By WAYNE STEWART
For MVI Sports
(Editor’s note: This is the second of a three-part series).
Offensive tackle Doug Crusan continued sharing his memories of teammates and opponents from his days in the NFL, all spent with the Miami Dolphins from 1968 to 1974.
He began with a short tale of how rugged fullback Larry Csonka was.
“I don’t know if Zonk ever out-ran anybody,” he said. “But he’d look around for people to hit. He just was that powerful with those powerful legs.”
Crusan moved on to two other Miami runners.
“Jim Kiick was a character. Funny. He and Zonk were best of friends, ‘Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid,’” Crusan said. “Kiick was a very good pass catcher coming out of the backfield and they threw to him a lot.
“And you had Merc (Mercury Morris), who would alternate with Kiick. He was quick, lightening fast with a great burst of speed. Quick to the outside. Remember now, you always had Csonka there. If you wanted to run inside, we had the person to do that for you. So Merc was used a lot for outside with his speed.”
To read the rest of the story, please see a copy of Thursday’s Mon Valley Independent, call 724-314-0035 to subscribe or subscribe to our online edition at http://monvalleyindependent.com.