Twenty Years Ago the Miami Dolphins Cheerleader Calendar Debuted
By Ben Crandell
SouthFlorida.com
It’s been 20 years since Marcy Crowe quickened the pulse of the men of South Florida with something they had never seen before: a Miami Dolphins Cheerleaders swimsuit calendar.
Crowe, then Marcy Kislia, a Florida State graduate from Boca Raton, was the first cover model for the publication that has become a much-anticipated rite of the season.
Such is the interest in the calendar now that the team has created an event around the unveiling, which for this year’s 20th calendar takes place on Friday at the remodeled Sun Life Stadium. Highlighted by a swimsuit fashion show, proceeds from the evening will help fund the high-profile charity work of the Miami Dolphins Foundation.
Marcy Crowe in a photo taken for the first Miami Dolphins Cheerleaders calendar, which debuted 20 years ago.
“Everything is so much bigger and better and brighter since I was there,” Crowe, 42, says.
There was no calendar when Dorie Grogan, who now carries the title of senior director of entertainment and brand impact for the squad, arrived after five years as a cheerleader with the Dallas Cowboys. The calendar was her idea, and she organized the photo shoots around Miami, but no one was sure anything would come of it, Crowe says.
One day Grogan walked into the cheerleaders’ stadium studio with an armful of calendars and handed them out to the women seated on the floor, Crowe says. If that unveiling lacked the pomp and glamour of this weekend’s affair, the cheerleaders then were no less happy.
“We weren’t sure if it was going to happen, and she made it happen. The quality is not at all what they are now, but it was just exciting that we even had one,” says Crowe, also “very excited” to be attending Friday night’s event.
Crowe, later a choreographer with the squad, went on to get a master’s degree in education from Florida Atlantic University and is now a stay-at-home mother of three boys, ages 11, 9 and 6. She doesn’t talk much about her cheerleading days, in the same way her husband, Andy, doesn’t wear the 1993 national championship ring he received as an FSU football player (a center and long snapper, he later played in the NFL with the Chicago Bears).
But she’s not shy about pointing out the hard work the cheerleaders are putting in on the sidelines when the family is watching Dolphins and FSU games. It’s a tough crowd.
“The boys will say, “We know, Mom,” Crowe says, imitating their exasperation. “And they sure don’t like to see me dancing around the kitchen, I can tell you that.”
