-MY SUPER BOWL XXX!!!!!!!!!
Thursday, January 7th, 2010 at 4:05 pm ©
MY SUPER BOWL XXX
On Sunday, January 28, 1996, Barry’s Dallas Cowboys beat a superb Pittsburgh Steelers team in Super Bowl XXX by a score of 27-17. I have no intention of doing a play by play or a game analysis; I will just say that it was a game which the Cowboys dominated early and in which the Steelers dominated late. The difference, clearly, was the Cowboys’ players’ experience and maturity and the coaching staff’s conservative play calling designed to protect the lead and wait for breaks. The Steelers quarterback made the hoped-for, almost predictable mistakes by throwing two wild passes under defensive line pressure which were easily intercepted by the Cowboys. And after each of those interceptions, returned to the ten yard line or so, the Cowboys’ offensive line plus “all-world” running back Emmett Smith simply stuffed the ball down the Steelers’ throats. Game over. All as planned. (Although it certainly was not easy!)
I read in the morning’s paper of January 29, 1996, that Super Bowl XXX, according to NBC television, was the most watched television event in history, with over 138,488,000 people watching it. Really, it is no wonder that such is the case in view of the quality, closeness, and intensity of the play.
But that was not my Super Bowl. Mine was a much more intimate, nostalgic and loving affair. Oh, I went to Tempe, I was there at the game and will remember it always, but the best parts of it occurred away from Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona. First of all, Barry had a very limited number of complimentary passes and tickets that he could give out (I’m a “poor boy”; there’s no way I could have afforded such a trip!), so he allotted me two tickets. I gave my wife Linda the first option to go with me, but she quickly demurred, saying that our son “Bryce would enjoy it so much more than I would!” Goodness, was she right! Bryce had a great time.
My Super Bowl was loving the moment, watching Barry love the moment, and spending it with his closest and dearest of friends. Here I go again, naming names and I’ll be sure to leave someone out, but I have to note what Barry did. He brought out “Miss Cindy” (Cindy Johnson, wife of his old OU Assistant Mervin Johnson, and great friend), also Beauton Stallings Gilbow (wife of Billy Gilbow, Barry’s college roommate and long-time close personal friend–also the best non-professional chess player in America!); his ex-wife and mother of his children, Kay Switzer from Little Rock; his three children Greg (and his then fiancé Alaina from Stuttgart, Arkansas), Kathy and Doug; his girl-friend Becky Buwick; Omer Stephenson (Barry’s accountant) and his wife Helen Jo, Scooter Yates and his wife Lena; and, honestly, a lot of other folks that I did not know personally. Also there was Bob White, Barry’s great friend from Texarkana, Texas, who was heavily involved in the original recruiting of Barry’s Oklahoma Heisman Trophy winner, Billy Sims, from Hooks, Texas. Also there was Barry’s good buddy from Austin named Rodney Jones who made millions out of an invention he described to me and Barry five years ago and which after hearing the description, I reacted to in the following manner: “Well, Rodney, it now sounds like you have invented the ray gun; now all you need is the space ship!” I sure am glad it was all in fun, for Rodney sold his idea to one of the larger petroleum companies for several million dollars! Both Bob and Rodney are great friends of Barry’s, and I consider them my friends as well.
Barry’s suite at the Buttes Hotel in Tempe was, to say the very least, phenomenal. It was just under 3,000 square feet in size and each evening, it was filled with upwards of a hundred people. In a crowd that large, of course, you have some “hangers on,” people who are not really friends or part of the family, but in fact, most of them were close to Barry in one way or another.
Two of the most enjoyable guests of the Super Bowl had to be Pasquale “Patsy” Benso, the native Italian from Barre, Italy, who owns Othello’s Restaurant in Norman, Oklahoma and his daughter, Camille. Othello’s is the restaurant that has the famous “Table of Truth” which played such a big role in Barry’s resignation from the University of Oklahoma. Pasquale’s daughter Camille, the beautiful Italian who was the “authoress” of all of the weird Brian Bosworth “hairdos” of the early 1980s, was there with her daddy, “Patsy.” Camille is one of those truly beautiful Italian ladies who I suspect, like Sophia Loren, will never lose that distinctive, radiant beauty.
