Dolphins fans will remember this name:
Alfred Oglesby.
The former defensive lineman passed away in late September.
Here’s the story.
And here’s a story that Mike Mayo wrote for the Sun-Sentinel in 1992:
MIAMI — Finally. An Alfred Oglesby abduction story rooted in reality. On the night the Dolphins began doing penance for Oglesby’s one-day disappearance and fish tale, Oglesby was tree-ted to a little revenge. About 20 players ganged up on the nose tackle at 10:30 p.m. Monday, dragging him from a pay phone and taping him to a palm tree outside the St. Thomas University dormitory. Oglesby stayed trussed up for 30 minutes until lineman Gene Williams took pity and cut him loose. “I deserved it,” Oglesby said Tuesday. “That’s why I took it like a man.” “Yeah, right,” said nose tackle Shawn Lee, one of the ringleaders. “You should have seen him, swinging and kicking and screaming. It took nearly the whole team to get him.” Oglesby had been talking to a friend on a pay phone outside the dorm. Led by Lee, safety Louis Oliver and defensive ends T.J. Turner and Jeff Cross, the group carried the reluctant 280-pound Oglesby to a nearby tree and wrapped several rolls of heavy-duty equipment tape around him. “Houdini couldn’t have gotten out of it,” one player said. Meanwhile, Lee went back to the dangling phone. “Uh, sorry, but Alfred can’t talk right now,” Lee said. “He’s tied up.” The prank served to ease tension that had surrounded camp since last week, when Oglesby overslept, missed two Thursday practices after a night of drinking and returned with a fabricated tale of being abducted at gunpoint. The next day, coach Don Shula scrapped his stay-at-home policy for veterans, which he introduced last summer. Starting Monday, players had to stay in St. Thomas’ cramped dorm on nights of team meetings. The change translates to seven nights in Hotel Hell, as players call the shoddy accommodations, until the end of camp. “I messed it all up, so I just got to sit back and take it,” Oglesby said. He might have more to take. Some players hinted that Oglesby will be treated to pranks every night the team has to stay in camp. “We’re dragging you behind a car tonight,” safety Liffort Hobley told Oglesby after morning practice Tuesday. Shula didn’t hear about the revenge until Tuesday lunch. When told players taped Oglesby to a tree, Shula asked, “Where? Right outside the bar?” Oglesby’s misadventure began last Wednesday night at the Bootlegger Lounge, a strip bar near camp. “I think anything like this brings the team together,” Shula said. “It’s much better than silent resentment. It’s just jock humor. I don’t think anything is meant to be harmful unless it becomes more serious, like hitting him over the head with a sledgehammer.”
