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The slow, downward death spiral. He formed Southern Union Gas Company. His executives had the authority to make important decisions without consulting him, and he never coached from the corner or second-guessed them, Woolley wrote. He was a wide receiver for the Cowboys, and then he wrote North Dallas Forty. Rather than being a city-owned rental facility, la the Cotton Bowl and dozens like it across America, where the only real perk was a hot dog and a Coke (or in Texas, a Dr Pepper), Clint cast the stadium in an adventurous new light, and Jones got it. He says theyll only run Emmitt Smith about 10 times in the first half and then run him down Buffalos throat in the second half. Through the accelerated officers training program, he was sent to Duke, where he obtained his bachelors degree in electrical engineering. 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 masters in mathematics from MIT. He has turned on MTV and is watching the Naughty By Nature video Hip-Hop Hooray. 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. Clint Sr. was born in 1895 in Athens, a small hamlet in East Texas. 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. Clint Jr. did, too. His hires included Tex Schramm as general manager and Tom Landry as head coach. Wolfe answers that question in this history of the rise and fall of Texas's Murchison family. In 2022, such a sum would exceed $8.364 billion. Then, with his sons by his side, Murchison broadened his business holdings. He got two technicals and lost the kids a close game the other night. Except for one play and they called that one back. And prospered. The club came apart from the top. They believed the people who borrowed money and invested it in land and other things that appreciate with inflation would win. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. The elder Murchison died in 1969, almost a decade into Clint Jr.s Cowboys experiment, which his father only reluctantly supported, despite the fact that, by the time Clint Sr. died, the Cowboys were a sports-world juggernaut. A three-story mansion in San Antonio's Monte Vista Historic District once owned by powerful oilman Clint Murchison has hit the market for $1.5 million. 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. 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. You better have a story I havent heard or Im going to my room. And, right now, in the euphoric afterglow of victory that has to be covering the Metroplex like a constant fog, it would be difficult to find fault with two guys from Arkansas. [8], According to some conspiracy theorists, Murchison's home in Dallas hosted a meeting on the evening of November 21, 1963 (one day before the assassination of John F Kennedy). The Dallas Historical Society will welcome authors Burk Murchison and Michael Granberry for a book signing on Dec. 8 at 6:30 p.m. at the Hall of State, 3939 Grand Ave. in Fair Park, as they debut their book Hole in the Roof: The Dallas Cowboys, Clint Murchison Jr., and the Stadium That Changed American Sports Forever. Carter accepts and respects my decision, though he does not like it. Photo Courtesy, Fort Worth Star-Telegram Collection, Special Collections, The University of Texas at Arlington Libraries, Arlington, Texas. Unable to strike a bargain with the City of Dallas, he elected to build a new stadium in Irving, Texas. John excelled, in Woolleys words, in such three-piece-suit enterprises as banking and insurance. Suite 2100 In 1971,1 began to write my first novel-North Dallas Forty, which would be published in 1973 to critical acclaim and to dismay in the Cowboys front office. The home has a solarium, with access to the garden, as well as a trophy room with original murals signed by Reveau Bassett. [4], Cowboys Linebacker D.D. The hole in the roof appeared for years as one of the opening shots in the hit CBS television show Dallas, which gave to the world the iconic villain J.R. Ewing, a Texas oilman. Yet, he was the rainmaker of his generation., The death of his mother and closest brother took its toll on Clint Jr. in other ways. Dont worry, Dan, he said, sternly. For the most part, Murchison was a hands-off owner, delegating a great deal of operational control of the Cowboys to general manager Tex Schramm, head coach Tom Landry and scouting/personnel director Gil Brandt. Its probably not healthy to take it all so seriously. Looking for more Posh Properties stories? His sons Clint Jr. and John shared their father's wizardry, adding to their investment firmament the Vail, Colo., ski resort and the Dallas Cowboys. How Lamar Hunt and Clint Murchison Jr. cooked up the first Super Bowl. [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. Clint W. Murchison Jr., the scion of a Texas wildcat oil family who created the Dallas Cowboys football team, died Monday night. He changed where and how games are played, not only in professional football but also in baseball, basketball, and colleges and high schools. The Pete Gent Show was not renewed. 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. Also surviving are several grandchildren. 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. 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. He was named a finalist for the 2020 class of the Pro Football Hall of Fame as a contributor, however he was not elected. Hes wondering the same thing I am: What the hell am I doing defending Tom Landry? 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. Fascinating. In 1919, he made his way to Fort Worth, with nary a penny in his pocket. A dozen huskies in feeding frenzy, chasing a couple hundred chickens and dragging Santa along behind to boot. Now, they would pee on an electric fence to get Kenny to sing the national anthem. It was the first to use seat option bonds to help fund construction and first to offer luxury suites on a commercial scale. NO OTHER PRO TEAM HAD ever quite like them, at one and the same time so rich, so dazzling, so young-and so tragic. Back when 1 was playing 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. By Peter H. Frank, Special To the New York Times. 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. He paid a record $140 million for the Cowboys in 1989 and made the team the most valuable sports franchise in the world. Her first book, "THE MURCHISONS: The Rise and Fall of a Texas Dynasty," was published in 1989. 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. 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 company they acquired was Tecon, which over the years would remove the overhanging shale that threatened to close the Panama Canal and would build the tunnel under Havana Harbor, the St. Lawrence Seaway and other multibillion-dollar projects around the world.. It began between the owners, Its the only way I can deal with mis particular dilemma. Yep. . When he got to Wichita Falls, he yanked his buddy out of a poker game. J. R. crumpled to the floor with a gunshot wound in the cliffhanger episode that aired on March 21, 1980. TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. 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. Dare we say it, but that was precisely the model that became the antithesis of how Jones runs the Cowboys. He also happened to be far more socially adept, comfortable in high society in ways his brother never was nor hoped to be. Theyll never die. Theyll win at least three. He said it interfered with concentration. The sponsors quickly dropped out, the station threatened firing and Schramm threatened fines. Dallas sportswriter Blackie Sherrod attributed the Cowboys' success to two rare possessions of Clint Murchison: a bottomless pocketbook and patience.[8]. Back in 1966, when the NFL had two divisions, 14 teams and 560 players, we were playing Cleveland in the Cotton Bowl for the lead in the old Eastern Division. During their first five seasons, the Cowboys lost $3 million and failed to win more than five games a season. Wolfe tells a riveting tale of the rising fortunes and ultimate downfall of the Murchison family, quintessential high rollers. His failure is just one of the ways Hole in the Roof embraces a double meaning.