My Super Bowl also included a most interesting and revealing event from NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue’s Dinner/Reception given two nights before the game. Barry had learned that traditionally the coaches actually competing in the game do not attend this event (for fear of media criticism!), and so Barry gave out his tickets to some other friends. As it ended up, Barry and I ended up going to dinner with Pasquale and Camille, with Helen Jo and Omer Stephenson, Gayle and Larry Derryberry, and with good friends Bobby Bell and his wife Jayne, while it was essentially the kids and all of their friends (along with “Miss Cindy” and “Miss Beauton”) that went to the Commissioner’s Dinner.
As it was related to me, the crowd, our crowd, ran into that despicable so-called sports writer from Dallas named Randy Galloway. Upon seeing Galloway seated nearby, some of the kids (I suspect led by good friend and former Arizona Cardinal defensive tackle David Henson and his “sexy redhead wife” Lisa) started yelling “Yeah Cowboys! Yeah Coach Switzer!” Galloway’s response was to yell out into the assembled room of several thousand an intemperate remark. Galloway lost his composure–reportedly, with lots of folks listening.
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Scooter Yates is one of Barry’s good fishing buddies, whom I had met before but whom I really just got to know on this trip. He is the General Manager of the Melrose Hotel in the Turtle Creek area of Dallas–very up-scale–and he and Barry “hit it off” immediately upon Barry’s first coming to Dallas two years ago. The pertinent thing at this point about Scooter is that during the Super Bowl trip I learned for the first time that Scooter also knew Jimmy Johnson well. But, as Scooter says, he met Jimmy fifteen or twenty times over the years Jimmy was in Dallas, and Jimmy never remembered his name! I guess a “mere” hotel manager is below Jimmy’s preferred circle of friends!
An interesting vignette from the trip is that after the game, my son Bryce (without any field credentials!) somehow got onto the field and into the Cowboys’ locker room to join in the festive air. Bryce told me afterwards that one of the people he ran into on the field doing the same thing was Scooter Proctor, Bobby Proctor’s son. Bobby Proctor was Barry’s Defensive Backfield Coach for many years, a truly wonderful man whom we all loved. I hurt for Bobby in particular, because after Barry resigned (or was fired) at Oklahoma, one of the first things that Barry’s replacement, Gary Gibbs, did was to fire Bobby. I had personally felt for years that Gary had hated Bobby. Gary had been the overall Defensive Coordinator under Barry while Bobby was but the secondary coach, and Gary had constantly ridiculed Bobby in coaching meetings that I was in and seemed to summarily dismiss anything Bobby had to say. The reported reason “cold Gary” gave to Bobby for firing him was that “We need to hire a black coach to take your place!” And I had previously thought that Gary was more inteligent than that. With that one move he proved me wrong.
But, the point is, knowing that Scooter, Bobby’s son, was there, brings a “closure” of sorts to all of it. Life goes on; but the only people who ultimately count are “close friends” and family. That’s a lesson few people really ever learn.
I truly believe that the best part of “my” Super Bowl XXX came in the experiences of my son, Bryce Allen Switzer. As noted earlier, Bryce is the fraternal twin of his sister Alison and an extremely outgoing and personable young man. On more than one occasion in the past Barry has told me that Bryce acts more like of “his kids” than mine. What he was referring to, of course, is that in terms of personality, Bryce is extremely open and “never met anyone he didn’t like.” Also, I suppose he could have been referring to the fact that, at least historically speaking, young ladies have flocked to this handsome young man as bees to honey.
For the last two years Bryce has had a steady girlfriend, Lori Binz, and we all expect them to get married at some point in the future. Well, in Phoenix, however, without a wedding ring and without Lori by his side, Bryce appeared to be a prime target for the young ladies–all of whose entreaties he spurned of course! One night up in Barry’s suite an exchange took place between Bryce and Camille which I happened to overhear. Camille, a young 30’s charmer and wife of the weight coach at Oklahoma, was sitting on the sofa (one of the many large sofas!) with Bryce and some other folks. I did not happen to hear what Bryce had said, but after some exchange, I heard the lovely Camille say, in her “put-on” heavily accented Italian accent (which she does so well):
“I’ll tell you something, Bryce Switzer, you go around here for two days in your tight blue jeans and look and act so charming to all the girls and then you say you’re in love with this little pretty girl with long blonde hair in a place called Little Rock and that you are loyal to her; well, I’ll tell you something Bryce Switzer, if I wanted to take you home with me, I could take you home with me and that’s all there is to it!
