Clint Murchison Jr., and the Stadium That Changed American Sports . This an excellent expose on the legendary rise and then fall of a true TEXAS Dynasty. Dare we say it, but that was precisely the model that became the antithesis of how Jones runs the Cowboys. John was nothing like his father, whereas Clint was everything like his dad a gambler, a risk-taker extraordinaire. In that respect, Clint Sr. and Jr. resembled a more modern billionaire: current Cowboys owner Jerral Wayne Jerry Jones. The Los Angeles coliseum was half empty, and the crowd was asked to sit opposite the press box so that TV audiences would have the impression that there were lots of people in attendance. He believed his team would be good, even special, for years to come. In the late 1950's, Clint Sr. was one of the richest Americans, right there with Edsel Ford and all of the Rockefeller boys. Wolfe gives a colorful description of a quiet, unpretentious man whose financial acumen and brilliant use of leverage helped him build a multimillion-dollar conglomerate. Johnson didnt just try and patch up for the next year, Carter continues. ), Richardson, Hunt, Murchison and Cullen accomplished their meteoric rise through an alchemy of luck and risk, whose payoff was best captured in the lyrics of the 1960s television comedy The Beverly Hillbillies, about a poor mountaineer who was shootin at some food, when up through the ground come a bubblin crude. We were) finally playing to sold-out crowds after seven years of struggle. Mr. Murchison, who had been debilitated by a neurological disorder, was admitted to Gaston Episcopal Hospital here about two weeks ago, said Sandy McCoy, an associate administrator of the hospital. They may not go five times, but theyll win all they go to. Carter flips back to MTV. In todays dollars, thats north of $87 million. Jones saw what Clint Jr. envisioned with the creation of Texas Stadium. On Sept. 11, 2001, barely a year after asking about the hole in the roof, Atta spearheaded a terrorist attack that flew hijacked airliners into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, killing 2,749 people in the towers and on the ground nearby. Failing health and changing financial markets forced Murchison to sell the Cowboys in 1984. Carter has already heard this. 1 dont know how Johnson treats people. Carter glances at me as two fat VJs start prancing around and talking at us. The Dallas Cowboys, Clint Murchison Jr., and the Stadium That Changed American Sports Forever. John D. Murchison Dies - The New York Times Not one old lady on Social Security is going to have her taxes raised because of this stadium, Murchison said. And what a world it was. Both received highly favorable reviews, including this one about "THE MURCHISONS" - "If episodes of the TV show 'Dallas' were half as interesting as this real life Texas family, ratings would never be a problem.". Lawyers involved in the case called it one of the largest personal bankruptcy cases in United States history.[2]. Texas Stadium and its hole in the roof would not have existed had it not been for the Cowboys founder, Clint Murchison Jr. His father, Clint Murchison Sr., was one of the most iconic names in the history of Texas oil, the world that gave rise to J.R. Ewing. Brings new meaning to the phrase Sunday Funday. It represented a new vanguard in American stadia, just as its predecessor had when it opened for football on a sunlit afternoon on Oct. 24, 1971, with halfback Duane Thomas notching its first score on a 56-yard touchdown run that served as a lyrical foreshadowing of what would happen months later: The Cowboys captured their first championship, beating the Miami Dolphins in Super Bowl VI in New Orleans by the lopsided score of 243. John collected art as an investment. On January 31, 1993, he was euphoric. The event is free, but registration is required. I weigh 142 pounds.'' J. Edgar Hoover. (Perhaps its no coincidence that H.L. The Big Rich: The Rise and Fall of the Greatest Texas Oil Fortunes, The Wolfberry Chronicle: And Other Permian Basin Tales From The Henry Oil Company. He was talking about the very place I made my living in the 60s. Jones even managed to land the Jan. 1, 2021, Rose Bowl game, which, because of the pandemic, could not be played in its traditional home in Pasadena, Calif. He believed his team would be good, even special, for years to come. For all my negative feelings about pro football, I can think of no better example to describe the best of life in the NFL in the 60s. By the end of June 2021, Texas had seen almost 3 million cases of COVID-19 and more than 52,000 deaths putting it third in the nation, trailing only California and New York in deaths and only California in cases. When 1 played for Tom. Clint Murchison Jr. was an entrepreneur, businessman and risk-taking founder of the successful Dallas Cowboys football franchise. He formed Southern Union Gas Company. It was the last time I saw Clint Murchison Jr. The City of Irving will also host the authors, on Dec. 13 at 6:30 p.m. at the Irving Archives and Museum, 801 W. Irving Blvd., Irving. Mr. Murchison, whose fortune reached an estimated $250 million in 1984, according to Forbes magazine, was recently beset with financial difficulties brought on by the collapse of the real estate market and global oil prices. After everybody finished laughing and Danny finished blushing (which he did often), Meredith called the next