Flipper was a mascot for the

Miami Dolphins The Miami Dolphins are a professional American football team based in the Miami metropolitan area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member team of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. The team pla ...

from 1966 to 1968. She was situated in a fish tank in the open (east) end of the

Orange Bowl The Orange Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game played in the Miami metropolitan area. It has been played annually since January 1, 1935, making it, along with the Sugar Bowl and the Sun Bowl, the second-oldest bowl game in th ...

, and was trained to jump in the tank when a touchdown or field goal was scored.

History

From 1964 to 1967 NBC aired a popular series starring a dolphin named " Flipper," which was set in southeast Florida and the Bahamas. The Dolphins used in the show lived at the Seaquarium on Key Biscayne. There were four different dolphins who played Flipper named Susie, Kathy, Patty, and Squirt. In 1966, The

became an expansion franchise in the

American Football League The American Football League (AFL) was a major professional American football league that operated for ten seasons from 1960 until 1970, when it merged with the older National Football League (NFL), and became the American Football Conference. ...

. Given the location, team name, and popularity of the TV show, it was decided that the new team mascot would be named "Flipper", and they would use a live Dolphin from the show as the team mascot. Team owner

Joe Robbie Joseph Robbie (July 7, 1916 – January 7, 1990) was an American attorney, politician, and the principal founder of the Miami Dolphins. Early life Robbie was raised in Sisseton, South Dakota, the second of five children. His father was a Lebanes ...

struck a deal with both the

City of Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at t ...

and the

Miami Seaquarium The Miami Seaquarium is a oceanarium located on the island of Virginia Key in Biscayne Bay, Miami-Dade County, Florida located near downtown Miami. Founded in 1955, it is one of the oldest oceanariums in the United States. In addition to marin ...

to have one of the dolphins perform at home games. This required transporting the aquatic mammal to and from the game each Sunday. It was decided that Patty would be the dolphin used because she was comfortable travelling while the others were not. Following the 1968 season, "Flipper" was no longer used as the team mascot. Owner Joe Robbie decided to cut ties with the mascot because both the City of Miami and the Seaquarium decided they would not continue to pay for tank repairs and transportation costs.

References

National Football League mascots Miami Dolphins Animal mascots Mascots introduced in 1966 1966 establishments in Florida {{Miami-stub