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STAR: The Star In Frisco A Far Cry From Where Cowboys Humbly Began
Tuesday, September 27, 2016 10:38 AM CDT
By Sam Blair
http://www.dallascowboys.com/news/2016/09/27/star-far-cry-where-cowboys-humbly-began
The Cowboys’ first practice facility in Dallas was so unimpressive that their first No. 1 draft choice almost didn’t find it.
“I drove over from Fort Worth for a rookie orientation just before we went to training camp in Northfield, Minn.,” TCU All-America defensive tackle Bob Lilly said. “When I got to Oak Cliff, I saw an old baseball field, but I couldn’t see any way to get to it. I kept driving around and finally went down an old road, parked and walked in an open sliding door. Then I found a small meeting room where Coach [Tom] Landry was speaking.
“When I sat down, he said, ‘You’re late, Bob. We don’t have a fine system in the offseason, but once training camp starts there will be a $50 fine if you’re not in your chair on time. Then if it’s repeated, the fine will double each time it happens.”
One warning from Landry was enough for Lilly.
“My salary for my first year was $10,500,” he said, chuckling. “I figured that fine could get up to $1,000 pretty quick.”
That old baseball park was Burnett Field, a minor league relic on the banks of the Trinity River just across the Houston Street viaduct from downtown Dallas. Through the years it had been rented out for other athletic events. In the late-1940s, Dallas high school football B-teams played there on weekday afternoons. In November 1954, a few weeks after joining the sports staff of The Dallas Morning News, my first beat was covering the new Dallas Hornets semi-pro football team on lovely autumn Sundays. Some beat. The Hornets went broke after three games.
Burnett Field wasn’t attractive, but it was available after the Cowboys franchise was founded on the fly in January 1960 by NFL club owners two months after the league’s college draft for the next season. They were determined to field a Dallas team in September to compete with AFL founder Lamar Hunt’s Texans. The Cowboys’ first training camps that summer were in beautiful Forest Grove, Ore., and beastly Delafield, Wis. Since they had no place to practice in Dallas until September, they bounced around the country playing a patchwork six-game exhibition schedule. In one weirdo, they lost a 49-14 toughie to the Los Angeles Rams at a rodeo arena in Pendleton, Ore.
Settling in at old Burnett Field seemed like a nice idea – until they actually did.
The field sometimes flooded, forcing Landry to load his team on a bus and roam around looking for a school that would allow the Cowboys to work out on its field. They weren’t always successful...
Tuesday, September 27, 2016 10:38 AM CDT
By Sam Blair
http://www.dallascowboys.com/news/2016/09/27/star-far-cry-where-cowboys-humbly-began
The Cowboys’ first practice facility in Dallas was so unimpressive that their first No. 1 draft choice almost didn’t find it.
“I drove over from Fort Worth for a rookie orientation just before we went to training camp in Northfield, Minn.,” TCU All-America defensive tackle Bob Lilly said. “When I got to Oak Cliff, I saw an old baseball field, but I couldn’t see any way to get to it. I kept driving around and finally went down an old road, parked and walked in an open sliding door. Then I found a small meeting room where Coach [Tom] Landry was speaking.
“When I sat down, he said, ‘You’re late, Bob. We don’t have a fine system in the offseason, but once training camp starts there will be a $50 fine if you’re not in your chair on time. Then if it’s repeated, the fine will double each time it happens.”
One warning from Landry was enough for Lilly.
“My salary for my first year was $10,500,” he said, chuckling. “I figured that fine could get up to $1,000 pretty quick.”
That old baseball park was Burnett Field, a minor league relic on the banks of the Trinity River just across the Houston Street viaduct from downtown Dallas. Through the years it had been rented out for other athletic events. In the late-1940s, Dallas high school football B-teams played there on weekday afternoons. In November 1954, a few weeks after joining the sports staff of The Dallas Morning News, my first beat was covering the new Dallas Hornets semi-pro football team on lovely autumn Sundays. Some beat. The Hornets went broke after three games.
Burnett Field wasn’t attractive, but it was available after the Cowboys franchise was founded on the fly in January 1960 by NFL club owners two months after the league’s college draft for the next season. They were determined to field a Dallas team in September to compete with AFL founder Lamar Hunt’s Texans. The Cowboys’ first training camps that summer were in beautiful Forest Grove, Ore., and beastly Delafield, Wis. Since they had no place to practice in Dallas until September, they bounced around the country playing a patchwork six-game exhibition schedule. In one weirdo, they lost a 49-14 toughie to the Los Angeles Rams at a rodeo arena in Pendleton, Ore.
Settling in at old Burnett Field seemed like a nice idea – until they actually did.
The field sometimes flooded, forcing Landry to load his team on a bus and roam around looking for a school that would allow the Cowboys to work out on its field. They weren’t always successful...