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The man in the funny hat
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Twitter: AJMckenzie94847
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00:09Hello, I'm Chris Fowler, and welcome to SportsCentury.
00:13He was sometimes described as a one-man Mount Rushmore, monumentally silent, grim, and enduring.
00:20For 29 seasons, Tom Landry rode herd on the Cowboys, taking them from birth into full-blown manhood
00:27as they captured 13 divisional titles and had a record 20 straight winning seasons.
00:33But if Dallas became America's team, the tall, standoff Texan rarely shared in his players' popularity.
00:41For many, he seemed a tad too good to be true, and far too serious to be loved.
00:54I wound up watching the moon landing that night on July 20th of 1969, right next to Tom Landry.
01:01At one small step, one giant beast for mankind.
01:07The rest of us were jumping up and down, you know, when they finally stepped down to the moon.
01:11But Tom kind of gave it one of these.
01:35His image was to be stoic, to be dry, to be uninhibited by...
01:44The things that go on around you, that clean, shunned, polished, well-dressed, intelligent, organized man at the top of
01:58the ship, Tom Landry.
01:59Lantry represented organizational strength, a certain stoicism, seriousness, religiosity.
02:09He came to represent a lot of the things that Dallas wanted to stand for.
02:16Born in 1960, the Cowboys were blessed with more faith and talent.
02:21After winning just nine of 40 games in their first three seasons, Landry's troops were unfairly targeted by a nation's
02:28anger over President Kennedy's assassination in Dallas in 1963.
02:32What do they have to do that?
02:33After six years in the league, Landry's fertile mind was still trying to find a way out of the wilderness.
02:39He did a lot of innovative and creative things.
02:42Most teams lined up in two formations, what they called red and brown.
02:45We lined up in about ten.
02:47And he became an innovator on offense, you know, using multiple formations, motion, moving players around, shotgun.
02:59To Tom Landry, football was like a chess game.
03:02The shotgun.
03:04Tom brought that back.
03:05He's the guy that started it in his so-called modern era of pro football.
03:10People said, why did the line get up and down?
03:12The line got up when the backs were shifting.
03:14So the defense couldn't see where the backs were shifting to.
03:17He was the defensive coordinator and the offensive coordinator at the same time.
03:21Even Vince Lombardi, even Paul Brown.
03:24He didn't do that.
03:26Defensively, he'd come up with the flex defense, which nobody else could coach but him.
03:31He would coach the defensive tackles, the defensive ends, the linebackers, the cornerbacks, the safeties.
03:40The kind of understood joke was that Tom resented the players on occasion from getting in the way of his
03:45system,
03:46which he knew he had designed perfectly, and he could prove it if only the stupid players would stop being
03:53human and messing it up.
03:54I was the most valuable player in Super Bowl XII along with Harvey Martin.
03:59That next year, the Cowboys drafted a defensive tackles.
04:03What?
04:04I just knew that he drafted them to take my position.
04:07You know, he had all these signs around the training facility.
04:12And one of those signs said, there was no such thing as an indispensable man.
04:17And that meant, you are a cog in the wheel.
04:22Landry's systematic approach reached a bizarre height against Chicago in 1971.
04:28He shuttled quarterbacks Craig Morton and Roger Saubach on every play.
04:33Dallas lost 23-19.
04:35Coach made a big mistake.
04:37I think he really started to understand it was a combination of his preparation as well as having the right
04:43players emotionally, you know, teaming with him.
04:49In 1966, the right combination of blackboard schemes and passionate personnel not only took the Cowboys past the 500 mark
04:57for the first time,
04:58they almost beat Green Bay for the NFL championship.
05:01Almost.
05:02And it only got better.
05:03Over two decades, Dallas went to the playoffs 18 times, reached five Super Bowls, winning two.
05:09But even in the glow of his extended success, Landry remained a coach of heart, admired but seldom loved.
05:17I think my first five years with the Cowboys, I didn't like him at all.
05:21After we became really successful, then you believed in him.
05:26The problem when you're coaching is much like being a CEO.
05:29If you get too close to someone, you can't do the things that you need to do.
05:33Coach wasn't a touchy-feely type person.
05:35If you're a medium, 10 o'clock, you'd be there at 10 o'clock.
05:38If you're in a wreck on Central Express, where you just left earlier.
