Catch up on the day's news you need to know. The Dallas Cowboys, Clint Murchison Jr., and the Stadium That Changed American Sports Forever. And those who saved their cash were going to be the losers., The Boss, Clinton Williams Murchison Sr., was fond of saying he liked to do business through a formula expressed through the homespun homily financin by finaglin. Clint Sr. soon thrust himself into a pantheon of Texas wheeler-dealers that enumerated such fellow giants as Sid Richardson, H.L. The club came apart from the top. Clinton Williams Murchison, Sr. (April 11, 1895 - 20 June 1969), was a noted Texas-based oil magnate and political operative. 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. Failing health and changing financial markets forced Murchison to sell the Cowboys in 1984. He has turned on MTV and is watching the Naughty By Nature video Hip-Hop Hooray. Radio Nord broadcast in Swedish for 16 months, between March 8, 1961 and June 30, 1962. Clint W. Murchison Jr., the scion of a Texas wildcat oil family who created the Dallas Cowboys football team, died Monday night. This is a digitized version of an article from The Timess print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. [3], In addition to the Dallas Cowboys, The Murchison Family businesses included Centex Corporation (home builders), Daisy Air Rifles, Field & Stream magazine, the Tony Roma's restaurant chain and real estate developments throughout the U.S.[4], In the early 1960s the Murchisons were involved in a proxy fight with Allan P. Kirby over control of Alleghany Corporation, a holding company whose interests included New York Central Railroad and Investors Diversified Services, a large mutual fund company. Its like that. He was determined to create a venue that protected fans while allowing the weather elements freedom to impact the game. They slapped down $50,000 on the spot to buy the leases. John was more conservative than daring, more measured than maniacal. During those years, I watched from the outside as professional football became a billion-dollar business, with the Super Bowl its showcase event. On January 31, 1993, he was euphoric. While his "financing by finagling" precipitated the crash, the family's downfall also resulted from bitter lawsuits in the third generation. 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. As Robert Murchison, Clint Jr.s youngest of four children, notes, Their brother Burk, Dads best friend, died when John was 13 and Dad, 12. Clint Jr. and John, Robert adds, could not have been more different. Spared the wrath of terrorists, Texas Stadium enjoyed a happier fate. After viewing product detail pages, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in. Please try again. Unable to strike a deal with city leaders to build a new stadium in downtown Dallas, Murchison selected a site in nearby Irving. His is an exciting journey during the golden age of journalism, and his biography will be required reading for journalism and medical students alike. Carter glances sideways at me and frowns. Most of it was written over the last 30 years, beginning before my son was born and culminating in recent years as I listened to what my son knew about the Dallas Cowboys and professional football. Under Murchisons ownership the Dallas Cowboys delivered 20 consecutive winning seasons, 17 years of playoff appearances, five trips to the Super Bowl and two Lombardi trophies. 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 first of its kind in the NFL, it was originally intended to be part of a 160-acre mixed use development. His name was Mohamed Atta. While everyone else wore suits and talked football, I wore blue jeans and did outrageous morality plays with defensive tackle Willie Townes and Craig Mortons sheepdog. He was also friends with longtime FBI director J. Edgar Hoover and heavily involved in national politics. Clint Sr. appreciated the kindness, but in his mind, academia was no place for a Murchison. And, I must admit I got some enjoyment out of it. The huskies would go after the chickens and that would be the best halftime show ever. Young said the major systems of the home have been improved, along with bathrooms and the primary suite. Yet, in 1993, Don Perkins is still the best football player Mary Levy ever coached. Contribute to chinapedia/wikipedia.en development by creating an account on GitHub. Son of Financier. . Free shipping for many products! Murchison and McLendon remained in the shadows and allowed Murchison's long-time friend Robert F. Thompson to take credit for actual ownership while day-to-day management was vested in Swedish-Finnish businessman Jack S. Kotschack. The Cowboys and the Super Bowl have come a long way from that close encounter we had in 1966-67. 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 . Among his companies was the Southern Union Company. No pain, no gain. Get the latest news from Steve Brown and the business staff. They had gotten as far as seeding the field with hundreds of pounds of chicken feed and smuggling a couple hundred chickens into the stadium. Pre-order from Texas A&M Press. had exactly zero attendance, including the new $5 billion SoFi Stadium, which houses the Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers, who until the 2021 kickoff had played before zero thats right, zero fans in the stands in Inglewood, Calif., where the capacity is 70,000. I am interested in the Bills because Elijah Pitts is the backfield coach and Elijah went with the Packers to that first Super Bowl instead of Perkins and me. I read the other day that Tom Landry has little time for or interest in professional football these days. 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. Great reading on another of the Texas legends-father and sons. Dont give up. His hires included Tex Schramm as general manager and Tom Landry as head coach. Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app. We document that story as well, showing you how, in the end, it comes back around to Clint. ''One of his greatest satisfactions besides the Cowboys was Texas Stadium, the home of the Cowboys,'' John D. O'Connell, a longtime friend and business associate, said of Clinton Murchison. He was also the father of Dallas Cowboys owner Clint Murchison Jr. [2] Personal [ edit] Clinton Williams Murchison Jr. (September 12, 1923 - March 30, 1987) was a businessman and founder of the Dallas Cowboys football team. 1898, d. 1926). Despite Texas Stadium being demolished by the city of Irving in 2010, the hole in the roof lives on. Jones may not have been aware of it when he bought the Cowboys, but to his credit, he was a quick study. He has switched to Black Entertainment Television and Ice Cube is rapping Givin Up The Nappy Dug Out. Wolfe answers that question in this history of the rise and fall of Texas's Murchison family. In the late 1950's, Clint Sr. was one of the richest Americans, right there with Edsel Ford and all of the Rockefeller boys. He was 63 years old. : By noon the next day, theyd returned to Wichita Falls, having tripled their profit in 24 hours by flipping the leases for $200,000 (more than $3 million in todays dollars). Clint taught the sports world how stadiums could be so much more than where games are played. 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. Top subscription boxes right to your door, 1996-2023, Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates, Learn more how customers reviews work on Amazon. Just one story in the folklore is how one night, Clint Sr. drove to Wichita Falls, near the Oklahoma border, fueled by a rumor hed heard about a wildcat well ready to start pumping black gold. Personal Clint W. Murchison Sr was married twicefirst to Anne Morris (b. Carter tells me that Dallas will beat the Bills in the second half. Follow Mary Grace Granados on Instagram, go to our luxury real estate page or subscribe to our free weekly newsletter. Still, this latest version of the Cowboys sure beats the bejezus out of the Bills, just like Carter said they would. He could barely speak and had hired ex-Redskins quarterback Billy Kilmer to assist him with standing and walking. Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web. [1][2] A son of Clint Murchison Sr., who made his first fortune in oil exploration and became notorious for exploiting the sale of "hot oil", Clint and his surviving brother inherited their father's wealth and business interests to which Clint Jr. added ventures of his own. The Cowboys played at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas since their inception in 1960. Smith will get over 100 yards rushing, he says. Between his junior and senior years, he interned at The Washington Post during "the Watergate summer" of 1973. Johnson didnt just try and patch up for the next year, Carter continues. Then, with his sons by his side, Murchison broadened his business holdings. I am on shaky ground. Somebody get that gol durn Bill Glass, Reeves said in his angry Georgia drawl. This became a model for how other NFL teams would operate stadiums. A fantastic book about an amazing dynasty. Within a short period of time the "Project Atlanta" people sold out completely to the Caroline group. Even so, Clint Jr. created a football team that compiled a record 20 consecutive winning seasons, from 1966 through 1985; appeared in five Super Bowls, winning two; and came to be known as Americas Team. He seems to be able to listen to my question and understand the rap lyrics. Yeh? Not one old lady on Social Security is going to have her taxes raised because of this stadium, Murchison said. He sat on the board of the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, which lingered in Fair Park, in the shadow of the Cotton Bowl, until 1984, when it moved to downtown Dallas as the newly christened Dallas Museum of Art. Theyll never get old. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. Your recently viewed items and featured recommendations. After everybody finished laughing and Danny finished blushing (which he did often), Meredith called the next play and we went on to beat Cleveland. ), 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. This page was last edited on 27 January 2023, at 13:23. In addition to the primary bedroom and bathrooms, the suite has a study, a library and two walk-in closets. He s piiinchin me. He was a 21-year-old kid and pinching was a three syllable word where he came from. The more it changes, the more it stays the same. Not that it was much of a game. In terms of what stadiums could mean to the foundation of a franchise, Jones took what Clint envisioned and put it on steroids. Balanced history of a most interesting family, especially Sr. Murchison quickly established his vision and then hired qualified executives to implement strategies to accomplish the goals. Dallas, Texas 75201. 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. Flanker Max Magee played drunk and caught two TD passes-one of them using only one hand and the side of his head. Murchison fought a rare nerve disease called olivopontocerebellar atrophy[4] and was in a wheelchair in his final years. By leaving most football matters in the hands of operations staff, Murchison did not create an atmosphere of second guessing and arguments over player selection or credit for the team's success. Recalling his wit and sense of humor, Mr. Well, thats what Landry did, 1 point out. In other words, as Cowboys fixtures, they lasted even longer than Clint. He looks at me. Just how long I realized during halftime of Super Bowl XXVII. The ship Bon Jour was later renamed Mi Amigo, and after docking for almost a year in Galveston, Texas she sailed for southern England to become Radio Atlanta (McLendon began his radio career in the small town of Atlanta, Texas). 