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Right off the bat let me say there will be NO objectivity in this report.. I am a dyed in the wool Dallas Cowboy fan dating back to 1960..and Darren Woodson was always one of my favorite players.
In 1991 he was playing college football for the Arizona State University Sun Devils as a linebacker and stand-up defensive end. Dallas Cowboys assistant coach Dave Campo came to Tempe to scout several other players, BUT his well trained eye kept coming back to the speedy linebacker wearing number 6..
Woodson was rather small for a linebacker, but could hit with the ferocity of a freight train. In 2005 he was named to the Arizona State University Hall of Fame, and in 2009 the State of Arizona named him to their Sports Hall of Fame. Woody came to ASU as sort of a problem player but his position coach at the time was Lovie Smith, and the coach took a special interest in Woody and guided him down the straight and narrow.
At the insistence of Coach Campo, the Cowboys selected Woodson in the second round (37th overall) of the 1991 college draft. Campo is adamant about seeing Woodie as a safety from the first day he saw him...thus he was transformed from a small linebacker to a large safety. Woodie has always been blessed with the speed of Bambi, and this has made it possible for him to recover from mistakes in the blink of an eye.
In the early years Woodie was used as a 'nickel back'..meaning he came in to cover slot receivers and double tight end formations. With his speed he was able to run with the receivers but also was close to the line of scrimmage to be a part of stopping any running plays. To say that Woodie excelled in his job would be a gross understatement. The tale of the tape says it all! Woodson was named to five Pro Bowls... Elected to three All-Pro teams.. and was a key member of three Super Bowl Championships by the Cowboys. Woodie has championship rings for the XXVII, XXVIII, and XXX Super Bowls. (Thats 27th, 28th, and 30th Super Bowls for those of you that don't read Roman numerals.)
Woodson played his entire twelve year career with the Dallas Cowboys and remains their 'all-time leading tackler' with 1,350 stops to his credit. Sports Illustrated Magazine called Woodie one of the hardest hitters in the entire NFL. He broke the team tackling record of LeeRoy Jordan in a 2002 game with the Seattle Seahawks. It would have been a bigger headline, except it came in the same game where Emmitt Smith broke the all-time rushing record of Walter Payton.
After retiring from the game, Woodie remains close to the action as a commentator for ESPN.
He talks football with a simple conversational manner and, unlike some in the same position, Woodie is articulate and easily understandable. Naturally, he is always the voice the network turns to for the latest information on the Dallas Cowboys.... America's Team!
While covering the Cowboys at training camp in August, a member of the Dallas Public Relations Department told Woodie that team owner Jerry Jones would like to see him in the tower overlooking the practice field. Woodie said he had the same feeling as a young player being cut from the team at the time.... BUT Jones wanted to inform Woodson he would be named to the Ring of Honor surrounding the Cowboys home field.
The news broke back in August but the date was set for November 1st, 2015 for the actual induction, and now that date has rolled around. This Sunday when Dallas plays host to Seattle, Darren Woodson will become the 21st member of the Ring of Honor at A.T.& T. stadium. It's been a long time coming but nobody whoever suited up in the silver and blue has been more worthy of the honor.. Thanks for the great memories Woodie..and welcome to the Ring!
When you mention his name most people will have a puzzled look on their face,...but actor Burton Gilliam has been in over a dozen motion pictures, various television shows, and a ton of commercials. He brought Pace Pacante Sauce a ton of sales with his line about the foreign pacante sauce being made in New York City...and he cries, "New York City?...Get a rope!"
His most famous scene came in the movie 'Blazing Saddles' with Gene Wilder and Cleavon Little. The cowboys are all gathered around the campfire eating beans when nature takes its course.
Actually it was an all-star cast with names like Harvey Korman, Madelin Kahn, Slim Pickens, and Alex Karras also being featured performers. Denison's own John Hillerman also had a part in the flick, but would become prominent later in the TV series 'Magnum P.I. He was the guy who was Magnum's boss.
Back to the point of this posting,.. Burton Gilliam now does TV commercials for several area auto dealerships.. Remember the line, 'We don't care how you get here,..just get here?' That's Burton !
Burton was also in 'Paper Moon' with Ryan O'Neal... That was his first picture and impressed the director and producers with his natural Texas accent and sense of humor.
He has worn those same chaps for almost fifteen years and they are starting to come apart. A mutual friend of ours brought Burton to our house for a fitting for a new pair of chaps. My wife is a seamstress without peer. If it can be made out of any material, my wife can do it, and most of the time without a pattern to work by.
Burton came by for a fitting and three weeks later came by to pick up the finished product.
The next time they update his commercials for the dealerships look for the newer chaps. They are lighter than his old ones as they are made from buffalo hide. Momma reinforced all of the stress points and he seemed to be extremely pleased with the outcome.
Not only did he like the chaps but now we are almost buddies. We are going to have lunch sometime soon,...IF he can find the time in his busy schedule.
It was suppose to be one of the biggest mismatches in the long and storied series between these two schools. Odds-makers in Las Vegas had installed the Oklahoma Sooners as a three touchdown favorite over the Texas Longhorns... but a funny thing happened on the way to the Fair (literally).
As the State Fair of Texas surrounded the Cotton Bowl in a sea of fun and adventure, the two rivals collided again in a yearly battle that dates back to 1900. In a vote of college football coaches this rivalry is only topped by two others, Michigan & Ohio State, and Army vs Navy. Texas has a lead in the overall series with 61 victories, compared to 44 for Oklahoma, with 5 games ending in a tie. Since World War II the series has been more competitive with Texas winning 35 times, Oklahoma 33 times, and the two battled to a tie on 3 occasions.
