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A Boynton Beach, Florida, family has been reunited with a cherished heirloom and a piece of Miami Dolphins history. John Sparrell, a devoted Dolphins fan and longtime season-ticket holder, was devastated when a gift from his family -- a helmet autographed by several members of the undefeated 1972 Dolphins -- was stolen in March 2013. He died two months later from a massive heart attack.  On Wednesday, the helmet was returned to Sparrell's son, Michael, by the Boynton Beach Police and Pro Football Hall of Fame lineman Larry Little, who played for the Dolphins in 1969-80 and whose signature is on the helmet, along with Don Shula, Larry Csonka and Jim Langer, Jim Kiick, Mercury Morris and Garo Yepremian.
"We never thought we'd see this helmet back," Michael Sparrell told reporters at the police headquarters. The helmet was recovered when performing a search warrant on the home of burglary suspect Schneider Joseph. Police asked citizens for help in locating the owner. Michael's brother called him from Orlando and urged him to call police. The elder Sparrell had the helmet for only a year. "He was so upset," Michael Sparrell said. "He called and told our family, 'I'm just so broken up.' Somebody broke into my house and took my helmet." It wasn't just because of the stars' names on the helmet or the significance of that Dolphins' undefeated season that saddened John Sparrell. It was because the gift came from family. Everyone pitched in to get it for him, for all those years of family reunions he organized. It holds the same significance for Michael Sparrell, too. "That helmet probably has a sizeable value to it. But what it means to me, when I look at it -- all those times we drove down to the Orange Bowl and to see all these wonderful players play and do what they did -- that's irreplaceable. You can't replace that. When I look at that, that's what it's all about to me -- those memories with my father."  It was special for Little, too, who traveled from Dade County to present the helmet.
"It was really heartwarming for me to be able to [give him back the helmet] because of what happened and for him to lose his life not too long after it happened," Little said. "It meant a great deal for me to be up here today and present him with the helmet." John Sparrell, who coached his children's sports teams, became a devoted Dolphins fan when he and his family relocated from New York to Boynton Beach in 1970. He became a diehard fan of the Dolphins, and especially that 1972 team led by Bob Griese and Paul Warfield, a trio of punishing running backs in Csonka, Morris and Kiick and the infamous "No-Name Defense." That team went a perfect 14-0 and won Super Bowl VII over the Washington Redskins to finish 17-0. It was just after Father's Day when Michael Sparrell got the phone call about the helmet. He says he believes the timing was more than just sheer coincidence. He also doesn't believe it to be coincidental that a 12-year-old pitcher that his father coached in Boynton Beach Little League would grow up to become a college and CFL quarterback for 15 years, an assistant and interim head coach at Central Florida and now the running backs coach for the Dolphins -- Danny Barrett.  "Danny and my father were really close," Michael said. "[He] thought so much of Danny that he never fell out of touch with Danny, all the way through high school, through college, even when he was in Canada, he was always talking to Danny. He followed him all the way through."
When John Sparrell died in 2013, Barrett drove from UCF to attend the funeral. Who would have thought he'd be coaching his beloved Dolphins? "Wherever he is, he's looking down from above, he had his hand in this situation," Sparrell said. "I know he's close. He's never gonna be far away. He's always gonna be right there with us. I know he's looking down from up above and he still has a hand in our lives and really wants to be part of our lives ... it's really cool that it happened this way." So what would John Sparrell have to say to all this if he were here today? "He'd say, 'Hey, you got it back. Thank you for doing what you did,' " Michael said. "And I'd give him a big ol' hug and say, 'We got it back, Dad.' "
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