2021 season countdown thread

[Jake]

https://www.___GET_REAL_URL___/s/insidethestar.com/hegawha-hegamin-69-belongs-to-george-hegamin/amp/
From the article :

The following players have all worn 69 for the Dallas Cowboys:

• Jason Fabini, OT
• Ben Fricke, C
• George Hegamin, OT
• Corvey Irvin, DT
• Henry Melton, DT
• Jeff Olson, OG
• Jimmy Saddler-McQueen, DT
• Ross Tucker, OG

I’ve done this entire countdown here at Inside The Star, and I’m not going to lie to you guys…this one was tough. 69 isn’t exactly a legendary number in Dallas Cowboys History, but the show must go on!

Not many Ring of Honor candidates in that list.

 

[Jake]

One of my favorite players as a kid was guard Herb Scott. Not sure why, perhaps because I was playing guard (and nose tackle) on my peewee football team when he became a rookie starter in 1975. A member of the "Dirty Dozen", Scott's emergence enabled Dallas to trade veteran John Niland for a draft pick. That pick eventually turned into Tony Hill, who started at WR for several years and caught Staubach's last-minute winning TD pass in Roger's final regular season game (35-34 win over Washington at Texas Stadium).

68 days to Tampa Bay.

 

[maryquality]

68 days......Doug Free!! Sorry, but I can never figure out how to attach pictures.

 

[Hagman]

Herb Scott caught Roger Staubach’s last pass as a professional. It was in a playoff loss to the Los Angeles Rams, and since he was a lineman it was an illegal catch, but he caught it.

 

[Hagman]

https://www.___GET_REAL_URL___/s/insidethestar.com/great-scott-herbert-scott-owns-68/amp/

The following players have all worn #68 for the Dallas Cowboys:

• Michael Batiste, OG
• Jim Boeke, OT
• Frank Cornish, C
• Doug Free*, OT
• Crawford Ker, OG
• Matt Lehr, OG
• Guy Reese, DT
• Oliver Ross, OT
• Noel Scarlett, DT
• Herbert Scott, OG

 

[Hagman]

68 days......Doug Free!! Sorry, but I can never figure out how to attach pictures.

You have to upload the picture to a picture hosting service, then copy the link and inserted in the little picture icon in the menu above

 

[Jake]

68 days......Doug Free!! Sorry, but I can never figure out how to attach pictures.

 

[maryquality]

67 days....#67....Russell Maryland, Pat Donovan, Phil Costa. Current player #67, Eric Smith.

 

[Hagman]

The greatest Cowboy ever to wear #67 was…Rayfield Wright!?!

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/W/WrigRa01.htm

The Cowboys signed him because he was a great athlete, but at first didn’t exactly know what to do with him. He wore 85 as a rookie tight end in 1967, and changed to #67 the next year as he played some in the defensive line. Then Landry decided he was a right offensive tackle and he adopted #70

as Rayfield explained it:

“I looked at him with amazement, because I never played tackle before in my life,” Wright recalled in a Virginia newspaper piece many years later. “I said, ‘Coach, are you sure?’ He said, ‘Yeah, you’ll make a good tackle.'”

https://www.___GET_REAL_URL___/s/co...-canton-beyond-stars-of-the-cowboys-past/amp/

 

[Jake]

67 days....#67....Russell Maryland, Pat Donovan, Phil Costa. Current player #67, Eric Smith.

Excellent candidates, and here's one more. The first one I personally remember is DE Pat Toomay. Toomay was a 6th round pick out of Vanderbilt in 1970 and spent the first 5 years of his career as a Cowboy, winning a ring in SB VI. After playing out his option, Toomay signed with Buffalo. The Cowboys received a 2nd round pick as compensation, which was eventually part of the package sent to Seattle for the rights to draft Tony Dorsett. Not bad.

Unfortunately for Toomay, the Bills left him exposed in the expansion draft and he ended up playing 1976 for the 0-14 Buccaneers. The Bucs traded him to Oakland after one season and he led the Raiders in sacks in 1977. Were it not for a blown fumble call in the AFC championship game, which netted Denver a TD, Toomay could've faced his original team in SB XII. It was not to be, and Toomay retired after the '79 season due to a knee injury.

He went on to become an author, including On Any Given Sunday. Oliver Stone made it into a movie in 1990, Any Given Sunday, giving Toomay a bit part in it.

67 days to Tampa Bay.

 

[xwalker]

This is something we do on another forum leading up to the start of the college season. Counting down the days by recognizing players, past and/or present, who wore the number of that day in the countdown. The thread is typically pinned until it reaches zero, if that's okay with the powers-that-be here.

It's 75 days until the season, so the first player who comes to my mind for me is Jethro Pugh.

Another guy, remembered for entirely different reasons, is Phil Pozderac. Coach doesn't look too pleased.

Man my Dad passed many years ago and I know he is still cussing Pozderac.

I recall Pozderac and Crawford Ker as a pair.

When a team struggles, which the Cowboys did in the mid/late eighties, OLinemen often get much of the blame.

Even last season the young OTs were getting hammered by fans despite the losses all being due to the worst defense in history.

 

[xwalker]

Only if @Reality (hopefully) deems it so by pinning it.

Next year it would start at 99 days before kickoff. I can almost see Hurvin McCormack now.

Hurvin McCormack is a name that I had completely forgotten.

