With 17 enshrinees in the Pro Football Hall of Fame among players, coaches, and executives who spent their whole careers or made their primary contribution with the franchise, the Dallas Cowboys have always been well represented in Canton, Ohio. This coming weekend of Aug. 7-8, three more primary Cowboys and a fourth who spent only one season in Dallas will be enshrined in the hallowed hall where their busts and bios will be preserved forever. These four Cowboys are part of 19 individuals who will be officially inducted this year. Dallas is one of several franchises with multiple enshrinees this year. Other franchises with multiple inductees who have at least some ties to them include the Pittsburgh Steelers, Indianapolis Colts, Oakland/Los Angeles Raiders, Chicago Bears, Detroit Lions, and Green Bay Packers among others. Both the classes of 2020 and 2021 are being inducted this summer due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic that forced the 2020 enshrinement to be cancelled. The two classes total 28 inductees, nine who were elected posthumously. Special video tributes of these nine will be shown between the live speeches during the two enshrinement ceremonies. Each of them were enshrined in a separate ceremony on April 28 at the Hall of Fame.
Jimmy Johnson, Harold Carmichael, Cliff Harris, and Drew Pearson are the four former Cowboys being inducted this weekend who played or coached in Dallas. Harris and Pearson played their entire careers with the Cowboys and were teammates for much of the 1970s when Dallas appeared in five Super Bowls and won two. Johnson made his mark as head coach of the Cowboys for five seasons from 1989-93 leading them to the franchise’s only back-to-back Super Bowl Championships following the 1992 and ’93 seasons. Johnson also was the head coach of the Miami Dolphins from 1996-99. Carmichael played only one season for Dallas which came in 1984, his final season as a pro after playing 13 years for the Philadelphia Eagles.
We don’t normally think of the college game leading the charge in terms of the evolution of football but there is increasing evidence that the NFL is adopting some of their measures. It’s a bit like the tail wagging the dog, yet it is proof positive that all good ideas don’t necessarily germinate at the professional level.
Nevertheless,
there are inherent differences between the two games, some of which will never
be bridged. Wooing high school kids, and their parents or guardians is a
different animal altogether than the sterile task of drafting a college kid
onto a professional team. Alabama coach, Nick
Saban, has etched
his storied legacy in the college ranks but toiled at the NFL level for eight
years. Below he explains why he prefers coaching at the collegiate level.
The Sports Then and Now Athlete of the Month was one of the
great linemen of his era and is considered a trailblazer for using weight
training and conditioning to develop his skills.
After a standout career at the University of Maryland, Stan
Jones spent nine seasons as an offensive lineman for the Chicago Bears, making
seven Pro Bowl appearances and earning first team All-Pro three times.
In 1962, assistant coach George Allen suggested Jones move
to defense to help solidify that unit for the Bears. He played both ways in 1962
and then in 1963 moved permanently to the defense.
Great drama has always marked the Dallas Cowboys over the
decades. In this, the franchise’s 61st season, the Cowboys have always
stood out for better or for worse. The franchise has always made major
headlines whether it be during the season or in the offseason. In the early
1970’s, legendary head coach Tom Landry went back and forth between Roger
Staubach and Craig Morton as his starting quarterback – going as far as
alternating them on each play during one game – before naming Staubach the
starter. The volatile tendencies of linebacker Thomas “Hollywood” Henderson
surfaced later in the decade over drugs, alcohol, his flamboyant play, and high
visibility lifestyle. Dallas also played in five Super Bowls and won two in the
1970’s when the team became known as “America’s Team” and took on the persona
of the team people love or love to hate which still exists today. The 1980’s
saw good teams unable to get over the hump with three straight losses in NFC
Championship games. There was also another quarterback controversy, this one
between Danny White and Gary Hogeboom between 1983 and 1984. Pressure had
mounted on White after losses in three straight NFC Championship games. While
Landry appointed Hogeboom as the starter during part of the 1984 season, neither
he nor White could lead Dallas to the playoffs that season. The decade ended
with new ownership as Arkansas oilman Jerry Jones bought the franchise and
hired Jimmy Johnson – his old college teammate at Arkansas – as head coach. That
proved fruitful as the Cowboys became the first franchise in NFL history to win
three Super Bowls in a four-year span during the 1990’s when they were the team
of the decade.
Yet change also came about for the franchise in the 1990’s with the shocking and well-documented breakup of Jones and Johnson due to egotistical control issues. During the 2000’s, Dallas made only four playoff trips and won just one playoff game. While the Cowboys rebuilt in the early 2010’s, they were stuck largely in mediocrity with four 8-8 finishes in head coach Jason Garrett’s nine full seasons on the job sparking a yearly discussion about his job security. In more recent years, Dallas came under the microscope with legal issues off the field as star running back Ezekiel Elliott eventually served a six-game suspension during the 2017 season for violating the NFL’s personal conduct policy based on allegations of domestic violence against his ex-girlfriend dating back to 2016. Drama has always seemed to follow the Cowboys whether it has been good or bad.
The NFL lost a pioneering innovator this week with the
passing of Hall of Fame defensive back Larry Wilson at the age of 82.
Though only 6-foot-0, 180 pounds, Wilson developed into one
of the most feared defenders of his era as the first safety to regularly rush
the quarterback in a play that became known as the safety blitz.
A two-way starter at the University of Utah, Wilson was
selected by the Chicago Cardinals in the seventh round of the 1960 draft (which
was conducted in November 1959). The team moved to St. Louis prior to the 1960
season and Wilson soon became a defensive pioneer.
It is the start of another new era in Big D for the Dallas
Cowboys in 2020 and the biggest change is at the head coaching spot. Former
Green Bay Packers’ head coach Mike McCarthy replaces Jason Garrett who is now the
New York Giants’ offensive coordinator. McCarthy, the ninth head coach in Cowboys’
history, brings a wealth of NFL coaching experience including a 13-year term as
the Packer’s head coach from 2006-18. McCarthy lead Green Bay to victory in
Super Bowl XLV following the 2010 season at AT&T Stadium, Dallas’ home
facility in Arlington, TX.
McCarthy, who was released by the Packers following a 4-7-1
record 12 games into the 2018 season, inherits a team that is in win now mode
under the management of team owner, president, and general manager Jerry Jones.
Now in his 32nd year with the Cowboys, Jones has grown the franchise
into a multi-billion dollar enterprise on his shrewd and aggressive business
style. That showed this offseason in making a head-coaching change.
The Sports Then and Now Vintage Athlete of the Month is a former major league baseball player who came into the game as a teenager and stayed until he was in his 40s. In between, Rusty Staub put up a solid career that was primarily spent on expansion or rebuilding teams.
Originally signed by the Colt .45s at age 17, he made his major league debut as a 19-year old rookie and became only the second player in the modern era to play in more than 150 games as a teenager.
Though he hit only .224 splitting time between first base and rightfield, Staub did start building a foundation that would turn him into an All-Star by 1967 when he finished fifth in the league with a .333 batting average.