Former Miami Dolphins tight end and colour commentator Jim Mandich dies due to bile duct cancer
Jim Mandich, former tight end for Miami Dolphins, died on Tuesday, April 26, 2011 due to bile duct cancer. He was 62 years old.
Mandich was part of the Dolphins when they became the only team to attain a perfect season in the 1970s, which means they won all of their regular season and postseason games as well as the Super Bowl. The Dolphins confirmed his death on Tuesday evening.
Mandich was diagnosed with bile duct cancer in early 2010 but he did not let the disease stop him from working on game broadcasts throughout the season.
While a tight end for the Dolphins, they won one Super Bowl in their perfect season and had a repeat performance the next year, winning another Super Bowl.
Mandich was born in Cleveland, Ohio on June 30, 1948. He graduated from Solon High School in Solon, Ohio and still holds the record for the discus throw and shot put. After he graduated from the University of Michigan, the Dolphins drafted him 29th
overall in the second round of the 1970 NFL Draft. Mandich played for Miami from 1970 to 1977 and then spent one year with the Pittsburgh Steelers before retiring.
Mandich’s best season came in 1974 when he had 33 receptions for 374 yards and six touchdowns. With the Steelers, he played for ten games but did not have a single reception.
Mandich was also known as “Mad Dog” on the radio, where he was a colour commentator for the Dolphins from 1992 to 2004 and then again from 2007 to 2010. He was also widely liked by the Dolphins fans for his undying support for the side, with his signature
call “All right, Miami!”
“I've played in a perfect season and in Super Bowls,” Mandich said in 2008. “But I'm proudest of playing for the maize and blue.”
The “maize and blue” refers to the University of Michigan’s college football team, the Wolverines. He was the captain at Michigan in 1969 and led the team to an appearance in the Rose Bowl, as well as a Big Ten Co-Championship. He was honoured with an induction
into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2004.
As Dolphins owner Steve Ross said, “There will never be another Jim Mandich.”
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