Clint Sr. shipped John and Clint off to prep school. He believed his team would be good, even special, for years to come. 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. Yeh? He spent 19 years at the Los Angeles Times before returning to Dallas. They began doing business as the Murchison Brothers in the late 1940s from an office in Dallas, Texas. He returned to Athens and worked in the bank until the outbreak of World War I, when he joined the Army. Clint Murchison Sr. was among the richest of Texas oilmen, appearing on the cover of Time magazine in 1954 with an estimated net worth of more than $300 million. Its probably not healthy to take it all so seriously. She has written for dozens of newspapers and magazines, including "The New York Times" and "Town & Country.". Murchison fought a rare nerve disease called olivopontocerebellar atrophy[4] and was in a wheelchair in his final years. Among his companies was the Southern Union Company. He reacted to his rejection by threatening to slit the throat of loan manager Johnell Bryant, who told him she was skilled in the martial arts, which scared him away. More than $500 million in liabilities have been filed against the Murchison estate in the last two years. After all, I did it for Tex and Tom for 20 years. Clint Jr. did, too. What most of America doesnt know is that he, too, was revolutionary. 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.. 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. The Murchison wealth was left to Clint Jr. and his younger brother, John. 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. Instead, Murchison believed in his young coach and gave him an unprecedented 10-year contract that turned out to be a very successful move. Don was a small back- 5-foot-10 and 191 pounds. He was curious about the latters hole in the roof, which Dallas Cowboys linebacker D. D. Lewis once famously said existed so that God can watch his favorite team.. 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. Listing agent Lillie Young, citing tax documents, said the home was originally built for Texas oilman Clint Murchison Sr. Except for one play and they called that one back. Theyve got free agency, and theyre going to live and play in the NFL forever. Both have become huge moneymakers and a part of American sports mythology. Hunt and Hugh Roy Cullen, American folk heroes in the making. However, the family's style of loose management and easy credit based on a handshake was ill-suited to the late 1970s, when oil prices toppled and interest rates soared. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. They passed up Tony Mandarich for Troy Aikman. Carter turns back to Ice Cube and The Nappy Dug Out. Then Clint slowly lifted his cane and smilingly pointed at the front of Carters pullover shirt. The huskies would go after the chickens and that would be the best halftime show ever. 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. In 1960, the National Football League approved a franchise for Dallas, and Murchison, along with Bedford Wynne, was the franchisee or license holder. WITH DANNY REEVES NOW in the New York job, I want the Giants to win. The Cowboys played at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas since their inception in 1960. In todays dollars, thats north of $87 million. 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. 1 looked at Carters shirt where the outline of a cowboy on a bucking horse was stitched over his heart. , Item Weight Clint Jr.s risk-taking would lead him to the world of professional football and allow his team to succeed. 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. In other words, as Cowboys fixtures, they lasted even longer than Clint. A fantastic book about an amazing dynasty. 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. 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." But I should try. Theres no in-between mats very comfortable. [4] Better seats required the purchase of multiple bonds with the best seats requiring the purchase of four bonds for a total of $1,000. Just how long I realized during halftime of Super Bowl XXVII. 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. 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. Watch what they do to Buffalo. Murchison is also recognized as the father of the modern football stadium. Please try your request again later. Except most of the dilemmas are caused by being in sports in the first place. Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required. In the long run, the Cowboys may be the family's biggest memorial. The younger Mr. Murchison attended preparatory school in Lawrenceville, N.J., and was graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Duke University with a degree in electrical engineering while serving in the Marine Corps. I guess. I nod. Reviewed in the United States on August 5, 2017. To wit: In 2017, Katy, Texas, unveiled a $72 million high school facility, which carries luxury boxes for corporate sponsors. He was furious. Carter has a first-year basketball coach out of Indiana whos a Bobby Knight wannabe. Bright in turn sold the Cowboys to Jerry Jones in 1989 following several losing seasons. Its just that in football you spend your youth so fast. COMING IN 2022 FROM TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY PRESS. Its 70 acres now eat up multiple blocks, housing museums and a school for the performing arts, in addition to the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, the Dallas Opera and the Tony Award-winning Dallas Theater Center. [10], Incorporating a host of first-ever innovations, Murchison became known as the godfather of modern stadium construction. it suddenly became clear to me how much time has passed. So young, so vital, so seemingly unstoppable. Carter has already heard this. 