About 'wesleyan university football'|Wesleyan respecting the Community: Respect Is Earned. A Commentary.
While there are many divisions between East River and West River in South Dakota -- political, social and cowboy hat vs. seed corn cap -- one obvious difference is NFL teams. Most people on the east side of South Dakota are long-suffering Minnesota Vikings fans. They love and loathe their Vikings, who are still seeking their first NFL championship. On the western side, the Denver Broncos are the team of choice. People still fondly recall John Elway and the thrills and two Super Bowl titles he delivered to them. Sure, there's a pocket of Green Bay Packers fans, and you can find some Kansas City Chiefs here and there. Most if not every other team has at least a few supporters in South Dakota as well. But maybe there should be a lot more Miami Dolphin fans. The Florida Fins have been to five Super Bowls, and won a pair. They're one of the greatest teams in league history, with a long, glorious history. More importantly, the team wouldn't even exist without the efforts of three South Dakota natives. It's true. There would be no Dolphins, no undefeated 1972 team, no legend of Csonka, Kiick, Morris, Warfield, Griese and the No Name Defense without the efforts of three guys from a state without an NFL franchise. When the American Football League was founded in 1959, former South Dakota Gov. Joe Foss, who had been defeated in a bid for a congressional seat by George McGovern in 1958, was named commissioner. Foss didn't have an extensive football background, but the charismatic, ruggedly handsome World War II veteran and Congressional Medal of Honor winner was a national hero for his aerial exploits during the war. He took the helm of the league, at least publicly, and helped build it into a true competitor with the older, more-established NFL. There was no team in Miami then, but in 1965 Foss was contacted by an old friend from South Dakota named Joe Robbie, a lawyer, politician and all-around hustler. Robbie wanted to put a team in Miami, and Foss agreed to grant an expansion franchise to his former University of South Dakota Law School classmate. Robbie didn't have much money, but he had connections. He was of Lebanese ancestry, as was TV and nightclub staf Danny Thomas. The two men agreed to forge a partnership to get a team in Miami in time for the 1966 season. Robbie, a Sisseton native, had served as a lawyer in Mitchell, and also taught at Dakota Wesleyan University, where he met and befriended McGovern. Robbie was the Democratic candidate for governor in 1950, but he lost, and soon moved to Minnesota. Once there, he became close to Sen. Hubert Humphrey, like Robbie a South Dakota native who had moved to the neighboring state. In the mid-1960s, Humphrey was the vice president of the United States, and he had contacts everywhere. He helped Robbie obtain bank loans and support to get the Dolphins up and running. Although Foss was a Republican, he didn't let partisan differences get in the way of helping out a fellow South Dakota native. Before he stepped down as AFL commissioner in 1966, Foss made sure Robbie and Thomas were given the Miami franchise. For years, Robbie was a local joke, and a subject of national media disdain. The Dolphins were a losing team in a second-rate league, and Robbie was perennially underfunded. The team limped along, drawing small crowds and barely making its payroll. But when Don Shula left the Baltimore Colts in the wake of his team's startling upset loss to Joe Namath and the New York Jets in Super Bowl III, Robbie landed the young coach, and gave him control of the team. Shula immediately turned things around, and soon had the team in three straight Super Bowls, winning the last two. Robbie became a multi-millionaire, and the Dolphins played in a stadium named for him. There was yet another South Dakota tie to the team then. Its All-Pro center, Jim Langer, was a South Dakota State University graduate. Langer was a star football and baseball player at SDSU, and still attends Jackrabbit games. His grandson, Cole Langer, will play linebacker for the Jacks this fall. Langer made the Pro Football Hall of Fame after his 12-year career came to a close. He played 10 years for the Dolphins, and wrapped up his career with two seasons with the Vikings. The '72 Dolphins remain the only NFL team to post a perfect record and win a Super Bowl. But unlike most championship teams, they were never given a White House reception. They won their title in 1973, defeating the Washington Redskins, 14-7. The Redskins' No. 1 fan was President Richard Nixon, who had just defeated McGovern in the 1972 election. Robbie, of course, had been a strong supporter of the South Dakota senator during the campaign. So after the Dolphins won the title, they waited for an invite to the White House. It never came, as Nixon became more and more embroiled in the Watergate scandal. Finally, after 40 years, on Aug. 20 of this year, that oversight was rectified. President Barack Obama invited the team to the White House, both to recognize Shula and his players for that unblemished season, and to curry a little favor with Florida voters. But Langer, along with teammates Bob Kuechenberg and Manny Fernandez, skipped the belated trip to the White House. "We've got some real moral compass issues in Washington. I don't want to be in a room with those people and pretend I'm having a good time. I can't do that," Langer said. "If that (angers) people, so be it." That's in keeping with how most South Dakotans feel about Obama, but I bet a lot of them would still attend a White House ceremony to honor them for a great accomplishment. I think that's how Foss, Robbie and Humphrey would want it, too. |
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