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By Mick Doherty It seems Dallas sports fans have been complaining all winter long. Juan "Gone" Gonzalez is just that — gone, traded to Detroit for a bushel of prospects, and fellow Texas Rangers stalwarts Todd Zeile and Aaron Sele have departed via free agency. The Cowboys struggled to finish at 8-8, then were steamrolled 27-10 by Minnesota in the first round of the playoffs. Throw in the likely career-ending injury of Michael Irvin and the impending free-agent loss of Deion Sanders, and even with a new coach in the fold, the future seems a bit tenuous. The Mavericks are, well, the Mavericks — even with new owner Mark Cuban, the focus has been less on winning than on the controversial Dennis Rodman show. And the reigning Stanley Cup champion Stars, battling for first place in the NHL’s Pacific Division, somehow haven’t recaptured the magic of 1998-99. But the worries of the games and transactions faded over the weekend, as Dallas sports fans — indeed, the entire Dallas area — mourned the loss of Tom Landry. The first and greatest coach of the Cowboys, the Man in the Hat, succumbed to a battle with leukemia on February 12 at Baylor University Medical Center. Landry, who coached the Cowboys for nearly three full decades, won 270 games and took his team to five Super Bowls. He was inducted to the NFL Hall of Fame in 1990, and is the third-winningest coach in league history. His innovative style introduced the flex defense and regular use of the shotgun formation on offense to the rest of the league. Yet the wins, the championships, the innovations — these are not what people want to remember most about Landry. He was a man committed to his faith, speaking at his church’s Sunday school meetings, and actively involved with both The Fellowship of Christian Athletes and Billy Graham Crusades. He worked as an inspirational business speaker, applying his coaching methodology to business models, and at the request then-Dallas mayor Annette Strauss, Landry chaired the Dallas International Sports Commission for several years. Perhaps dearest to Landry’s heart was his work, in tandem with his wife, Alicia, in founding the Lisa Landry Childress Foundation in 1995. The foundation, founded in his daughter’s memory and housed at the Baylor Health Care System, strives to increase public awareness of the need for organ donors. Lisa Landry Childress died of liver cancer. "He had a modesty about him and an ego," Cowboys Hall of Fame quarterback Roger Staubach told The Dallas Morning News. "But you roll it all together, and he represented the best of all things." I had the great pleasure of meeting Tom Landry a couple of years ago, when he received the Emery Award, which recognizes contributions to Dallas as a visitor destination, from the Dallas Convention & Visitors Bureau. He was honored by numerous former players — Staubach, Randy White, Bob Lilly, Drew Pearson, and Charlie Waters — who came to speak about the man most still called "Coach." Two images of that afternoon will stay with me. First was the sight of these famous professional athletes, most "larger than life" both literally and figuratively, still in awe and craving the respect and approval of Landry. Second was the moment after the banquet when I asked Landry to sign my program. I don’t collect autographs; this was for my father, I told him (and I meant it). "He was a fan of yours when you played defensive back for the New York Giants," I said to Landry. He smiled and thanked me. I may give that program to dad someday. It seems that everyone in Dallas has a favorite memory of Tom Landry. Some involve meeting him, others involve great moments in Cowboy history; regardless, as Staubach said, the man represented the best of all things. For more reflections on and tributes to Tom Landry, please see:
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