He was picked 2nd overall in the 1999 expansion draft.

 

[xwalker]

This is something we do on another forum leading up to the start of the college season. Counting down the days by recognizing players, past and/or present, who wore the number of that day in the countdown. The thread is typically pinned until it reaches zero, if that's okay with the powers-that-be here.

It's 75 days until the season, so the first player who comes to my mind for me is Jethro Pugh.

Another guy, remembered for entirely different reasons, is Phil Pozderac. Coach doesn't look too pleased.

This is something we do on another forum leading up to the start of the college season. Counting down the days by recognizing players, past and/or present, who wore the number of that day in the countdown. The thread is typically pinned until it reaches zero, if that's okay with the powers-that-be here.

It's 75 days until the season, so the first player who comes to my mind for me is Jethro Pugh.

Another guy, remembered for entirely different reasons, is Phil Pozderac. Coach doesn't look too pleased.

You could cheat a little bit this year and consider both that day's number and that day's number + 25.

74/99
73/98
72/97
71/96
70/95
69/94
68/93
67/92
66//91

 

[Jake]

I recall Pozderac and Crawford Ker as a pair.

Crawford Ker! I could've used that name yesterday.

He appears to be doing okay, post-football.

Anybody want to buy a Wing House franchise?

 

[Jake]

66 days to Tampa Bay.

Several players have worn #66 over the years, but the 3 most prominent in my mind were DE George Andrie, guard Burton Lawless, and guard/tackle Kevin Gogan. All three of them became Super Bowl champions with the Cowboys.

Andrie was the most recognized as an individual, making the All-rookie team in 1962 and a five-time Pro Bowler. He's also the only one of the three to spend his entire career with the Cowboys. Andrie played college ball at Marquette University, a member of their last team as they discontinued football in 1961.

Lawless was a member of the Dirty Dozen of 1975 while Gogan was part of 1993's Great Wall. Both went on to finish their careers in other places.

 

[Hagman]

George Andrie is one of those Cowboys who never has gotten the recognition that he deserved. But that’s not completely unexpected given that he played right next to Bob Lilly. He was a key part of the Doomsday Defense and by all accounts was just a wonderful guy.

https://concussionfoundation.org/personal-stories/legacy-stories/george-andrie
I strongly encourage you to read the attached article. George was another player who paid big-time for being a part of the game. The brutality of the game eventually led him to develop CTE, but he spent his final years working to help others who are suffering from the disease and from memory loss. He died in 2018, a hero to the end. As one of his kids says in the article:

He had a series of psychotic episodes, which led him to a 14-day stay in the psychiatric hospital where they diagnosed him with major depressive disorder in 2003. He shared that he heard voices and had hallucinations. Yet after thorough examinations, he was never diagnosed with any mental illness that would explain these symptoms.

But things only got worse. He got lost in his boat on the Great Lakes fishing one day, a trip he had made many times before. Luckily, he made it home as he had forgotten his cellphone. It really shook him, and he began to get very scared. He lost interest in his hobbies and became withdrawn.

He would go to the grocery store with a detailed list and forget how to get there. Then if he did arrive, he forgot he had a list. He would get embarrassed and became a person who avoided social situations where he said, “He might sound stupid.” His short-term memory was so bad that he would walk into a room and forget why he went in there.
https://concussionfoundation.org/personal-stories/legacy-stories/george-andrie

 

[Jake]

65 days to Tampa Bay.

Andre Gurode and Dave Stalls

 

[Hagman]

https://insidethestar.com/65-belongs-to-andre-gurode/

The following players have all worn 65 for the Dallas Cowboys:

• Andre Gurode, C
• Ronald Leary*, OG
• Kurt Petersen, OG
• Ray Schoenke, OG
• Tony Slaton, C
• Dave Stalls, DT
• Ron Stone, OG
• Bob White, C
• John Wilbur, OG

 

[Hagman]

Andre Gurode is certainly the most deserving Cowboy wear 65, but John Wilber is probably the most interesting. I remember him as a Cowboys offensive lineman when I memorized everything about every Cowboys as a kid. The guy was an Eagle Scout as a boy. He was drafted by the Chiefs in the AFL, but signed with Dallas as a free agent. Quit his first training camp but was talked into coming back. Played some guard and even defensive tackle, but was mainly a backup OT before becoming the starting guard. He started in the Ice Bowl in '67.

He was a rabble rouser, speaking out and taking part in the social and political events of the day. Also partied hard with Don Meredith and Pete Gent as part of the "Wild Rebel Bunch" on the team. Also, organized some Cowboys to be security guards at an International Pop Festival.

Dallas traded him to the Cardinals for a 3rd rounder, but again he balked, so the Cardinals shipped him off to the Rams led by George Allen.

Tragedy befell him when Allen went to the Commanders and took Wilbur along to be part of the "Over The Hill Gang". To his shame, he was an important part of that team and started for Washington in Super Bowl VII in their win over the Dolphins.

He raised hell later with Hunter S. Thompson, and was a long time coach at the University of Hawaii. He died in 2013.

 

[CowboyFrog]

I recall Pozderac and Crawford Ker as a pair.

When a team struggles, which the Cowboys did in the mid/late eighties, OLinemen often get much of the blame.

Even last season the young OTs were getting hammered by fans despite the losses all being due to the worst defense in history.

It was the holding calls, Im sure it was not as bad as I remember though.