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Mickey Spagnola - Email
DallasCowboys.com Columnist
February 20, 2006 6:39 PM
LEWISVILLE, Texas - The team got back together again, for all the right reasons, even though a sad one.
They all have been doing this from time to time it seems of late. For Tom. For Marty. For Tex. For Harvey. For Bob. They come, as if it were yesteryear, the Cowboys of old. Some, their hair grayer. Some a tad heavier. Some less hair. Some no hair. Some not in such good health themselves. But they come, even though their day together was decades ago.
"When something happens, it's like family," Randy White says. "One thing about the Cowboys . . . like one big family."
The "family" got together again here on Monday. This time it was for Ernie - their defensive coordinator, Ernie Stautner, who passed away last Thursday in Carbondale, Colo., after an eight-year, 15-round bout with Alzheimer's. He was 80 years old.
They gathered at Saint Phillip the Apostle Catholic Church on Main Street for a funeral mass, and then would retreat to Salerno's Restaurant down the road in Flower Mound, Texas. Ernie's wife Jill and his kids and their families wanted to thank them all, but maybe mostly, keep everyone together for a little while longer.
These days are always rather uncomfortable. I mean, you see people you haven't seen for ages, but as former PR secretary Jerri Mote said, "It's a shame, it takes someone dying to get to see everyone."
You wish - I'm sure they wish - these reunions were for better circumstances, not these guys, who were NFL immortals in their day, having to be reminded of their own mortality when someone goes.
You know it goes through everyone's mind. Sure does mine.
Now there might have been 250 people in the church Monday afternoon, maybe more. But the Cowboys of old must have numbered 40 or 50. They could have fielded a team . . . and a coaching staff . . . and a support staff, what with all the franchise's old secretaries, trainers, video directors, security staffers, strength coach and former First Lady of the Cowboys back in the day, Alicia Landry, all on hand.
Man, you looked around the church in awe. The Cowboys will have seven players in the Pro Football Hall of Fame come August when Troy Aikman and Rayfield Wright are inducted. Five of those guys were at the funeral - Bob Lilly, Mel Renfro, Randy White, Tony Dorsett and Rayfield Wright.
There was another Hall of Famer there, too. Joe Greene. That would be "Mean" Joe Greene to you. You know he's from the Dallas area. You know he was a Steeler, just as Ernie, and maybe it was that which compelled "Thoughtful" Joe Greene to not only walk into the church this day alone, but also volunteer to say a few words after the mass.
"I didn't know Ernie," Greene began at the podium, "but I knew all about him."
He spoke of how he arrived seven years after Ernie's 14-year career in Pittsburgh (1950-63), and "how he put the Steel in the Steelers." He spoke of how Ernie's memory lived on with the Steelers, and said that, "That legacy, and toughness, and honesty and sportsmanship still prevails there."
Not-so Mean Joe finished by saying, "Thank you, thank you, thank you."
That's six Hall of Famers in the same . . . no wait, make that seven. Ernie Stautner was a first-ballot Hall of Fame inductee in 1969.
But this is not just about Hall of Famers. The thought that these guys always seem to rally - "We were a pretty tight-knit team," Charlie Waters said - is what makes you think that era of the Cowboys was so special, and maybe so unique among sports franchises across America.
I mean, there's Lee Roy Jordan and Chuck Howley. John Dutton and Ed "Too Tall" Jones. Cliff Harris and Waters, of course. Larry Cole and John Fitzgerald. Bob Bruenig and Bill Gregory. Robert Newhouse and Doug Dennison. Walt Garrison and D. D. Lewis. Mike Gaechter and Jethro Pugh. Preston Pearson and even Phil Pozderac, who would only have crossed paths with Ernie for six seasons.
There may have been more that I didn't recognize.
Not just these players here Monday, but coaching staff, too. Jim Myers, Gene Stallings, Dick Nolan, Jerry Tubbs, Neil Armstrong, Bob Ward, the strength and conditioning coach. Barbara Goodman, long-time head coach secretary, first for Tom, then Jimmy and Barry, too.
Just on and on and on, stretching into the media of that era, from Frank Luksa to Carlton Stowers to Murphy Martin to Sam Blair to Brad Sham.
"We just had a good group in the 70's," Waters said.
Know how tight they were? Check this one out. When Waters became defensive coordinator for the Denver Broncos in the early 90's, and I had forgotten this, he hired Ernie Stautner, at age 68, to be his defensive line coach.
"Hey man, we needed that toughness," Waters said of what Stautner brought to the table.
