An Important Clue to Super Bowl VIII

By Joe Zagorski

On general observation, the result of Miami’s 24-7 victory over Minnesota in Super Bowl VIII was just your basic, run-of-the-mill thrashing from one great pro football team over a very good football team.  But upon a closer look, there was more to the Dolphins’ one-sided win than what met the eye.  

On January 13, 1974, the Miami offensive line enjoyed what could possibly have been their ultimate performance ever in blocking the stalwart Minnesota Purple Gang. Dolphins head coach Don Shula claimed his second straight Vince Lombardi Trophy, thanks in large part to his team’s rushing attack, which gained an impressive 196 total yards against the Vikings. Miami running back Larry Csonka, who won the Most Valuable Player award in Super Bowl VIII with 145 rushing yards and two touchdowns, was an eyewitness and a beneficiary of the strategies used by the Dolphins in that championship game.

But somewhat surprisingly, the origins of Super Bowl VIII actually began several years before the game, when Miami offensive guard Bob Kuechenberg and All-Pro Minnesota defensive tackle Alan Page were teammates at Notre Dame University in South Bend, Indiana. Both of those players would go up against each other in practice during their college years, and as luck would have it, Kuechenberg’s main responsibility in Super Bowl VIII would be to block his old Fighting Irish teammate.  

In a recent interview with Larry Csonka, the plan for blocking Page came from Kuechenberg’s own attention to detail. Kuechenberg saw that Page, even back in their college days, was giving away too much information. 

“We had great communication in Super Bowl VIII,” admitted Csonka. “Kuechenberg had been a freshman at Notre Dame when Alan Page played at Notre Dame. Well Kuechenberg spotted a tic that Page had.  When he was practicing as a freshman against Page, who was a senior or a junior…you know…a varsity player. Then he tried to tell Page about it.  Page just blew him off as a freshman, know-nothing. So, Kuechenberg tucked it in the back of his head and remembered it. And when we played Minnesota earlier in the ’72 season, he realized at that point, about halfway through that game, that Page still had that tell-tale, or tic. And so he took that information to (Miami offensive line coach) Monte Clark, and we started to use it a little bit in the second half of that game.”

The Dolphins managed to come from behind and defeat the Vikings in that 1972 contest, 16-14.  As a result of the success of what Kuechenberg noticed along the line of scrimmage, he felt that it (the clue) could be used again if he would ever go up against Alan Page again. As it turned out, Kuechenberg would indeed go up against Page again, in the biggest game of the year.

“And then by the time that we learned that they (the Vikings) were going to face us in the Super Bowl,” Csonka continued, “Monte Clark and Bob Kuechenberg sat down and worked out some calls…some numbers with quarterback Bob Griese.  And that’s when…well it led to me being the MVP, because I was carrying the ball behind them. But that was an ingredient that made a difference. Bob Griese would come to the line, and Kuechenberg would say whatever he had to say…whatever the code word was, when he was sure what Page’s alignment was going to be, because of the tic. And we went where he (Page) wasn’t”. 

The focus of Miami’s running game in Super Bowl VIII featured misdirection runs, where half of the offensive line and a decoy running back went one way, and the other half of the offensive line and the actual ball carrier went another way. It was a guessing game wherein Minnesota’s defense never seemed to guess correctly. Page and his teammates were often facing double-team blocks, and the sight of Csonka running into the Vikings’ defensive secondary became a common occurrence. Right from their very first offensive drive in the first quarter, the Dolphins’ offense established its dominance. Csonka carried the ball five times worth 36 yards in that 10-play drive, which culminated with his first touchdown on a 5-yard run.

The accomplishments of Miami’s rushing attack continued all game long. It was a vintage example of what the Dolphins did best during the early 1970s. They just crammed the ball right down the Vikings’ throats.  By the onset of the fourth quarter, the game’s outcome was decided, and Alan Page had reached the point of genuine frustration.

“Page became infuriated,” remembered Csonka, “and he almost got himself thrown out of the game, because he was going upside people’s heads…because he was so upset because he couldn’t figure out how we were beating him. We were constantly going where he wasn’t. And that’s his way. That’s a weakness, because he’s not being…he doesn’t have the discipline to pay attention to detail, and he’s giving away his path, by some form of the way he puts his hand down, or whatever it was.”

Page incurred two personal foul penalties late in the fourth quarter as Miami was running down the last few minutes of the game. The Dolphins would win their second straight Super Bowl and would establish themselves as a strong juggernaut pro team of the 1970s.  But one question remained: What was the clue that Kuechenberg originally noticed from Page way back on the campus of Notre Dame University?

“Kuechenberg never told me, and I didn’t care,” said Csonka.  “Because at that point, even after the Super Bowl, he never said anything about it. But I knew after the fact. But well after the fact. I knew that the plays were being changed for a reason. But Kuechenberg never told the rest of us that. He told Monte Clark, and Monte Clark put himself and Kuechenberg and Griese together, and they worked out a plan that worked very well.  We started running to a point where Page was leaving.  And that worked out very well.”

Indeed it did, to the tune of a big win in the biggest game of the year.

Sources Used: 

Interview with Larry Csonka on April 11, 2022.

Wiebusch, John.  The Super Bowl: Celebrating a Quarter-Century of America’s Greatest Game.  New York: Simon & Schuster, 1990.

Joe Zagorski is a member of the Pro Football Writers of America and the Pro Football Researchers Association.  He is currently writing a biography of former Miami Dolphins Hall of Fame offensive guard Larry Little.