The 100 Greatest Plays in Dolphins History: No. 30
To help count down the days to the start of the Miami Dolphins regular season last year, we marked each day with the corresponding jersey number and came up with the three best players to wear that number.
This year, we're counting down to the start of the regular season with a countdown of the top 100 plays in Dolphins history.
Given that the Dolphins have played 849 regular season games and 41 more in the playoffs, it's an awfully difficult task to narrow things down to 100 plays and then rank them. The plays selected were ranked on the basis of difficulty, uniqueness, immediate and long-lasting impact and historical significance.
The countdown initially appeared in Dolphin Digest in 2019 but has been updated.
We continue with No. 30:
No. 30: Fulton Walker's kickoff return for a touchdown in Super Bowl XVII
Setting the stage: In the strike-shortened 1982 season, the Dolphins reached the Super Bowl with playoff victories against the New England Patriots, San Diego Chargers and New York Jets before facing Washington at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. The Dolphins were led by the Killer B's defense, but they came up short on this day despite two big plays.
The play: After Jimmy Cefalo's 76-yard touchdown catch opened the scoring, Washington later tied the score 10-10 on a 4-yard pass from Joe Theismann to Alvin Garrett. Thirteen seconds later, the Dolphins were leading again thanks to Fulton Walker. The second-year sixth-round pick made NFL history when he became the first player to return a kickoff for a touchdown, going 98 yards to put the Dolphins back on top 17-10. Walker fielded the kickoff on the right before running across the field and then cutting upfield. Unfortunately, that was all the scoring the Dolphins would produce and Washington would come back to win 27-17.
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Alain Poupart has covered the Miami Dolphins on a full-time basis since 1989. You can follow him on Twitter at @PoupartNFL. Feel free to submit questions every Friday for the All Dolphins mailbag.
