Dan Marino

Daniel Constantine Marino Jr. was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on September 15, 1961. Dan was the oldest and only boy out of three, his sisters are named Cindi and Debbie. Dan grew up in the Oakland neighborhood in Pittsburgh, where his dad was a newspaper deliverer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. In the 1970’s Dan was one of the Pittsburgh Steelers biggest fans.

Dan grew up and became an All-Star quarterback at the Central Catholic High School in Pittsburgh. He also was a great pitcher in High School because he had a great arm, and because of that the Kansas City Royals drafted him in 1978. But Dan wanted to play football, so he returned to Pittsburgh and took the 35,000 dollar signing bonus with him.

Dan went to the University of Pittsburgh in 1979. Halfway into his freshman year he was his team’s starting quarterback. In college Dan had set many NCAA records for passing, yardage, touchdowns, completions, and career attempts. He had also won a lot of rewards, so he had graduated from the college in 1982. Hearing rumors of drug use, that were not proven, Dan’s stock fell in the 1983 draft. Dan was later signed to the Miami Dolphins where coach Don Shula selected Dan with the 27th overall selection.

With five other quarterbacks in front of him, he proved to Don that he was the best of all of them. During his rookie year he had thrown 20 touchdowns and led the Dolphins to a 12-4 record. In the Pro Bowl he was named the first quarterback to start in his rookie year.

The next season was Dan’s best with 5,084 yards with 48 touchdowns, that year Dan had made a new record for having 362 completions. During that season Dan and the Miami Dolphins went to the Super Bowl where they lost to the San Francisco 49ers 38-16. After that championship, Dan was found one of the NFL’s best passers during his 17 year career and he was named to the Pro Bowl nine times. At the end of his football career, Dan had a total of 61,361 yards, 8,358 attempts, 4,967 completions, and 420 touchdowns.

In 1993 Dan Marino had played in the hit movie Ace Ventura: Pet Detective and in 1997 he was a NASCAR Winston Cup team co-owner.