The Big Rich: The Rise and Fall of the Greatest Texas Oil Fortunes, The Wolfberry Chronicle: And Other Permian Basin Tales From The Henry Oil Company. Clint Murchison's Special Magic was to allow cognitive dissonance to exist and flourish in order to establish and maintain the Cowboy's unique culture for more than 25 years. Now, they would pee on an electric fence to get Kenny to sing the national anthem. 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.. He was also the father of Dallas Cowboys owner Clint Murchison, Jr.. He changed where and how games are played, not only in professional football but also in baseball, basketball, and colleges and high schools. 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. And, one day, you wake up and realize you did what they told you. (Perhaps its no coincidence that H.L. : 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. I made $ 11.000, arid my rent was $ 180 a month for a furnished one-bedroom. I dont know anything at all about Smith and Everett. Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them. Clint, Jr.s' s son Burk Murchison and Dallas Morning News writer Michael Granberry ("Hole in the Roof: The Dallas Cowboys, Clint Murchison Jr., and the Stadium That Changed American Sports Forever") join the podcast this week to help us delve into the history and mythology of Texas Stadium - the Cowboys' groundbreaking suburban Irving, TX home . This was the same man who almost fired me in 1968 for getting Kenny Rogers a sideline photographers pass. He was 6 years old. 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. Mary Grace Granados, Special Contributor. He received a master's degree in mathematics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Personal Clint W. Murchison Sr was married twicefirst to Anne Morris (b. Clint William Murchison Jr., (September 12, 1923 in Dallas, Texas-March 30, 1987) was a businessman and founder of the Dallas Cowboys football team. I had been there for the last three. (for me)in this is the one, Clint Murchison, Sr. who founded the fortunes in the oilfield . 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. In 2022, such a sum would exceed $8.364 billion. He retained the management rights to the stadium. Its probably not healthy to take it all so seriously. Murchison is also recognized as the father of the modern football stadium. We went 4 and 10, and it was the Cowboys last losing season for the next 20 years. [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. Next play Ill goose him. Not one old lady on Social Security is going to have her taxes raised because of this stadium, Murchison said. So young, so vital, so seemingly unstoppable. Theyll never die. While his "financing by finagling" precipitated the crash, the family's downfall also resulted from bitter lawsuits in the third generation. 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. Mr. Murchison, who had been debilitated. 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. Burrough chronicles the rise and fall of Clint Murchison Jr., from his pinnacle as owner of the Dallas Cowboys to the collapse of his empire in bankruptcy. It would, he believed, give the Cowboys and their fervent fan base a spiffy new home that would pay an added dividend: it would serve as a catalyst in rebuilding a damaged Dallas and healing a wounded populace who bristled at the nickname city of hate.. Please try your request again later. Young said the major systems of the home have been improved, along with bathrooms and the primary suite. Clint Murchison Sr. began building the family fortune selling animal skins for pennies; later with interests in oil, real estate, and publishing, he was one of the first conglomerate makers. Trouble began after John's death in an auto accident in 1979, which forced the dissolution of his partnership with. Dare we say it, but that was precisely the model that became the antithesis of how Jones runs the Cowboys. The players are rich, young, immortal. Theres also guest quarters, complete with a bedroom, living room and kitchen, and an attached five-car garage. 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. In later years, the joke became, They talk about Clint being low-profile, but he was a carnival-barker show daddy compared to John, who most Cowboys fans didnt know existed. In later years, however, John played an excruciatingly important role in the history of the Cowboys albeit in death, which triggered the fall of Clint Murchison Jr. John was two years older than Clint Jr. and was, by all accounts, the careful, judicious partner. But since he had two sons in their teens, whose business talents were unpredictable, it seemed unwise to keep all their legacy in one immensely risky petroleum basket.. After World War II, he earned a master's degree in mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1960, the National Football League approved a franchise for Dallas, and Murchison, along with Bedford Wynne, was the franchisee or license holder. The station was not a financial success, and joined forces with the Caroline organization to become the southern station of Radio Caroline. Well, thats what Landry did, 1 point out. Back when 1 was playing Within a short period of time the "Project Atlanta" people sold out completely to the Caroline group. Hes wondering the same thing I am: What the hell am I doing defending Tom Landry? As part of the agreement to build Texas Stadium in Irving, Texas, Murchison gave up ownership of the stadium and the 95 acres on which it sat in exchange for a 40-year lease. They depended on inflation to take care of things. , ISBN-10 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. Please try again. As Woolley wrote, The Boss and his sons got into the construction business, for instance, with only $20,000 of their money and an $80,000 promissory note. 