play and we went on to beat Cleveland. We could not tell the story of Clint Jr. without sharing our view that all good stories fall into three categories: history, comedy or tragedy. Clint Murchison III - JFK Assassination Debate - The Education Forum Trying to tear off his red Bobby Knight sweater to throw it on the floor, he got it caught around his neck, nearly strangling himself. Clint Murchison Jr. (left) and his brother John Murchison smiled after a 1961 meeting of the new board of directors of the multibillion-dollar Alleghany Corp. in New York. There was the Lays commercial preceding Michael Jacksons Heal the World spectacular: Mike Ditka and Howie Long and Phil Simms and Lawrence Taylor and the rest making fun of Tom Landrys bald head to sell potato chips. He spent 19 years at the Los Angeles Times before returning to Dallas. They were arguably professional footballs most popular team, despite falling short of a championship until they won Super Bowl VI on Jan. 16, 1972. And yet, it was money that Clint Sr. and his wife would not be able to share. (In todays dollars, thats more than $750,000.) , Dimensions So, Carter and the Finch boys were at each other all year long, especially when the Redskins and the Cowboys met. The next generations playing out this lunatic antagonism between the Cowboys and the Redskins more than 30 years after it began without the faintest idea how it started. The character, made famous, or infamous, by actor Larry Hagman (whose mother, Mary Martin, played the title role in the original Broadway production of Peter Pan), hot-wired a ratings bonanza that introduced the world to the hole in the roof. [4], Murchison worked with architects to create a revolutionary design for a football-only stadium that would feature a roof that would cover all the seats, but leave an open field to keep the elements as part of the game. Clint Murchi-son Jr. was there-he was already desperately ill. Clint W. Murchison Jr., the scion of a Texas wildcat oil family who created the Dallas Cowboys football team, died Monday night. As a loyal Dallas Cowboys fan, he can recite the stats on everybody from Troy Aikman towell, youll have to ask him. 750 North St.Paul St. This next part is important, because it underscores the model Clint Jr. followed with the Cowboys: Once Clint Sr. established or acquired a company, he left its operations to others, in the same way that Clint Jr. appointed Tex Schramm to be his president and general manager and Tom Landry his head coach. The living room has the original hardwood flooring and crown molding, and the dining room is accented by the original Gracie Studio wallpaper. Hence, Schramm oversaw most of the Cowboys day-to-day business matters, and represented the Cowboys at league meetingsa prerogative normally reserved to the owner. Undaunted, these rich Dallas tycoons would get drunk, make prank calls to George Preston Marshall in the middle of the night and cluck into the phone. Thats not what being young is supposed to be about, anyway. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we dont use a simple average. MARY LEVY, HEAD COACH of the Buffalo Bills, will tell you that the greatest football player he ever coached was Don Perkins at New Mexico in the late 50s. This is the journey we share how Clint Murchison Jr. created the prototype, giving the Cowboys and the rest of professional sports the blueprint of a new model. : Clinton William Murchison, Sr. (1895 - 1969) - Genealogy - geni family tree All five of the Cowboys Super Bowl trophies were acquired when the team made its home in Texas Stadium, spanning the seasons from 1971 to 1995. These included the establishment of the NFL's Dallas Cowboys franchise, real estate development, construction, home building, restaurants and financing the offshore pirate radio station called Radio Nord. Youre such an idiot. My total salary for five years with the Cowboys is less than single game checks today. I played with Don Perkins in Dallas in the 60s, and he was the greatest football player I ever saw. Also surviving are several grandchildren. We may also surprise you by showing you the ways in which the sports world has taken Clints model and corrupted it in ways that he more than anyone would loathe. The suites were an immediate status sensation. NFL films will show the Cowboys seven TDs over and over in every future pregame show, so the network can recoup their billion-dollar investment in the NFL by selling hundreds of minutes of commercial time at $2 mil-Hon-$3 million a minute. And, I must admit I got some enjoyment out of it. Theyll win at least three. Television has convinced a whole generation that success in sports requires a professional career and a stack of product endorsements. His father loved to stay borrowed up to the hilt. He was 6 years old. Finally, I could make out the word cowboy. His mother died when he was two and he was mainly raised by an aunt. We document that story as well, showing you how, in the end, it comes back around to Clint. TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. The result was the famous Texas Stadium hole in the roof.. Who knew that this family had so much to do with what we now know and love as Texas?! Moldea's book further alleges that Murchison maintained a working relationship with former U.S. Senate power broker Bobby Baker (known as "Lyndon Jr." for his close affiliation with the . Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web. He was socially aloof to the point many considered downright rude. I want my kid to handicap for me. Bio | Clint Murchison Jr. An unassuming, softspoken native of Tyler, Tex., Mr. Murchison (pronounced MER-kiss-un) was born Sept. 5, 1921, the son of Clint W. Murchison Sr., who made a fortune in the . Then Perkins from Waterloo, Iowa, spoke in his deep, mellifluent voice. Carter has a first-year basketball coach out of Indiana whos a Bobby Knight wannabe. The station was not a financial success, and joined forces with the Caroline organization to become the southern station of Radio Caroline. Clinton Williams Murchison Jr. (September 12, 1923 - March 30, 1987) was a businessman and founder of the Dallas Cowboys football team. After high school, he enrolled at Trinity University, then in Waxahachie, where he was expelled three weeks later for shooting craps. The huddle turned strangely quiet for a moment. Wolfe tells a riveting tale of the rising fortunes and ultimate downfall of the Murchison family, quintessential high rollers. Now, the Cowboys are made up of kids not much older than my son, and Carter has predicted the 90s will be the Cowboys decade. And not very bright. I have tried to convince myself that if the Cowboys make him happy, then I am happy, but really I still struggle with my own memories of the team and try to reconcile them with the Cowboys of today. He graduated from Samuell High School in Pleasant Grove in 1970 and from Southern Methodist University in 1974. I guess thats good. Flanker Max Magee played drunk and caught two TD passes-one of them using only one hand and the side of his head. Murchison funded radio entrepreneur Gordon McLendon to create a floating commercial (pirate radio) station called Radio Nord aboard the motor vessel Bon Jour, anchored in the Stockholm archipelago. Hole in the Roof Theyve got free agency, and theyre going to live and play in the NFL forever. He also happened to be far more socially adept, comfortable in high society in ways his brother never was nor hoped to be. In The Murchisons: The Rise and Fall of a Texas Dynasty, author Jane Wolfe writes how Clint Jr. thrived in a milieu of intellectuals from Harvard, MIT and Wellesley. Murchison's laissez-faire attitude has been credited by many Cowboys fans as the driving force in the team's 20 consecutive winning seasons from 19661985 (including five Super Bowl appearances and including two Super Bowl championships). Do your best every day. Reviewed in the United States on September 26, 2002, This book proved to be a very good read.You are shown how the, Reviewed in the United States on February 9, 2007. . Kennedy. He s piiinchin me. He was a 21-year-old kid and pinching was a three syllable word where he came from. She said he died of complications caused by pneumonia. Soon after Clint Jr. left MIT to return to Dallas to stake his place in the family business, Clint Sr. received a letter from the MIT professor with whom Clint Jr. lived as an undergraduate. ''With his engineering background, he was very much 'hands on' during its construction. Marshall would get his number changed and unlisted. The Murchisons: The Rise and Fall of a Texas Dynasty Hardcover jccdallas.org/event/hole-in-the-roof. The Murchisons: The Rise and Fall of a Texas Dynasty. Co-author Burk Murchison is named for the uncle who died. A fantastic book about an amazing dynasty. The Jonsson-Cullum forces adamantly and repeatedly said no, ridiculing the notion as civic silliness. I was led to this book from Brian Burrough's "The Big Rich." They won for 20 years. 1 am quickly backpedaling. The Packers went instead and we became the team that couldnt win the big game. The Father, The Son and The Cowboys - D Magazine How the Dallas Cowboys Were Born in 1960 [7] On the eve of the Dallas Cowboys' first Super Bowl he wrote to coach Tom Landry, Dear Tom: I have taught you all I can. Balanced history of a most interesting family, especially Sr. The franchise was worth $600,000 when the Murchisons bought it, and the Super Bowl was an afterthought of a game designed to pave the way for the NFL-AFL merger that would keep down player salaries. During the outrageously troubled 2020 season, 13 National Football League teams 13! By Burk Murchison and Michael Granberry. As we show you later, the city of Dallas twice rejected Americas Team, failing to cut a deal that forced the 21st-century Cowboys to look elsewhere for a new home, which turned out to be Arlington. Mr. Murchison is survived by his second wife, Anne, and a daughter and three sons from his first marriage, Coke Anne Saunders, Clint Murchison 3d, Burk Murchison and Robert Murchison. Despite being a scrawny 5 feet 6, 120 pounds, he played halfback on an intramural team at Lawrenceville, his New Jersey prep school. They slapped down $50,000 on the spot to buy the leases. He gets on my nerves but hes a good coach. Carters eyes never leave the television. Brandt had a free hand in drafting and scouting players, and Landry enjoyed absolute authority over the day-to-day running of the actual team. When he got to Wichita Falls, he yanked his buddy out of a poker game. The primary suite has two bathrooms (one complete with a coffee bar), and both are adorned with marble finishes. The Murchison estate also included what the family called the "Big House," a 22,000-square-foot mansion that Clint Sr. built and which Lupe