05:40And I was over at the practice, Phil on crutches, watching practice, and he asked me where I was going
05:46to be at the game.
05:48And I said, well, you know, I'll be on the sidelines.
05:50He says, no, I think you should probably just sit in the stands.
05:53It was not nearly as easy for him to give out the attaboys and way to go and good job
05:58as it was to critique.
06:01I missed you, Simon.
06:05Landry's attached approach was never more apparent than his relationship with quarterback Don Meredith.
06:11Did you Don Meredith?
06:12The bravest thing that I ever saw was when he got out of the hospital.
06:16And he had a broken rib and a punctured lung and pneumonia.
06:20And we went after him and played in Cleveland.
06:22And we all played lousy.
06:23And Don took the breath of that.
06:25Well, he's in a hospital getting the blood on the side of his lungs.
06:31Tom is holding a meeting saying what a bad game, Don's like.
06:36It hurt Don so bad.
06:38People didn't realize how sensitive he is.
06:40I think that's the one ingredient that he's missing from his personality.
06:44And that is a physical show to his team that he cares about what they do, whether it's good or
06:50whether it's bad.
06:50I've never seen him hug a player in 20 years.
06:5320 years.
06:55I wondered for a long time if 10 years after Don Meredith retired at the age of 31,
07:01Tom didn't look in the mirror and say,
07:03maybe if I would have told him how much we needed him, things might have been different.
07:12The degree of separation between Landry and his players can be measured by his Spartan beginnings in South Texas.
07:31Thomas Landry was born on September 11, 1924, in the tiny border town of Mission, Texas.
07:37His mother, Ruth, volunteered at the local church.
07:40And his father, Ray, ran an auto repair shop and was chief of the volunteer fire department.
07:45Looks just like his dad.
07:47His dad was a hardworking man and made a living and enduring the depression.
07:51So there were values then of hard work and family that I'm sure were instilled in that by virtue of
07:58his childhood.
07:59His father was somebody in the whole town looked at, looked up to somebody who was in trouble.
08:05He was always ready to help.
08:06Miss Landry, who was just a calm, stay-at-home mother that was behind each one of her children in
08:13each one of his or her endeavors.
08:16They were both fairly reserved and stoic.
08:20I think that was probably some influence on him.
08:25The third of four children, Tom spoke with a list which contributed to his reserved nature.
08:48As a fullback quarterback in safety, Landry led Mission High School to a regional championship in his senior year.
08:56The Eagles outscored their opponents 322 to 7.
09:01He had a coach, Bob Martin, who was head and shoulders above all coaches in the Valley at that time.
09:08And they played a football game, the checkers, where you move this, you block this guy this way.
09:14And he played it just like it plays on the football field.
09:17Tom just knew football.
09:19He played, but he could understand it.
09:24After serving with the Army Air Corps in World War II, Landry returned to the University of Texas and was
09:30a star fullback.
09:31Following one season as a defensive back with the New York Yankees at the All-America Football Conference,
09:37he moved to the NFL Giants in 1950.
09:40He was very slow.
09:42He could guard the receivers because he could anticipate so he would go to the point and be there.
09:48So he was a small pro.
09:50And I don't believe about how on people look at Tom Landry.
10:00He looked like a kid before he was in the war.
10:04He looked 45 a few years later.
10:11Before, in addition to his playing duties, Landry was made an assistant coach.
10:16There are players that execute, but they don't have the full understanding of why he had it.
10:22And he also had the ability to communicate with other players on defense.
10:29Landry had earned an industrial engineering degree during his offseason and applied those principles to football.
10:35The result was the modern 4-3 defense.
10:39When the Giants won the NFL championship in 1956, he and Vince Lombardi, who coached the offense, received much of
10:46his credit.
10:47Tom Landry would look at a fan and break it down and get everything he needed out of it.
10:53Half the time that Vince would.
10:55He was the first guy to ever do frequencies on teams.
11:03Now they do it all on computers, but Tom Landry did it in his head.
11:07When they're in this formation, they're going to run a play over here.
11:27At 33, Landry was being hailed as a genius in his profession.
11:32But public acclaim failed to nourish a deeper need for the man from a town called Mission.
11:50When he became a Christian in the late 50s, those priorities shifted.
12:06And that's where you get faith, family, and football, as opposed to maybe football, family, and faith.
