Kuechenberg, guard for 17-0 Dolphins, dies at 71
MIAMI — Bob Kuechenberg, an All-Pro guard on the Miami Dolphins’ Super Bowl offensive lines of the 1970s, died Saturday at age 71, the team said Sunday.
Kuechenberg was born in Gary, Ind., and played at Hobart High School, then Notre Dame. He signed with the Dolphins in 1970, the year Don Shula took over, after being a Philadelphia thirdround pick in 1969 and quitting to play semi-pro football for a season. He quickly became a key piece of one of the great offensive lines in NFL history as the Dolphins’ powerful run game led the team to three consecutive Super Bowls and two Super Bowl wins in Shula’s first four seasons.
In a 15-year career, Kuechenberg started in four Super Bowls, made the Pro Bowl six times and was first or second team All-Pro three times.
In a statement released by the Dolphins, Shula called Kuechenberg, “not only one of the best players I coached, but one of the toughest as well” and noted “Kooch” got called for holding only 15 times in 14 seasons of playing. (Kuechenberg’s final season was spent on injured reserve.)
Shula also reiterated a call for Kuechenberg to be honored with a Pro Football Hall of Fame induction.
The 1970s Dolphins offensive line was the first to block for two 1,000-yard rushers in a single season (Mercury Morris and Larry Csonka for the 17-0 1972 Dolphins, Super Bowl champions). The next season, the line was so dominant that the Dolphins threw 13 passes combined while winning the AFC championship and Super Bowl, each by 17 points.
Kuechenberg’s death came one day before the 45th anniversary of what’s arguably the greatest performance by an offensive line in a Super Bowl. Exactly 45 years before Sunday, the Dolphins mauled the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl VIII, 24-7. Bob Griese had to throw seven passes all day.
Despite playing with a broken arm, Kuechenberg owned Vikings defensive tackle Alan Page, then considered one of the NFL’s top two defensive tackles along with the Steelers’ “Mean Joe” Greene. Larry Csonka trucked the Vikings for 145 yards. The Dolphins took a 14-0 lead after two possessions and rumbled home.
In a nod to the offensive line’s performance, NFL Films’ official Super Bowl VIII highlight film actually focused on the line’s blocking schemes.
“Bob was my roommate for 10 years. He was like a brother,” center Jim Langer said. “You always hear about what kind of man you want to have next to you in the foxhole and it was Kooch. [Offensive line coach] Monte [Clark], Larry Little, the whole offensive line, we were pretty intense guys. There was no one more intense on what that team was about than Kooch.”
From that line, Pro Football Hall of Fame selectors picked Little and Langer for induction while repeatedly rejecting Kuechenberg at either the finalist or semifinalist level. That became a source of humor for some journalists, grumpiness from Kuechenberg and disgust from some former teammates and opponents.
“Kooch, along with Larry Little and Jim Langer, were the three biggest reasons for my development and many others as better players,” said Dolphins nose tackle Bob Baumhower. “They were absolutely the best interior offensive line in the NFL. Kooch was a tough, talented and smart leader playing offensive guard. After practicing against Kooch every day, playing in the games was a picnic.”
When football writer Paul Zimmerman researched a 1981 Sports Illustrated story on still-active New England Patriots’ guard John Hannah possibly being the best offensive lineman ever, he reached out to Shula:
“Don Shula, who coached [Colts Hall of Famer Jim] Parker for five years and has coached against Hannah for eight, gives Parker a slight edge, but then he whispers, ‘Don’t forget about our own guy, Bob Kuechenberg.’”