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God bless America''s team: what the Dallas Cowboys need right now, even more than tirades from Bill Parcells, is help from above. At least we know Tex Schramm will put in a good word.

Article Excerpt
COVERING THE DALLAS COWBOYS back in the sixties, I sensed that something special was evolving, but I never dreamed that I was witnessing the creation of modern pro football. Forty years later, things are clear. Conception occurred when Clint Murchison, Jr., hired a CBS television producer and former general manager of the Los Angeles Rams named Tex Schramm and gave him the jot of organizing Iris new National Football League franchise in Dallas. While I was busy writing trivia about multiple offenses and flex defenses for the Dallas. Times Herald and later the Dallas Morning News, Tex was merging pro football with television and recasting the image of the NFL to the point where pro foothall would shove aside baseball as the national pastime. What do they say about forests and trees?

When Tex died, in mid-July, just days before the forty-fourth edition of the Cowboys reported to training camp, it was the perfect juxtaposition of the classic and the retromodern. Tex exits to heaven and Bill Parcells puts the Cowboys through hell. Tex would have appreciated the production, especially since he got top billing. Though Parcells was still earning Iris spurs as an assistant college coach when the Cowboys started winning Super Bowls, he represents a throwback to the kind of smash-mouth football that Tex loved. So let the games begin.

There was another side of Tex, however, one that was warm, generous, human, and even a little silly. I'll tell you a story I've never mid anyone, except a few dear friends. Back in the days when Tex was doing all those amazing things for the Cowboys and the NFL, a couple of Dallas sportswriters named Shrake mid Cartwright dropped uninvited by his North Dallas home late one night. Shrake was dressed as Batman, Cartwright as Robin. Why we chose that particular wardrobe is lost in the fog of history. The point is, instead of calling the cops, as almost any other major sports figure would surely have done, Tex and his wife, Marly, seemed delighted by the intrusion. They invited us in, broke out a bottle of J&B, and we chatted until nearly mid night. Over the years, I'd nearly forgotten that evening, hut Tex hadn't. Last December, a day or two after Marty died, Bud Shrake called Tex to express condolences, and in the course of their conversation, Tex recalled that long-ago visit by the Dynamic Duo. "It was an unforgettable sight," he chuckled.

Tex's zest for life vanished after Marty died. He did rally for a few public appearances, once when his biography, written by former Morning News columnist Bob St. John, was published, and a second time, in April, when he visited Texas Stadium for the first time since submitting his resignation to Jerry Jones fourteen years ago. The occasion was Jones's belated announcement that sometime during the 2003 season Tex Schramm's name would be added to the Cowboys Ring of Honor, the twelfth in a list of legends that includes Tom Landry, Bob Lilly, and Don Meredith. Considering that Tex created the Ring of Honor in 1976 mad that he has been a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame for twelve years, the gesture could be viewed as too little, too late. In Tex's eyes, however, nothing associated with the history of the Cowboys was inconsequential. Sports columnist Frank Luksa reported that the 82-year-old Tex discarded his walking stick and "literally rose to the occasion ... in stubborn rebellion against infirmity. [He] straightened Iris bent body as best he could and made: his way to the stage to bask in forthcoming attention."

The honor will have to be bestowed posthumously. That wouldn't have bothered Tex. One season concludes, another begins; one generation dies, another is born. He knew that this year's results are more important than past glory.

THE...

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