12:13My daughter was born about 10 weeks premature.
12:16And I remember he actually included my daughter in the pre-game prayer.
12:21And that was one thing that I did not expect from him.
12:24But I should have, because he's a strong family man, strong Christian man.
12:31In 1984, when Drew Pearson got in a serious car accident that killed his brother and ended the wide receiver's
12:37career,
12:38Landry was a very sizable.
12:41That was like a little shock.
12:43And seeing him there, I'll tell you, it just provided a tremendous motivation for me to get well.
12:48Not only physically, but mentally.
12:51He lived his faith.
12:53And that spoke very loudly.
12:56Anytime you were around him.
12:59I got a telephone call on a Friday afternoon asking me to come to his office.
13:05Which I did.
13:06He said, I understand that Mickey and Dana aren't going back to Trinity Christian.
13:11And I told my children, Lisa, Kitty, and Tom Jr.
13:14They were college sweethearts.
13:16And his respect for her and love for her was obvious every day.
13:19She was very friendly and witty.
13:21And they complimented each other in their various attributes.
13:25We go in this restaurant.
13:27There's a couple sitting over there.
13:29By themselves.
13:30And looking at each other with his great adoring eyes.
13:33Obviously, two loved ones.
13:35First of all, it was Tom and Alicia.
13:37Alicia and their family.
13:39That was vitally important.
13:42And I think football was third.
13:44And I think there are a lot of coaches and athletes for whom the reverse will be chosen.
13:52Tom was a very family-oriented type of person.
13:55In terms of his personal family.
13:57In terms of the team family.
13:59It wasn't a family.
14:01It was just a business.
14:03It's as if he checked his Christianity at the door every morning.
14:08To go into his headquarters.
14:09Looking the other way.
14:12Already burdened with the title next year's champion because of five straight seasons that ended in postseason losses.
14:19Landry began the 1971 campaign with hope thriving on running back Dwayne Thomas, who had a drug problem.
14:26He compromised in 1971 with Dwayne Thomas.
14:30Because Dwayne was a hell of a running back at that time.
14:34And doubtful they would have won a Super Bowl without him.
14:37Dwayne didn't have to do some of the things that the rest of us did.
14:41I think a lot of people looked at it as a slap in the face.
14:45And that's one time I had two sets of standards for a football team.
14:51Because our team had suffered through so many close games.
14:56We handled them.
14:57We handled them until we won the first Super Bowl.
14:59And then we couldn't handle them anymore.
15:03Sometimes you need to show the Belina.
15:05And that relationship is a very important relationship.
15:07And when it's not there, it can often be, you know, very, very alienating, if you will.
15:12Your ability to adapt and adjust to this new environment requires a lot of support, effort, in every aspect.
15:25I don't feel like I've got any support.
15:30Landry vowed to never compromise his values again.
15:33In 1979, he proved true to his word by cutting Pro Bowl linebacker Thomas Hollywood Henderson late in the season.
15:41I think he knew that I was different.
15:44The one thing he didn't know, that I was seriously addicted to cocaine.
15:48What a waste of talent.
15:50He always didn't want to know about what you did.
15:53Henderson could have been in the Hall of Fame.
15:55Should have been in the Hall of Fame.
15:57He was that good.
15:58He cared all for you alone.
16:00He cared only about what you were doing in his presence.
16:03His management style, or his way of handling it, was I'm going to model, I'm going to teach, I'm going
16:08to instruct, and I'm going to show you.
16:11And then in the course of time, you will follow that behavior by your own decision.
16:18Although Landry's effects on his players may not always have been positive, some discovered the depths of dishumanity after the
16:24careers were over.
16:25I sent him an invitation to my 10-year sober celebration, and I never heard from him.
16:34And so I go downtown Austin to this hotel, and I walked in the top of these stairs, and I
16:41see a sad old colored leather jacket in his tomlight.
16:52I just didn't know what to do to help him out.
16:55And I guess we end up saying, well, we need to get rid of him, you know, because we had
17:00no way to take care of him.
17:01And I think that was the most disappointing thing.
17:04As the 1980s wound down, disappointment began to build in Dallas, but the Cowboys started losing, and the living legend
17:11that was Landry began to fade.
17:25That dramatic 28-27 defeat by the 49ers in January of 1982 was the second of three straight NFC Championship
17:33game losses.
