Larry Seiple, member of Dolphins unbeaten team of 1972, once tried the PBA Tour

Larry Seiple, member of Dolphins
unbeaten team of 1972, once tried the PBA Tour

By Dick Evans

Larry Seiple joined the Miami Dolphins as a seventh-round draft pick out of Kentucky in 1967, one year after the Dolphins began play in the Orange Bowl.

Before his Dolphin career ended in 1978, he had played on two Super Bowl championship teams and was instrumental in the Dolphins unbeaten season in 1972 when he ran 37 yards from punt formation - a play that sparked the Dolphins to an AFL playoff victory over the Steelers.

Seiple also saw some action as a tight end, wide receiver and even practiced as a strong safety, although he never lined up there in a game.

Every blue-blood Dolphin fan in America knows about Seiple’s dramatic fake-punt run, but few know that he once gave the Professional Bowlers Association Tour a shot.

"I played in the NFL in front of 80,000 screaming fans and I never had been as nervous as I was bowling in two PBA tournaments. It was the most difficult individual sport I have attempted to master in my life," said Seiple, who is now an avid golfer in his retirement years.

"Obviously I did not get it accomplished in bowling. I strongly believe that a PBA member has a tremendous amount of athletic ability, through hand-eye coordination and body control."

Few people in Miami knew that Seiple gave the bowling tour a shot and even fewer Dolphin teammates knew about it.

"Only one or two players knew of my attempt to bowl, I really didn’t broadcast it in Miami," he said.

Larry said he began bowling because his wife Trudy started in 1970 and two years later - the unbeaten season - she was pushing him to join her on the lanes.

"It was either join her or divorce her," he said with a laugh.

A natural athlete, he quickly became proficient at a tough scoring sport that brought many people to their knees, bowling a 289 game and a 668 set while maintaining a 195 average.

That’s when PBA Hall of Fame bowlers and Miami residents Dave Davis and Billy Hardwick took an interest in Seiple.

"They conned me into bowling on the tour," Seiple said. "They thought I could help draw more and higher purses."

Certainly those two giant Super Bowl rings were attractions, even to the pro bowlers.

"In tournaments in Las Vegas and Kansas City I crossed (moved lane-to-lane together) with legendary Dick Weber and colorful Carmen Salvino. How do you think I did," Seiple asked. "By the end of the tournaments I was 400 under (400 pins below a 200 average) and it might have been more."

When Hardwick had to return to Miami after the death of his mother-in-law, Seiple was right behind him.

"His absence gave me a good reason to get out of the PBA," Seiple said.

After his Dolphins playing days were over, Seiple coached one year at the University of Miami, five years with the Detroit Lions, two years with the Tampa Bay Bucs, 12 years with the Dolphins and five years at Florida Atlantic University.

Husband and wife watched the PBA telecasts on Saturdays and Sundays until they gave up bowling.

"We both stopped bowling in 1995, me because of my knees and Trudy because her knees and shoulders," Seiple said.

Now he spends his Sundays watching NFL games.

"I bleed aqua and orange and do feel badly for today’s Dolphins players because I know how those losses affect a team from my early years with the Dolphins.

"Our 1972 Dolphin team had a great run and we are celebrating our 35th year of being undefeated. I do not feel the Patriots will go undefeated this season, but if they do, all they can do is tie us no matter what anybody says. And, we were the first to do it."

Thanks in part to that fake punt he ran against the Steelers.