Plus, we've had minotaurs-as-PCs in D&D since Dragonlance and Taladas.
And now that I think of it, hobgoblins go further back, to Birthright.
You have your decades backwards man. Birthright wasn't out until 1995. DragonLance had its first novel out in 1984 and the 1E hardback DragonLance Adventures was in 1987. The Time of the Dragon box set that detailed Taladas was 1990.