The Sooners came into the game unbeaten in four outings and ranked number ten in the latest coaches poll. It is said you can never predict the outcome in a rivalry of this magnitude and maybe that is true...but Texas was coming off a 50-7 drubbing by TCU last week and was determined to turn their season around at the expense of the Sooners. A solid drive on their first possession and then another score off an Oklahoma turnover and the Steers found themselves on top 14-0 as the first quarter came to an end.
The Texas defense was determined to hold down the high octane offense of OU and they accomplished their mission completely.. Texas held Oklahoma to just 67 yards rushing while Longhorn runners went crazy with 313 yards rushing.
Texas Head Coach Charlie Strong has been under fire over the past few weeks as his team has suffered big losses at home and on the road. Quarterback Tyron Swoopes lost his job to freshman Jerrod Heard and maybe that was the catalyst in Saturday's game. The running and throwing of Heard gave the Steers the early momentum. He finished with 115 yards passing the ball and 21 yards on the ground. To say that Texas planned to run the ball against the vaulted defense of OU would be an understatement. The Longhorns ran the ball 58 times and went to the air on 12 ocassions. The longest run of the day came in the third quarter when it looked like Oklahoma might be on the verge of a comeback. Texas tailback D'Onta Foreman burst through for an 81 yard run to the OU ten yard line that put away any hopes for an OU comback.
It goes into the books as the first Texas-OU victory for Coach Charlie Strong, and might have saved his job in Austin. Texas blue-bloods had starting thinking they might have the wrong man for the job after three straight losses, but Saturday's 24-17 win has put him back on the top of the mountain for Texas fans. Strong admitted after the game he had received a phone call from former Texas Coach Mack Brown telling him to 'keep battling' and not to give up his long range plans.
The job as Head Coach at Texas is arguably one of the top five positions in the country... and Strong has a number of young players fighting for him and the pride of Texans everywhere.. Note Texas Governor Greg Abbott on the sidelines rooting for his Horns.
All Photos courtesy of the Dallas Morning News
Saturday (October 3rd) the City of Denison held it's annual 'Fall Festival' on Main Street in the downtown area. Main and cross streets were marked off by police and thousands poured out to visit the various booths on display. Any kind of food you can think of was there for your enjoyment, as well as many different organizations wanting your support for their efforts...
You could walk the entire five block area and not see any space between the vendors. What you are looking at is the many different tents erected in the middle of the street. There were also vendors set up on the curbs on each side of the street.
My main reason for attending the festival each year is the car show they always have. As you can probably figure out from previous postings, I have a distinct fondness for cars.... especially older cars.
This is a 1933 Plymouth 5-window coupe.. Ford and Chevy usually dominate the Hot Rod field, so it was nice to see a Plymouth. Really a nice looking coupe and I especially liked those custom made headers.
Dot brings her 1939 Ford Coupe to the show every year and I always take time to view it. I love the fact she keeps it as original as possible. That 85-horsepower flathead engine was a stroke of genius by Henry Ford. Plenty of power and sounded great through a set of glass-pak mufflers. Ford made this engine from 1932 through 1953.
I remember this car from one of the car shows at Texoma Harley-Davidson in years past. It is a 1937 Chevrolet Coupe and is so clean you could eat off of it. It came from the factory with a 216 cubic inch 6-cylinder engine, but now sports a 350 cubic inch V8...and small details are really finished off nicely in this car.
Proving that you are never too old to learn something is this pick-up on display Saturday...It is a 1927 Ford Model T.. See the owner sitting inside? I struck up a conversation with him and he became the instructor. I figured the truck would have the same transmission as the cars of that period.....WRONG!
Take note there is no gear shifter on the floor!... and that lever to the far left is not an emergency brake. Observe the three pedals on the floor. The pedal on the left is first gear (or low).. once the truck gets moving, the lever is pushed all the way forward to shift into high gear. The middle pedal is used for reverse and the pedal on the right is for braking. A lever under the steering wheel was used for throttle control.
And this is the original 4-cylinder engine that came in the Model T Pick-Up.. Very basic, but if you stop to think about it, it was at the top of technology charts for its day.
A 1923 Ford T-Bucket Roadster...and a really impressive one at that. A lot of these old car are fiberglass kit cars, but I think this one was all metal.
1932 Ford 5-Window Coupe... The owner drove it up from Arlington this morning to be in the show. I talked with him for a few minutes about this fine looking ride. He has owned it since he was fourteen years old and sold the original 'roadster' body and kept the chassis. About ten years ago he decided to build a coupe and remembered he still had this frame and front end sitting in the grass behind his shop. BAZINGA!!.. Now he has this fine ride.
1939 Cadillac LaSalle...and powered by a 409 cubic inch Chevrolet engine putting out 400 horsepower with an automatic transmission. The interior is sort of a horsehide material almost identical to the stuff that came from the factory. This car is also owned by a woman and she drives it daily.
I have admired this car for a long time... It is a 1950 Chevrolet Deluxe 2-door sedan...and looks like it just rolled off the assembly line. Everything about it looks like brand new and it is authentic right down to the heater,..which was an option in 1950. I owned a 1950 Chevy business coupe my senior year in high school and it was the talk of the school..
Another extremely clean representative... This is a 1947 Chevrolet Fleetmaster.. top of the line for the day. A Chevy 350 V8 powers this ride down the road with ease. I especially like the way he has 'frenched' the headlights, and kept the stock grille that was so prevalent on the 1946, 47, and 48 Chevys.. The interior was just as clean as the outside of this beauty.
There was also plenty of Mustangs and Chevy Nova's as well as newer cars in the show, BUT I am an old school guy and these were the cars that I really enjoy seeing brought back to life. The weather was super and nothing like two years ago when it was a cold and damp day. Thank You Lord !