At that point all within hearing distance broke into laughter, including Camille, but not Bryce. At this time he was picking his jaw up off the floor! It was the first time I had ever seen him totally speechless!
There were two other incidents involving Bryce that I did not even know about until we had returned from Tempe. I was in Dallas recently on personal business with Barry and he happened to mention to me that he was really glad that Bryce had “saved him that $2,600.00!” I had no idea what Barry was talking about, so I asked him to explain.
It turned out that an old coaching friend of Barry’s from both Arkansas and Oklahoma, Pat James, had ordered some cognac from room service at the hotel. Bryce happened to be behind the bar in the suite when the waiter arrived, signed for the cognac, looked at it and immediately hid it from Pat and everyone else! You see, in Bryce’s college working background he has had stints as a clerk in a liquor store in an exclusive area of Little Rock and he had also worked as a bar tender. He immediately recognized the bottle of cognac that had been delivered as a Louis XVI brand that could cost in the thousands. The next day Bryce gave the bottle back to the room service folks and secured Barry a $2,600 credit on his tab!
On the night of January 28, 1996, after Dallas had won the Super Bowl, by 1:00 a.m. or so people started gravitating from Barry’s suite over to the huge tent that Jerry Jones had set up for the hoped-for “victory party.” Since there was all sorts of succulent free food and liquor, and since the entertainer of the evening was country music star Reba McIntire, you can imagine that the security system that had been set up for the party was quite elaborate, and tight. Anyone who wanted to get in had to have a certain printed invitation along with a blue and white reflective wrist band–one that in no way could be duplicated or even broken apart and slipped out to a friend once it had been fastened.
I had gotten into the party with my credentials along with “Miss Cindy” and “Miss Beauton” and Bryce; then I lost track of Bryce. Later I found out from our friend Rodney Jones, who had no credentials, that Bryce had gone back up to the entrance, just when Rodney and Pat James were trying to get into the party. Rodney told the guard that he was supposed to be in there with “Coach Switzer and his family,” but the guard was adamant that Rodney and Pat could not get in without the appropriate identification. As Rodney told me, just at that moment, Bryce appeared from inside the tent, grabbed the guard by the shoulder and said, “Hey, let these guys in. They’re with me!” The guard, who would not have known Bryce from Adam, was taken aback, but by the time he realized he had been had, Bryce, Rodney and Pat were lost inside! You see, it takes a certain kind of talent. Bryce has it.
My Super Bowl XXX included two more very poignant events. Late in the game after it was obvious that Dallas had, indeed, secured the victory, Charles Haley, the All-Pro defensive end came up to Barry and hugged him–holding his arms around Barry for well over a minute and talking in his ear. I believe they caught some of that on national television. The other thing happened in Barry’s suite the night after the game. All-Pro receiver Michael Irvin came into the suite, with his family and loved ones, came over to Barry and did the same thing as Charles had done. That’s what a Super Bowl should be all about.
Don Switzer
Rogers, Arkansas
(c) JANUARY 7, 2010
www.politicsandwhimsey.com
Tags: "Table of Truth", Alaina, Alison Switzer, Arizona, Armando Rousell, Barre, Barry Switzer, Beauton Stallings Gilbow, Becky Switzer, Billy Gilbow, Billy Sims, Bob White, Bobby Proctor, Brian Bosworth, Bryce Switzer, Buttes Hotel, Camille Benso, Charles Haley, Cindy Johnson, Dale Boutwell, Dallas Cowboys, Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, David Hinson, Dean Blevins, Donnie Switzer, Doug Switzer, Gary Gibbs, Gayle Derryberry, Greg Switzer, Helen Jo Stephenson, Hooks, Italy, JERRY JONES, Jimmy Johnson, Kathy Switzer, Kay Switzer, Larry Derryberry, Lisa Hinson, Melrose Hotel, Michael Irvin, NBC Television, NFL Commissioner, Omer Stephenson, Othello's, Pasquale Benso, Pat James, patsy, Patsy Benso, Paul Tagliabue, Pittsburgh Steelers, Randy Galloway, Reba McIntire, Rodney Jones, Scooter Yates, Sun Devil Stadium, Super Bowl, SUPER BOWL XXX, Tempe, Texas, Turtle Creek
