RIP Jim Kiick | The Boneyard

RIP Jim Kiick

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University of Wyoming and Miami Dolphins running back Jim Kiick died in a Florida senior care facility today. Kiick was a member of the undefeated Dolphins squad and played many years with Csonka and Morris for Coach Shula. He was 73.
 

oldude

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University of Wyoming and Miami Dolphins running back Jim Kiick died in a Florida senior care facility today. Kiick was a member of the undefeated Dolphins squad and played many years with Csonka and Morris for Coach Shula. He was 73.
A member of one of the best backfields in history. Csonka would hammer teams inside, Morris would tear you up outside and Kiick would do a little bit of everything.
 
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Paul Toscano was the QB at Wyo with Kiick. He was a star and highly rated in Heisman, etc.
My roommate tried to get him to transfer to UConn after his freshman year, but the school wouldn't let him transfer. Good news for Wyoming. Kiick, Alderman, De Poyster, Toscano and others were drafted after Wyo's
greatest season.
 
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University of Wyoming and Miami Dolphins running back Jim Kiick died in a Florida senior care facility today. Kiick was a member of the undefeated Dolphins squad and played many years with Csonka and Morris for Coach Shula. He was 73.
Outstanding player. How sad that he has gone the way of so many football players at an early age. These guys played in an era where clotheslineing, head slapping, and head tackling was permissible and it was like writing a check to be paid at a later date.
 

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Kiick lost his job to Mercury Morris. The Butch and Sundance bit was obsolete pretty soon after it began.
 

oldude

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Kiick lost his job to Mercury Morris. The Butch and Sundance bit was obsolete pretty soon after it began.
While Kiick wasn’t a starter after Morris showed up, he remained a very important part of the Dolphins offense as a backup, particularly on 3rd down in passing situations. During his career Kiick caught 233 passes for over 2000 yds.
 
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oldude

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Part of Dolphins backfield that made NFL history by having three three RB’s rush for 1,000 yards or more in a single season. Csonka, Morris and Kiick. #greatness
Kiick’s highest rushing total was in 1971 when he ran for 738 yds.
 
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In my youth my father took me to an Army football game against Wyoming at West Point. Wyoming ran the ball up and down the field all game and kept fumbling inside the Army ten yard line. It had rained that day, and dad told me Wyoming had this great running back named Jim Kiick. Army was totally outplayed and yet won. Alzheimer’s at his age? Wow.
 
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University of Wyoming and Miami Dolphins running back Jim Kiick died in a Florida senior care facility today. Kiick was a member of the undefeated Dolphins squad and played many years with Csonka and Morris for Coach Shula. He was 73.

How ironic that the University of Wyoming football program of the 60's comes up via the passing of one of its better known alums.
Two years after Kiick's last year at Wyoming, the football coach, Lloyd Eaton, kicked all 14 black members of the squad off of the team for requesting to wear black armbands against Brigham Young. Wyoming was a major program at the time, but with the suspensions fell precipitously off of the football landscape from which it would take decades to recover. It took the university 50 years to offer a formal apology to the dismissed players.
 

Dove

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How ironic that the University of Wyoming football program of the 60's comes up via the passing of one of its better known alums.
Two years after Kiick's last year at Wyoming, the football coach, Lloyd Eaton, kicked all 14 black members of the squad off of the team for requesting to wear black armbands against Brigham Young. Wyoming was a major program at the time, but with the suspensions fell precipitously off of the football landscape from which it would take decades to recover. It took the university 50 years to offer a formal apology to the dismissed players.
Why did they want to wear black arm bands?
 

oldude

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Why did they want to wear black arm bands?
The players had wanted to show solidarity against racism at a time when protests were frequent on college campuses.
 
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In my youth my father took me to an Army football game against Wyoming at West Point. Wyoming ran the ball up and down the field all game and kept fumbling inside the Army ten yard line. It had rained that day, and dad told me Wyoming had this great running back named Jim Kiick. Army was totally outplayed and yet won. Alzheimer’s at his age? Wow.
I was also at that game. At the time, I was in the West Point Band.
 

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Paul Toscano was the QB at Wyo with Kiick. He was a star and highly rated in Heisman, etc.
My roommate tried to get him to transfer to UConn after his freshman year, but the school wouldn't let him transfer. Good news for Wyoming. Kiick, Alderman, De Poyster, Toscano and others were drafted after Wyo's
greatest season.
A Wyoming player on the 1968 team was Dennis Devlin. He went to grade school a few years ahead of me. He was a defensive standout and played great game in the Sugar Bowl against LSU. I recall that he was drafted by the then Boston Patriots in 1969.
 
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Jim grew up in the great little town of Lincoln Park, NJ, as did I. We would play pickup football games between the "upper end" and "lower end" of Lincoln Park. Jim was younger and smaller than everyone else, but hit harder than anyone else. I was coaching the Boonton H.S. basketball team when Jim came back after his first year at Wyoming to play in the alumni game. He put on a bit of a show, dunking in the warmup line. He also was a very good baseball player; he played some summer ball there in North Jersey with Richie Zisk, who went on to hit a few homers for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Just a great athlete, and really a quiet, unassuming guy. Have to think that his dementia had to be linked to all the punishment his head took from throwing all those blocks for Csonka. According to Jim's daughter Allie( who is a professional tennis player)Jim's brain has been donated for CTE research.
 
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Why did they want to wear black arm bands?

Because of incidents that occurred in the previous season's game against Brigham Young University and because the Mormon church excluded blacks from leadership positions within the church.
 

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