Maybe that competitiveness, too. His son-in-law, Greg Hinds, daughter Carol's husband, remembered the time on vacation, after the girls finished playing tennis, Ernie got him on the court. He talked about how he just kept hitting the ball to the older guy, and no matter where Ernie hit the ball, Greg just got it right back down the middle to Ernie, much to his consternation.
"He finally pointed the racquet at me and said, 'Gosh darn it Greg, quit hitting the ball right at me. Play to win!'" remembers Hinds, who certainly, knowing Ernie, had to clean up that line for church purposes.
Lilly told of how Ernie one day at camp, showing the guys how to throw a forearm shiver at the blocking sled, missed the pad and caught all steel. Broke and bloodied his hand, but, by gosh, came out for practice in the afternoon, no matter the cast and "throbbing" hand. Said Lilly, "He made a better man out of me."
Those are all Ernie, through and through, the chiseled, jut-jawed German who pushed those Cowboys blue coaching shorts and shirts to the extreme for 23 years on Landry's staff.
That is why it was so hard for so many to think of Ernie fighting Alzheimer's at the end of his 80 years. He had been living in Vail, Colo., but in the end, had been in the hospital recently and his final four days in the nursing home - Ernie could be tough to handle - where he died.
Family members say, considering, maybe it was for the best.
So there goes another of those larger-than-life Cowboys from that era gone by. Gone, but certainly not forgotten. Not on this day. Not when the "team" got together again.
And you got the feeling the priest saying mass didn't really know Ernie, but had done some research on the World War II vet who had immigrated to this country at age three with his family from Bavaria. And maybe the priest even understood what was before him this day with all those old Cowboys in his midst.
For he began by talking about how each of us at birth "becomes a non-repeatable" being, and that certainly was Ernie, right?
Then he spoke of team, by perception, by accident, who knows.
"No one person makes up a team," the priest said. "(It's) a gang of individuals, and has a life of its own."
Sure must, because once again in death, those old Cowboys are living proof of what they once were.
MICK SHOTS
The New York Jets finally made it official: Former Cowboys offensive line coach Tony Wise has become their offensive line coach under new coach Eric Mangini and he also announced Richie Anderson as his assistant wide receivers coach. The Cowboys former fullback retired from the NFL last year, and did some work with The Ticket (Sports Radio 1301 AM) on its pregame shows.
Charlie Waters said he asked Ernie Stautner one day who were the best four defensive linemen he had ever played with, against or coached, and that the former Cowboys defensive coordinator named Bob Lilly, Randy White, Ed "Too Tall" Jones and Larry Cole - all four pallbearers at his funeral.
Now don't miss me too much. My next column will appear March 2. Ciao.
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DallasCowboys.com Columnist
February 20, 2006 6:39 PM
LEWISVILLE, Texas - The team got back together again, for all the right reasons, even though a sad one.
They all have been doing this from time to time it seems of late. For Tom. For Marty. For Tex. For Harvey. For Bob. They come, as if it were yesteryear, the Cowboys of old. Some, their hair grayer. Some a tad heavier. Some less hair. Some no hair. Some not in such good health themselves. But they come, even though their day together was decades ago.
"When something happens, it's like family," Randy White says. "One thing about the Cowboys . . . like one big family."
The "family" got together again here on Monday. This time it was for Ernie - their defensive coordinator, Ernie Stautner, who passed away last Thursday in Carbondale, Colo., after an eight-year, 15-round bout with Alzheimer's. He was 80 years old.
They gathered at Saint Phillip the Apostle Catholic Church on Main Street for a funeral mass, and then would retreat to Salerno's Restaurant down the road in Flower Mound, Texas. Ernie's wife Jill and his kids and their families wanted to thank them all, but maybe mostly, keep everyone together for a little while longer.
These days are always rather uncomfortable. I mean, you see people you haven't seen for ages, but as former PR secretary Jerri Mote said, "It's a shame, it takes someone dying to get to see everyone."
You wish - I'm sure they wish - these reunions were for better circumstances, not these guys, who were NFL immortals in their day, having to be reminded of their own mortality when someone goes.
You know it goes through everyone's mind. Sure does mine.
Now there might have been 250 people in the church Monday afternoon, maybe more. But the Cowboys of old must have numbered 40 or 50. They could have fielded a team . . . and a coaching staff . . . and a support staff, what with all the franchise's old secretaries, trainers, video directors, security staffers, strength coach and former First Lady of the Cowboys back in the day, Alicia Landry, all on hand.
