He finally won the BIG ONE—Super Bowl VI…and he knew WHO should get the credit. The year was 1972, and the game that year was played in New Orleans. The final score was Dallas Cowboys - 24, and the Miami Dolphins - 3.
Super Bowl 54, also know as Super Bowl LIV, is scheduled for this coming Sunday, February 2, 2020, at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida. The 49ers will play the Chiefs. The story that follows is about this football legend of the past who helped make the game the national sports event that it is each year.
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He was born on September 11, 1924, and grew up in Mission, Texas, located a few miles from the Mexican border. During high school he quarter-backed his football team to a conference championship and an undefeated 12-0 season.
In college he played as a fullback and defensive back for the University of Texas until WWII broke out. Then, for several years he was in the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). It was the aerial warfare service component of the United States Army between 1926 and 1941 and was later renamed the Air Force. He co-piloted a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, a four-engined heavy bomber developed in the 1930s for the USAAC. He flew thirty combat missions in Europe and survived a plane crash.
The war ended in 1945, and it was 1946 when he went back to the University of Texas to finish his studies. He again played football as a fullback and defensive back until he graduated from UT in 1949. In the next three years he completed his post- graduate degree in industrial engineering from the University of Houston. He planned to get his Master’s degree in engineering from that university, but continued with football when he was drafted to play for the New York Yankees—yes, there was a football team named the New York Yankees.
When the Yankees football team folded, he was placed in a talent pool and selected by the New York Giants. There he was both a player and a coach. Vince Lombardi, of Green Bay Packers fame, coached the Offense and he coached the Defense.
After his playing days were over, he planned to return to the University of Houston to complete his Master’s degree…but, instead he was offered the position to become the first Head Coach of the newly formed Dallas Cowboys team!
He was now 33 years old, and he could have said, “No!”; but his wife, Alicia, whom he met at the University of Texas, liked Dallas. In fact, they both liked Dallas. So, when he was offered a five-year contract to coach the new team, he decided to accept even before the Dallas organization had ANY players!
In the early years he struggled to get quality players. Owners of established teams wanted the same talented players and those owners did not make recruiting easy. Finding and hiring quality and talented players was tough work.
It was the fourth year of his contract; the Dallas team still did not have a winning record. The fans wanted to have him replaced; but the owner of the team believed in him, and instead of firing him, (and in one of God’s Other Ways), gave him an unprecedented ten-year contract.
By now you must know I am writing about the legendary coach of the Dallas Cowboys—Tom Landry.
Landry had learned in his early days that to be good defensively, you not only had to guess what the next play the offense would call, you had to “know” what it would be.
Using math skills he had learned from engineering, and after watching and studying hundreds of hours of film of the opposing teams and their tendencies, he became a top level defensive coach. To him football was like a game of chess. He was always thinking several plays ahead.
The Dallas team started winning in the fifth year of his coaching, but Tom felt “empty” inside. A friend invited him to a Bible study. At first, he didn’t want to go but then changed his mind and went. He had been raised in a Christian home, and the family went to church almost every Sunday. It was after he really “found Christ”, Landry said, “My whole life has changed since that time. Now there’s purpose and meaning. I know that life is really finding the right relationship between yourself and God”.
“There are coaches to whom winning or losing means something close to life or death,” said Landry. “If they lose, then their life has somehow been diminished. I’m not that way, and it {keeping my focus on God} keeps me steady. I’m at peace with myself.”
The list of Landry's innovations and contributions to professional football is impressive. Besides being “father” of the 4 - 3 defense in Dallas, he created the umbrella-like flex defense, began using computers, and re-introduced the shotgun formation. He was the first to employ a quality-control coach to analyze game films and opponent tendencies, and he popularized situational substitutions. He was a genius at the Xs and Os of the game!
Tom Landry had twenty consecutive winning seasons as the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys.
After retiring from football, he spent the last years of his life working with The Fellowship of Christian Athletes, the Billy Graham Crusades and many other Christian organizations. In one of God’s Other Ways©, He gave Tom Landry a platform to help change churchgoers into Christ followers.
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A coach is someone who tells you what you don’t want to hear, who has you see what you don’t want to see…so you can be who you have always known you could be. — Tom Landry
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“Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone.” 1 Corinthians 12:3-6 ESV
“Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.” Romans 12:11 NIV
“As God is exalted to the right place in our lives, a thousand problems are solved all at once.” - A.W. Tozer
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If you have a story that you think might bless others, I invite you to send it by email to me (Kenneth Kersey) at godsotherways@me.com.
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