abandoned in 1998, when she completed her house just . Clint was the first American sports owner to see the stadium as the primary source of revenue, even more so than television. Fascinating. You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition. Reviewed in the United States on August 5, 2017. Its cast of supporting actors included silent brother John. In later years, the joke became, They talk about Clint being low-profile, but he was a carnival-barker show daddy compared to John, who most Cowboys fans didnt know existed. In later years, however, John played an excruciatingly important role in the history of the Cowboys albeit in death, which triggered the fall of Clint Murchison Jr. John was two years older than Clint Jr. and was, by all accounts, the careful, judicious partner. No, he shakes his head. Clint Jr. saw a downtown stadium as a far better home for his rapidly improving team than what he called the fully depreciated Cotton Bowl in Fair Park. He has switched to Black Entertainment Television and Ice Cube is rapping Givin Up The Nappy Dug Out. https://www.nytimes.com/1987/04/01/obituaries/cw-murchison-jr-dies-in-texas-at-63.html. His loyalty has spanned all three eras, from Clint Murchison to Bum Bright to Jerry Jones. In terms of what stadiums could mean to the foundation of a franchise, Jones took what Clint envisioned and put it on steroids. Recalling his wit and sense of humor, Mr. Clint Murchison Sr. erupted from East Texas during the rough-and-tumble years of oil drilling in the 1930s, and spent his life "doing deals." Like many . Hes wondering the same thing I am: What the hell am I doing defending Tom Landry? Son of legendary Texas oil man Clint Murchison Sr., he enlisted in the Marine Corps after the attack on Pearl Harbor, earned an electrical engineering degree from Duke University and a master's in mathematics from MIT. Its a lot different now. A love of football that began in prep school led Mr. Murchison to create the first great professional sports franchise in Dallas, the National Football League's Cowboys, in 1960. Help others learn more about this product by uploading a video! We went 4 and 10, and it was the Cowboys last losing season for the next 20 years. Tex and Tom couldnt keep their areas of responsibility defined. Home | Clint Murchison Jr. Its probably not healthy to take it all so seriously. Clint Murchi-son Jr. was there-he was already desperately ill. After all, Michael Irvin makes about $1.2 million and drives a Mercedes. 1 looked at Carters shirt where the outline of a cowboy on a bucking horse was stitched over his heart. Spared the wrath of terrorists, Texas Stadium enjoyed a happier fate. As Jones said on the night in 1989 that he proclaimed himself the Cowboys new impresario, he would be involved in everything down to the jocks and socks. The Murchison way was the polar opposite. And Emmitt Smith is gonna get a lot more than Duane Thomas for doing almost exactly what Duane did on the field. In the early 1960s Burl pioneered home kidney dialysis treatment and in 1966 became only the 130th person in the world to undergo a live kidney transplant, a risky and unproven operation at the time. Then thru the 70's it all starts to fall apart as Clint jr made dumber and more leveraged deals that thru off little cash. Then Clint slowly lifted his cane and smilingly pointed at the front of Carters pullover shirt. I finished out my career with the Giants playing for the Mara family-I cant stand the Maras-so Ill pull for them to win games and lose money. Clint believed there was an opportunity in Dallas for a successful professional football team. Boy, did they prosper. Even those who know a little, Fortune wrote, dont pretend to understand how Clint got mixed up in so much outlandish stuff, or how he keeps track of it all without going batty or broke. His wealth in 1953 was estimated at $300 million and growing. It was gonna be beautiful. Even in this environment, Clint Jr. was viewed as a scientific genius and an eccentric. https://cityofirving.rezgo.com/details/328826/hole-in-the-roof-book-signing-and-authors-talk. But some things havent changed: I am a father who refuses to allow his son to play football despite his deep desire and obvious talent as a receiver-it is a price that is just not worth the privilege. . And theyll beat Buffalos no-huddle offense by sacking Jim Kelly and causing a lot of fumbles and interceptions. Carter tells me that the week before the game. [11] Texas Stadium was the first dedicated football stadium to offer luxury suites. For public libraries interested in the history of the oil business or Texas, or in the exploits of the wealthy. No spam, ever. The club came apart from the top. In the long run, the Cowboys may be the family's biggest memorial. To wit: In 2017, Katy, Texas, unveiled a $72 million high school facility, which carries luxury boxes for corporate sponsors. The university offered to reinstate him if he would rat out his fellow gamblers he refused. You cant talk to them about pensions and health insurance and how bad youre gonna feel every morning. Hunts son, Lamar, also founded a professional team, the Dallas Texans, who began playing in the Cotton Bowl in 1960, at the same time the Cowboys did, but who, after winning the American Football League Championship in 1962, became the Kansas City Chiefs a year later, only months before the Kennedy assassination in November 1963.