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. Well. Do you think theyll go to the Super Bowl five times like the Cowboys of the 70s did? Why am I on Landrys side again? It wasnt even called the Super Bowl. In 1960, the National Football League approved a franchise for Dallas, and Murchison, along with Bedford Wynne, was the franchisee or license holder. 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. Texas Stadium became the prototype of the 21st-century stadium, whether it hosts high school games in Katy, Texas, or serves as the $5 billion launchpad that opened in 2020 as the shared home of the Rams and Chargers. He liked to use what bankers called leverage use a small amount of capital and a large loan to gain control of a company with large assets. 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In her first book, Wolfe, former society editor of the Dallas Morning News , gives a superb glimpse of the personal lives and family dynamics of these millionaires whose bankruptcy in 1985 stunned both the state of Texas and the nation's financial community. And yet, it was money that Clint Sr. and his wife would not be able to share. The primary suite has two bathrooms (one complete with a coffee bar), and both are adorned with marble finishes. Money is like manure, Clint Sr. once famously told his boys, echoing a line written by Thornton Wilder in his 1954 play, The Matchmaker, but adding his own special spin: If you spread it around, it does a lot of good. Willie Nelson and Roger Miller, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and The Doors. He nodded to Billy Kilmer, smiled again at Carter and moved toward the elevator. Co-author Burk Murchison is named for the uncle who died. When he retired in 1968 he was the fifth all-time rusher in the NFL. Adjusted for inflation, that amounts to roughly $2.8 million in 2020. How different are the very rich from you and me? 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. Editors note: This excerpt from Hole in the Roof: The Dallas Cowboys, Clint Murchison Jr., and the Stadium That Changed American Sports Forever, by Burk Murchison and News staff writer Michael Granberry, is reprinted with permission from Texas A&M University Press. Clint Murchison Jr. was an entrepreneur, businessman and risk-taking founder of the successful Dallas Cowboys football franchise. And yet, his wealth continued to grow. John excelled, in Woolleys words, in such three-piece-suit enterprises as banking and insurance. After leaving the Marine Corps, he married and returned to Boston, this time to pursue a graduate degree in math at MIT. WITH DANNY REEVES NOW in the New York job, I want the Giants to win. 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. GitHub export from English Wikipedia. The Murchisons: The Rise and Fall of a Texas Dynasty. 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. At that time, he was well on his way to success and wealth in gas and oil, Fortune wrote, and if he had been alone in the world he might never have wandered. And, if they werent in our living room yelling back and forth, they would call each other up after every third or fourth play, every touchdown, field goal, interception, fumble, or quarterback sack and heckle over the phone. Joe Bailey After several unsuccessful opportunities to buy existing franchises, including the San Francisco 49ers and Washington Redskins, Murchison was awarded an NFL expansion franchise that would begin play in the 1960 season. Michael Granberry, Arts Writer. In biblical terms, the story of the Cowboys financial empire is one of Clint begat Jerry. Hunt and Hugh Roy Cullen, American folk heroes in the making. The station was not a financial success, and joined forces with the Caroline organization to become the southern station of Radio Caroline. I weigh 142 pounds.'' I could just picture all their agents arguing about fees and residuals with the guys from PepsiCo. When he got to Wichita Falls, he yanked his buddy out of a poker game. Despite politics and religious issues being banned at the station, it was stopped when the Swedish government introduced new legislation in the spring of 1962, criminalizing the act of buying commercials on the station. Beginning in his native East Texas, the elder Mr. Murchison went on to make millions of dollars in the oil fields near Wichita Falls, Tex. https://www.nytimes.com/1987/04/01/obituaries/cw-murchison-jr-dies-in-texas-at-63.html. Kennedy. 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. His grandfather founded the First National Bank in Athens. In 1952, Murchison joined a syndicate that included Everette Lee DeGolyer and Jack Crichton, both of Dallas, to use connections in the government of General Francisco Franco to obtain drilling rights in Spain. It was the first to use seat option bonds to help fund construction and first to offer luxury suites on a commercial scale. There he teamed up with boyhood friend Richardson, who was nibbling at the edges of a scary new enterprise oil leases. His 2 sons then extended the empire to Wall Street in the 1950s and pro football in the 1960s--they started the Dallas Cowboys. You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition. Don was a small back- 5-foot-10 and 191 pounds. Jane Wolfe is the author of two previous biographies and one that will be published in September, 2022. Over the next 20 years I wrote three more novels, several screenplays, dozens of newspaper and magazine articles and saw my screenplay of North Dallas Forty made into a major motion picture starring Nick Nolte. 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. 750 North St.Paul St. Carter has already heard this. [4], Murchison enjoyed a reputation as a practical joker. Television has convinced a whole generation that success in sports requires a professional career and a stack of product endorsements.