17:34In 1986, the Cowboys dropped to below 500 for the first time in more than two decades, under pressure to
17:42go...
17:42The fall-off was terrible.
17:45The fall, the fall, the fall for grace was terrible.
17:52...vaunted flex defense and relinquished any of his power to new assistant coaches.
17:57He became more stubborn.
17:59He was truly a one-man show.
18:02So, Tom would never give up control of his team, to anybody.
18:08His pride and ego was his undoing in the end because he stuck so stubbornly with his flex defense.
18:15The 64-year-old Landry had little support by 1988 when the Cowboys plummeted to 3-13.
18:22His every decision was scrutinized.
18:25Yeah, 40.
18:26No, we went on the 23, but I think we went on the 30.
18:29The time that we ran the last play, yeah, 31.
18:32There were a lot of times that nobody knew about that Tom didn't know if it was 4th and 1
18:37or 4th and 2.
18:38That was not an indicator that he was losing it mentally.
18:44The media was attacking him about the fact that he was getting up in age and he started getting clean
18:48out.
18:48And I knew it was a player that really didn't have an understanding of what he was trying to do.
18:55Landry's hopes of coaching into the 1990s were crushed and Bum Bright sold the Cowboys in February of 1989.
19:03New owner Jerry Jones flew to Austin with general manager Tex Schramm to fire the man with 270 victories.
19:10My eyes were running and he just walked out and I was there and I said, I'm sorry.
19:28Disappointment was probably the number one emotion.
19:31It's just an unfortunate circumstance that it happened.
19:35And no, it wasn't handled real well.
19:39It's just unfortunate that Tex Schramm and Tom Landry can give their lives and build a Dallas Cowboys.
19:45But business also has to be addressed and that's what was happening.
19:49I know he was hurt and I know he was angry, but he managed to be those things without being
19:54bitter.
19:55That's a huge measure of demand to me.
19:59In appreciation for Landry turning an expansion team in one of the most successful franchises in professional sports,
20:06the city of Dallas honored him with a parade.
20:08I have never heard of 50,000 people coming to a parade for a coach who had a 313 record
20:16the year before.
20:18I have never seen another press conference again, but when I see you on the street, I'll hear you say,
20:24oh, thank you very much.
20:31For Landry, a true test of his stoicism and faith came in 1995.
20:37After a four-year struggle, his daughter Lisa died of cancer.
20:41I didn't know I could know about that.
20:43I have faith in God who has left me in every storm.
20:46My youngest daughter Lisa, many of you have heard her story, taught us how to live in grace and with
20:52courage and faith.
20:54Four years later, in 1999, Landry was diagnosed with leukemia.
20:59He stayed tough to the end.
21:02When they got the final diagnosis, his grandson had a baseball game.
21:07So they were a little lame, but they went out there and sat in stands and nothing was wrong.
21:11I think he felt like if that was God's will, then that was God's will.
21:15And I don't believe that I ever heard him complain.
21:18There's a consistency about his behavior that is stronger than anyone I've ever done.
21:23Every time I visited with him in the hospital, he expressed gratitude and appreciation for my being there.
21:33I kept thinking to myself, I'm the one that's being strengthened by this man.
21:39Tom Landry, the former coach of the Dallas Cowboys, was not only a champion many times over, he was one
21:45of football's great innovators.
21:48Landry died of leukemia yesterday at the age of 75.
21:51When he passed away, so many people came back and said, gosh, Coach Landry had such a dramatic effect.
21:57It changed my life.
21:59And the thing that Coach Landry did that was so unique is that he planted a seed within you that
22:04just continued to grow for a long time.
22:05He didn't know it.
22:06And it really changed you as a person.
22:10People thought who idolized him that he was perfect.
22:14People thought who found him hypocritical, that he was a charlatan.
22:21He wasn't either one of those things.
22:23And I think our best thing people can say about him is that he was a human being.
22:27He was a hell of a human being.
22:29But he was a human being.
22:38In the mid-60s, a false bond scare in the press box had briefly harkened play during a cowboy game.
22:44Afterward, Tom Landry was asked by a reporter what he would have done had there actually been a bond and
22:49it had gone off.
22:51Landry had wildly replied, he would have observed a moment of silence and then resumed playing with enthusiasm.
22:59The Fourth Century, I'm Chris Fowler.
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