottstown Firebirds ring as I am of my AFC Championship ring.”
The elder Dolbin could be fiercely protective of the quality of play exhibited at the semi-pro level. Josh recalled an instance of this when his father was in Denver’s training camp and a player jumped offside during a drill.
“One of the assistant coaches addressed the player, telling him ‘this isn’t Pottstown,” he said. “Dad responded with ‘We didn’t play that way in Pottstown. We played real football.’”
Dolbin’s play at the minor-league level got him inducted into the SemiPro Football Hall of Fame in 1985. In addition to the Firebirds, he logged time with the Pottsville-based Schuylkill County Coal Crackers of the Seaboard Football League, which started in 1971 and ultimately folded in 1974 due to the founding of the WFL. The Coal Crackers were league champion in 1971, blanking the Hagerstown Bears 13-0.
Dolbin’s wife, Jane (Barnes) Dolbin, was involved in athletic endeavors at the collegiate level. She participated in gymnastics and cheerleading at Wake Forest. prior to marrying Jack in June 1970.
Jack and Jane presided over a family of four children who were also college athletes.
Josh, the lone son of the family and oldest offspring, played football at Villanova University and spent time as a free-agent acquisition of the Eagles during the last season of Ray Rhodes’ head-coaching term. Among the girls, Jill (Dolbin) Pillus attended the University of Pittsburgh on a diving scholarship, Rachel (Dolbin) Schreiner got a gymnastics scholarship to the University of Maryland and Christian Dolbin competed in track and field off a partial scholarship from Auburn University.
“He never pushed athletics,” Josh recalled, “but he was proud of what we did. He wanted us to do the best we could do.”
In that vein, Josh remembered the dim view his father took of modern-day football players engaging in over-the-top celebrations when they scored touchdowns or made great plays.
“He was ‘Don’t be a showoff, just catch the football’,” Josh said.
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The Firebird Memorial Project recently got a big boost in support of the campaign to have a tangible acknowledgement of the standout semi-pro football team’s achievements while based in Pottstown in the late 1960s.
John Katch, a former ballboy for the Firebirds and a driving force behind the project, noted a former local business man has promised to donate $3,000.00 for a sign to commemorate the Firebird achievements.
“Upon approval by Borough Council, and a spot for a 3x5 foot sign, he will pay the sign company,” Katch noted.
And a Change.org petition soliciting support for the project collected 189 signatures as of Jan. 17. 200 signatures is the immediate goal being sought for the petition.