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. Now he has a 16-year-old son who sees the team and the sport very differently than he did. Clint Sr was a former wildcatter who got into the oil business right after World War 1. [4], Cowboys Linebacker D.D. Adjusted for inflation, that amounts to roughly $2.8 million in 2020. . Full content visible, double tap to read brief content. The primary suite has its own wing, which amounts to more than 2,000 square feet. It represented an alliance of the founders sons, older brother John and younger brother Clint. Also surviving are several grandchildren. (In todays dollars, thats more than $750,000.) Great reading on another of the Texas legends-father and sons. DAD? This was the same man who almost fired me in 1968 for getting Kenny Rogers a sideline photographers pass. Plenty of Texas History you would never learn about in a history class (in Texas). Author Jane Wolfe lived in Dallas for forty years before recently relocating to her hometown of Columbus, Ohio. Reviewed in the United States on August 4, 2017. [11] Texas Stadium was the first dedicated football stadium to offer luxury suites. Clint Jr., probably best known as the builder and first owner of the Dallas Cowboys, was also a philanderer and deal-maker. 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. The Packers went instead and we became the team that couldnt win the big game. The slow, downward death spiral. Yet, in 1993, Don Perkins is still the best football player Mary Levy ever coached. We missed going to the first two by a total of 3 yards and about 15 seconds. Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items. Somebody get that gol durn Bill Glass, Reeves said in his angry Georgia drawl. He made Phi Beta Kappa in electrical engineering at Duke University in Durham, N.C., and earned a masters degree in mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which was at the time the countrys toughest school for science and engineering. Use tab to navigate through the menu items. His is an exciting journey during the golden age of journalism, and his biography will be required reading for journalism and medical students alike. Mary Grace Granados is a Dallas native and graduate of Southern Methodist University. 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 suites were an immediate status sensation. I made $ 11.000, arid my rent was $ 180 a month for a furnished one-bedroom. Young said the major systems of the home have been improved, along with bathrooms and the primary suite. Looking for more Posh Properties stories? John Murchison and his brother Clint Murchison Jr. were the first owners of the Dallas Cowboys. I was led to this book from Brian Burrough's "The Big Rich." 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. 1 dont know how Johnson treats people. Carter glances at me as two fat VJs start prancing around and talking at us. Sitting there watching Tom and Michael. They will shut off their outside receivers. He received a master's degree in mathematics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She writes about luxury properties, food and lifestyle in Dallas. Most of what Clint said was unintelligible, but he kept pointing with his cane and trying to talk. 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 and Richardson drove to the site, and sure enough, smelled the black gold bubblin up. , Hardcover 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. Now, they would pee on an electric fence to get Kenny to sing the national anthem. If that name sounds familiar, it may be. After all, Michael Irvin makes about $1.2 million and drives a Mercedes. The future seems to be theirs for the taking. 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. What about Clint? He also happened to be far more socially adept, comfortable in high society in ways his brother never was nor hoped to be. But the most compelling contain elements of all three. This was, for the most part, exactly what Clint Jr. had envisioned. And Murchison didnt stop with the fight song. In 1966, when the still-young Dallas Cowboys franchise ended six years of agony with their first winning season, the team's owner and founder, Clint Murchison Jr., son of a billionaire oilman, was feeling ambitious. 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. He formed Southern Union Gas Company. [4], Murchison enjoyed a reputation as a practical joker. [13], Murchison ran into financial difficulties as a result of questionable investments and mismanagement and failing health[2] at a time when the real estate market was collapsing, at the same time as a sharp decrease in the price of oil and a rise in interest rates. They slapped down $50,000 on the spot to buy the leases. [1] He died of pneumonia in 1987 at age 63 in Dallas,[2] and is buried at Sparkman-Hillcrest Memorial Park Cemetery in North Dallas. 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. Theres a bar room with a hidden basement or wine cellar below, and a third-level game room, according to details provided by the agent. Murchison had two brothers, John D. Murchison (19211979) and Burk Murchison (19251936), who died at age ten from a childhood disease. Ive heard that before. Murchison suggested hiring Landry away from his job as a defensive coach with the New York Giants. 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. 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. His elder son, John, won Wall Street's biggest proxy fight, developed the Vail, Colorada ski resort, and was a noted jet-setter. Please try again. Unable to add item to List. No pain, no gain. Its the least I can do. By Peter H. Frank, Special To the New York Times. And, one day, you wake up and realize you did what they told you. Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations. Broke and dying, Clint Jr. sold the Cowboys in 1984, the same year the art museum abandoned Fair Park, only to resurface downtown as the anchor of the Dallas Arts District. The new stadium has yet to lay claim to a Super Bowl-winning Cowboys team. He fought a rare nerve disease and died in 1987 at age 63. This is a digitized version of an article from The Timess print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. 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 . 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. Construction on the vast estate began in 1936, and the home was designed by noted architect Anton Korn, according to The Dallas Morning News archives. Who knew that this family had so much to do with what we now know and love as Texas?! I thought you didnt like Landry and Schramm. Carter doesnt take his eyes off the screen, which is filled with oversized behinds, shaking like wet dogs. His mother died when he was two and he was mainly raised by an aunt. Not one old lady on Social Security is going to have her taxes raised because of this stadium, Murchison said. And, I must admit I got some enjoyment out of it. Texas Stadium redefined the sports stadium. Clinton Williams "Clint" Murchison Sr. (April 11, 1895 - June 20, 1969) [1] was a noted Texas -based oil magnate and political operative. 