Man, you looked around the church in awe. The Cowboys will have seven players in the Pro Football Hall of Fame come August when Troy Aikman and Rayfield Wright are inducted. Five of those guys were at the funeral - Bob Lilly, Mel Renfro, Randy White, Tony Dorsett and Rayfield Wright.
There was another Hall of Famer there, too. Joe Greene. That would be "Mean" Joe Greene to you. You know he's from the Dallas area. You know he was a Steeler, just as Ernie, and maybe it was that which compelled "Thoughtful" Joe Greene to not only walk into the church this day alone, but also volunteer to say a few words after the mass.
"I didn't know Ernie," Greene began at the podium, "but I knew all about him."
He spoke of how he arrived seven years after Ernie's 14-year career in Pittsburgh (1950-63), and "how he put the Steel in the Steelers." He spoke of how Ernie's memory lived on with the Steelers, and said that, "That legacy, and toughness, and honesty and sportsmanship still prevails there."
Not-so Mean Joe finished by saying, "Thank you, thank you, thank you."
That's six Hall of Famers in the same . . . no wait, make that seven. Ernie Stautner was a first-ballot Hall of Fame inductee in 1969.
But this is not just about Hall of Famers. The thought that these guys always seem to rally - "We were a pretty tight-knit team," Charlie Waters said - is what makes you think that era of the Cowboys was so special, and maybe so unique among sports franchises across America.
I mean, there's Lee Roy Jordan and Chuck Howley. John Dutton and Ed "Too Tall" Jones. Cliff Harris and Waters, of course. Larry Cole and John Fitzgerald. Bob Bruenig and Bill Gregory. Robert Newhouse and Doug Dennison. Walt Garrison and D. D. Lewis. Mike Gaechter and Jethro Pugh. Preston Pearson and even Phil Pozderac, who would only have crossed paths with Ernie for six seasons.
There may have been more that I didn't recognize.
Not just these players here Monday, but coaching staff, too. Jim Myers, Gene Stallings, Dick Nolan, Jerry Tubbs, Neil Armstrong, Bob Ward, the strength and conditioning coach. Barbara Goodman, long-time head coach secretary, first for Tom, then Jimmy and Barry, too.
Just on and on and on, stretching into the media of that era, from Frank Luksa to Carlton Stowers to Murphy Martin to Sam Blair to Brad Sham.
"We just had a good group in the 70's," Waters said.
Know how tight they were? Check this one out. When Waters became defensive coordinator for the Denver Broncos in the early 90's, and I had forgotten this, he hired Ernie Stautner, at age 68, to be his defensive line coach.
"Hey man, we needed that toughness," Waters said of what Stautner brought to the table.
Maybe that competitiveness, too. His son-in-law, Greg Hinds, daughter Carol's husband, remembered the time on vacation, after the girls finished playing tennis, Ernie got him on the court. He talked about how he just kept hitting the ball to the older guy, and no matter where Ernie hit the ball, Greg just got it right back down the middle to Ernie, much to his consternation.
"He finally pointed the racquet at me and said, 'Gosh darn it Greg, quit hitting the ball right at me. Play to win!'" remembers Hinds, who certainly, knowing Ernie, had to clean up that line for church purposes.
Lilly told of how Ernie one day at camp, showing the guys how to throw a forearm shiver at the blocking sled, missed the pad and caught all steel. Broke and bloodied his hand, but, by gosh, came out for practice in the afternoon, no matter the cast and "throbbing" hand. Said Lilly, "He made a better man out of me."
Those are all Ernie, through and through, the chiseled, jut-jawed German who pushed those Cowboys blue coaching shorts and shirts to the extreme for 23 years on Landry's staff.
That is why it was so hard for so many to think of Ernie fighting Alzheimer's at the end of his 80 years. He had been living in Vail, Colo., but in the end, had been in the hospital recently and his final four days in the nursing home - Ernie could be tough to handle - where he died.
Family members say, considering, maybe it was for the best.
So there goes another of those larger-than-life Cowboys from that era gone by. Gone, but certainly not forgotten. Not on this day. Not when the "team" got together again.
And you got the feeling the priest saying mass didn't really know Ernie, but had done some research on the World War II vet who had immigrated to this country at age three with his family from Bavaria. And maybe the priest even understood what was before him this day with all those old Cowboys in his midst.
For he began by talking about how each of us at birth "becomes a non-repeatable" being, and that certainly was Ernie, right?
Then he spoke of team, by perception, by accident, who knows.
"No one person makes up a team," the priest said. "(It's) a gang of individuals, and has a life of its own."
Sure must, because once again in death, those old Cowboys are living proof of what they once were.
MICK SHOTS
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