Bill Arnsparger designed the first four Dolphins Super Bowl defenses — the No Name Defense of the three 1970s Super teams and The Killer Bs that carried the 1982 Dolphins into the Super Bowl. In fact, of the first eight Super Bowls, five had defenses with Arnsparger’s fingerprints. Arnsparger died Friday at 88.

Over 14 seasons, Arnsparger did two turns as what today would be called “defensive coordinator” for the Dolphins. His first three seasons, he was the “assistant coach in charge of defense and linebackers.” In 1973 and from 1976 to ’83, he carried the title “assistant head coach/defense,” a strong indication of his value, seeing as how the head coach was all-time NFL wins leader Don Shula.

The Dolphins ranked in the NFL’s top five defensively five times under Arnsparger, and, twice, No. 1 — the 1972 17-0 Perfect Season and 1982. There’s a direct line from Arnsparger’s “53 defense,” so named for the situational use of No. 53, linebacker Bob Matheson, as a fourth linebacker in the early 1970s to the 3-4 defenses that became popular later in the decade and remain common today.

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That and if they held on to George Young/Bobby Beathard to run drafts/personnel.