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 . After John Murchison's death in 1979, a legal dispute over his estate led to the sale of the Cowboys to H. R. Bright, a Dallas businessman, for $60 million in 1984. He doesnt want to hear it any more. Your recently viewed items and featured recommendations. Even in this environment, Clint Jr. was viewed as a scientific genius and an eccentric. THE ONLY TIME I HAVE BEEN in Texas Stadium, for a 1982 game, I took Carter with me. John was more conservative than daring, more measured than maniacal. We went 4 and 10, and it was the Cowboys last losing season for the next 20 years. Didnt Landry and [Tex] Schramm draft Aikman? I ask halfheartedly. It was the first to use seat option bonds to help fund construction and first to offer luxury suites on a commercial scale. It is now a signature element in the design of AT&T Stadium, whose own version of the hole in the roof appeared in the opening moments of the TNT remake of Dallas. Sorry, there was a problem loading this page. I weigh 142 pounds.'' Smith will get over 100 yards rushing, he says. 1898, d. 1926). Her current book is "BURL: Journalism Giant and Media Trailblazer," to be published by Andrews McMeel Publishing (AMP) on September 6, 2022. ), 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. 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. I was an account executive for Tracy-Locke advertising and we were handling a new Frito-Lay product called Doritos. They depended on inflation to take care of things. In the spring of 2000, a 31-year-old Egyptian national showed up at a federal office in Florida seeking a $650,000 loan from the Department of Agriculture. Not that it was much of a game. He has switched to Black Entertainment Television and Ice Cube is rapping Givin Up The Nappy Dug Out. In biblical terms, the story of the Cowboys financial empire is one of Clint begat Jerry. The operation was handled by Delta Drilling, owned by Joe Zeppa. The primary suite has two bathrooms (one complete with a coffee bar), and both are adorned with marble finishes. He changed where and how games are played, not only in professional football but also in baseball, basketball, and colleges and high schools. The Cowboys became first team to use computers in talent scouting. Exponentially. 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. And just as the beginning of the Cowboys epic saga must start with Clint Jr., so his story begins with his dad, Clint Sr. We, the authors, are Burk Murchison (one of Clint Jr.s four children) and Michael Granberry, who grew up in Dallas and who, like his co-author, began following the Cowboys from the moment they were founded in 1960. She died in 1926, leaving him to raise three small sons John, Clint Jr. and Burk, who died from pneumonia when he was 11. . The proxy fight was the largest in corporate history.[5]. Johnson didnt just try and patch up for the next year, Carter continues. Young called the 18,589-square-foot floor plan classic and said it was based on the White House. Wolfe answers that question in this history of the rise and fall of Texas's Murchison family. Clint W. Murchison Jr., the scion of a Texas wildcat oil family who created the Dallas Cowboys football team, died Monday night. 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. In 1953, Fortune magazine published a two-part profile of Clint Sr., who then controlled 103 companies, ranging, in Woolleys words, from such traditional Texas interests as oil, gas, cattle and banks to a fishing tackle company, tourist courts, a silverware factory, Martha Washington Candy and Field and Stream magazine, which flourished in the golden age of magazines. Their inherited interests included the Daisy Manufacturing Company (manufacturing a BB gun); Field and Stream magazine; Heddon Rod & Reel; Henry Holt and Company (later known as Holt, Rinehart, and Winston); Delhi Oil; Kirby Petroleum and a marine construction company known as Tecon Corporation. , ISBN-13 They dress like 1 did on my TV show in 1967. But when it came to the Dallas elite, Clint Jr.s ideas were met by scoffs, not support. Murchison also valued loyalty. : It is a perfect example of the generation gap between my son and me-the old Cowboys and the new Cowboys. Few really adjust, some commit suicide. They were arguably professional footballs most popular team, despite falling short of a championship until they won Super Bowl VI on Jan. 16, 1972. Flanker Max Magee played drunk and caught two TD passes-one of them using only one hand and the side of his head. 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. Youre in, then youre out. In 1963, Dallas suddenly became known as the city that assassinated John F. The rest of the financing was provided by Murchison and no taxpayer money was used. Michael Granberry, Arts Writer. As deals fell through and development projects around the country failed, the cash needed to sustain the payments on the large loans that he had personally guaranteed at high interest rates was not available. Theres also guest quarters, complete with a bedroom, living room and kitchen, and an attached five-car garage. I read the other day that Tom Landry has little time for or interest in professional football these days. He was named a finalist for the 2020 class of the Pro Football Hall of Fame as a contributor, however he was not elected. New Yorkborn J. Erik Jonsson, a chap of Swedish descent who served as mayor of Dallas from 1964 to 1971, and Fair Park guardian Robert B. Cullum, who owned a supermarket chain that took as its namesake fairy tale hero Tom Thumb, thwarted at every turn Clint Jr.s quixotic crusade to construct a stadium in downtown Dallas, which he hoped to buttress with a lavish new performing arts center and art museum. Radio Nord broadcast in Swedish for 16 months, between March 8, 1961 and June 30, 1962. They cant even figure out how guys like me ever got to be 50. In that article, which unfolded with the eloquence and elegance of a talented writer, Woolley described Clint Sr. as having a nose for oil. If true, Clint Sr.s nose became nothing less than a beacon for wealth, teleporting him from backwater West Texas boom towns into the horror of the Great Depression, from which he emerged a multimillionaire.
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