STAR-STRUCK

The area’s football legends turn out to celebrate A Century in the Making

By Steve Pate

Thursday, July 29, 2010 - 11:17am

The stars came out in the daytime Tuesday at Dallas’ Woodrow Wilson High School when the North Texas Super Bowl XLV Host Committee officially presented its list of 250 magical morsels  — from which fans will ultimately select “The 100 Greatest Moments in the History of North Texas Football”.

Just take a look at these names, all in one place for one effort:

Roger Staubach and Troy Aikman, the Dallas Cowboys’ Hall of Fame quarterbacks, were joined onstage at Woodrow’s historic auditorium by nine legends in their own right, including former Cowboys Tony Dorsett, Michael Irvin and Daryl Johnston. Each represented one of the five Cowboys’ Super Bowl championships throughout their history.

Mean Joe Greene represented the University of North Texas program. Craig James was there for SMU. David O’Brien, son of TCU’s 1938 Heisman Trophy winner Davey O’Brien, represented TCU. OU’s Billy Sims was there for the Texas/Oklahoma rivalry. Abner Haynes stood up for the AFL’s Dallas Texans, who won the region’s first professional football championship in 1962. And Tim Brown, a Woodrow product, represented the legacy of high school football in the region.

Brown confessed, “There’s nothing like high school football. I got out of the shower this morning and I started singing the Woodrow Wilson Fight Song.”

Interspersed in the audience were more legends: TCU’s Norm Bulaich, former Cowboys Preston Pearson, Charlie Waters, Rayfield Wright and more.

Brad Sham, voice of the Cowboys, emceed the ceremony and was chair of the Host Committee’s Century In The Making Action Team, the group of local media members who created the ballot list of 250 treasures.

“I knew before, and I really know now, that this Host Committee is capable of anything,” Sham said backstage as the legends kept pouring in prior to the event. “But to suggest that when we sat down for the first conversation that I had a mental picture of standing in a room with Tony Dorsett and Billy Sims and Abner Haynes and Craig James and all these guys — no, I did not have that mental picture that day.”

Sham helped shape a Century In The Making Action Team of media members both past and present, including Sam Blair, Brad Bradley, David Crome, Mike Doocy, Charlie Fiss, Rick Gosselin, Clarence Hill, Norm Hitzges, Frank Luksa, Mario Montez, John Rhadigan, Mike Rhyner, Kristi Scales-Sutton, Kevin Sherrington, Mickey Spagnola, Carlton Stowers, Jean-Jacques Taylor, Victor Villalba and Charean Williams.

“I think everyone took the whole idea very seriously,” said Stowers, a longtime author, sportswriter and historian of North Texas. “We were as thorough as possible in giving the voters a wide range to choose from — not just Cowboys but high schools and colleges in the area. And, there was a tremendous backlog of expertise on that committee. Getting some of us old-timers in there with the new folks was a nice mix.”

The official launch of fan voting begins Monday at the historic Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo. Ultimately, this whole thing falls into the hands of the fans, both online starting next March at a site being created and sponsored by American Airlines, and at balloting stations all over North Texas from now until the close of the State Fair of Texas this fall.

The list, of course, will be announced in conjunction with Super Bowl XLV in February 2011.

Those walking legends at the Woodrow ceremony exemplified the greatness of football in North Texas at every level.

Said Staubach, the Host Committee’s Chair, “It’s been fun reminiscing with players even before my era, and having them participate in this.”

Longtime Dallas Morning News sports columnist Sam Blair joined Sham on stage to present a plaque to Woodrow Wilson as the only public high school in the country to produce two Heisman Trophy winners: Brown and O’Brien.

Afterward, Brown stood in one of the hallways he used to walk along as a student.

“Some of the rooms, certainly I can remember,” Brown said, smiling. “Like, that was my old Typing room. I remember the room where I had trigonometry. This was a special place, that’s for sure.”

It wasn’t until Brown won the 1988 Heisman as a receiver at Notre Dame that he ever knew the ’38 Heisman winner had also come from his high school.

Now, these many years later, after a sparkling pro career with the Oakland Raiders, Brown is eligible this summer for the first time to be inducted into pro football’s Hall of Fame. He played high school ball in Texas. He ended his Notre Dame career in Dallas as MVP of a Cotton Bowl victory over Texas A&M. And now?

“I was telling my wife that if I don’t get inducted into the Hall this year,” Brown said, “they’re going to be announcing the Hall for next year in Dallas at this Super Bowl. So I’m going to be fighting hard for that one.”

Not bad choices, really. He could already be a Hall of Famer when North Texas hosts its first ever Super Bowl. Or, he could be inducted that Super Bowl week at home.

Who knows? They might have to start a second list of the 100 Greatest Moments. Events just keep piling up around here.

View the entire list of 250 moments