IN THE HUDDLE

Fort Worth’s Norma Roby is helping call the plays for North Texas’ first- ever Super Bowl

By Steve Pate

Thursday, July 29, 2010 - 11:09am

Norma Roby has spent her life in crowds large and small. Hers is a powerful voice of respect no matter the audience.

On Tuesday, she will help launch the first workshop of Super Bowl XLV’s Emerging Business Program. Her presence on the platform will speak volumes for the validity of one of the NFL’s most treasured Super Bowl endeavors.

The first North Texas workshop, dubbed “The Game Plan,” will take place in Roby’s own backyard, of sorts — Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2-5 p.m. at the Round-Up Inn Ballroom of the Amon G. Carter Jr. Exhibit Hall in Fort Worth’s Will Rogers Memorial Center.

A second workshop is planned for Cowboys Stadium in February. The final workshop, in Dallas next April, will be exclusive to those businesses already registered online at northtexassuperbowl.com/emergingbusiness.

Roby has had her fingerprints all over North Texas’ first-ever Super Bowl effort from the beginning. Today, she is one of 13 members of the North Texas Super Bowl XLV Host Committee’s Executive Committee, which is chaired by Roger Staubach (who just happens to be Norma’s favorite Cowboy of all time).

It was Fort Worth Mayor Mike Moncrief who first phoned Roby almost three years ago.

“He phoned,” she recalled, “and said, ‘Hi girl, there’s something I want to discuss with you.”

Mayor Moncrief likely knew what her answer would be. A Fort Worth native, Roby had returned to her hometown 30 years ago after living all over the country.

Since her return, she has served on numerous boards for local chambers, hospitals and universities. She was chairman of the board of the Fort Worth Black Chamber. And she became a part of the original Super Bowl bid committee.

When North Texas won the Super Bowl bid in May 2007 at an NFL owners’ meeting in Nashville, Mayor Moncrief’s wife, Rosie, was there with the local contingent. One of her first phone calls was to Norma, who joined more than two dozen others at a Love Field hangar to greet the winning bidders on their return flight home.

Later that year, Roby was among a group of North Texans who attended the Super Bowl in the Phoenix area. They wanted to begin preparations immediately for a game that would not be played until February 2011.

“I’d watched Super Bowls on television,” Roby said, “but I’d never had a Super Bowl experience. It was important to me to really understand what it entails because it is certainly more than a game.”

At that Phoenix (or more specifically, Glendale, AZ) Super Bowl, Roby heard about the Emerging Business Program.

“We had an opportunity to visit briefly with the planning committee of that Super Bowl,” Roby said. “And we were apprised of some of the activities relative to the Emerging Business initiative. Even before that, we had talked about the opportunities that could possibly be available to minority- and women-owned businesses when we were still in the bidding process.”

Roby’s primary business successes the past quarter century have been as a concessionaire. She had the food concessions contract at the Texas Motor Speedway and the Fort Worth Convention Center. She has had newsstands and gift shops at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, and currently has joint ventures in six TGI Friday’s locations at DFW Airport.

Her strong, lifetime ties to North Texas have her excited about this first workshop.

“I’d like to see business owners, large and small, have an opportunity to find out just how to do business in any environment that requires contracts and the necessity of certification,” Roby said. “I want them to find out how to go through the process, how to write the business plan, and I’d like to see as many businesses from all over the region have opportunities in their endeavors.

“I’m hoping that we can be so successful here that we will set some benchmarks that other future Super Bowl cities will have to live up to.”

She has always been a Dallas Cowboys fan. Of today’s team, she says she likes running back Marion Barber’s tenacity. She enjoyed the Super Bowl teams of the ‘90’s. But she finally confessed, “I liked Roger. I watched that game when he threw that Hail Mary pass. Roger has always been my favorite Cowboy.”

Now she’s got a favorite Super Bowl, too. And this time Norma Roby is right in the huddle with everyone else.