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. Clint Jr.s success can be attributed largely to Schramm, a marketing genius; Landry, one of the games great coaches; and Gil Brandt, who, as director of scouting, revolutionized the way players are recruited by using newfangled technology computers long before computers were commonplace. He rarely exchanged pleasantries and ignored people he knew when he would see them on the street or in the elevator. They passed up Tony Mandarich for Troy Aikman. Carter turns back to Ice Cube and The Nappy Dug Out. Catch up on the day's news you need to know. After all, I did it for Tex and Tom for 20 years. Working with his father and his brother John, the Murchison family diversified away from oil into homebuilding, general construction, real estate development, insurance, mutual funds, publishing, the leisure time industry and restaurant industry. In 1963, Dallas suddenly became known as the city that assassinated John F. Murchison fought a rare nerve disease called olivopontocerebellar atrophy[4] and was in a wheelchair in his final years. In football they teach you to leave it on the field. But I should try. His 2 sons then extended the empire to Wall Street in the 1950s and pro football in the 1960s--they started the Dallas Cowboys. He paid a record $140 million for the Cowboys in 1989 and made the team the most valuable sports franchise in the world. With the team becoming more successful in the mid-1960s, Clint Murchison, Jr. wanted a new stadium for the team. In terms of what stadiums could mean to the foundation of a franchise, Jones took what Clint envisioned and put it on steroids. 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. The Murchisons were one of the most prominent oil families in Texas, a state knee deep in them. It is the story of the late Burl Osborne, former chairman of "The Associated Press" and publisher of "The Dallas Morning News," who waged and won one of the last great newspaper wars in the United States. Murchison suggested hiring Landry away from his job as a defensive coach with the New York Giants. Oil that is, black gold, Texas tea.. , ISBN-13 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. A son of Clint Murchison, Sr. who made his first fortune in oil exploration and became notorious for exploiting the sale of "hot oil", Junior and his surviving brother inherited their father's wealth and business interests to which Clint Jr. added . Listing agent Lillie Young, citing tax documents, said the home was originally built for Texas oilman Clint Murchison Sr. [4], Murchison, with his MIT background, understood the potential of using computers in football. I stood. On Sept. 11, 2001, barely a year after asking about the hole in the roof, Atta spearheaded a terrorist attack that flew hijacked airliners into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, killing 2,749 people in the towers and on the ground nearby. Clint Sr. shipped John and Clint off to prep school. Dallas, Texas 75201. When three creditors, the Toronto-Dominion Bank, the Kona-Post Corporation and Citicorp, filed a petition to force him into bankruptcy, the fate of his financial empire was sealed. Thats not what being young is supposed to be about, anyway. [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. In February 1985, Mr. Murchison filed for bankruptcy protection in what lawyers believed was one of the nation's largest personal bankruptcy cases. Yeh? The stadium with the hole in its roof served as the home of Americas Team from 1971 until the end of the 2008 football season, after which its primary tenant moved to what became AT&T Stadium in Arlington, where taxpayers funded $325 million of the overall daunting tab of $1.2 billion. He couldnt believe this guy in a beard and hip huggers and love beads had somehow gotten onto the Cotton Bowl sidelines and into our locker room. Her second book, published in 1994, is "BLOOD RICH: When Oil Billions, High Fashion, and Royal Intimacies Are Not Enough." 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. He was a wide receiver for the Cowboys, and then he wrote North Dallas Forty. Its the least I can do. During their first five seasons, the Cowboys lost $3 million and failed to win more than five games a season. As a loyal Dallas Cowboys fan, he can recite the stats on everybody from Troy Aikman towell, youll have to ask him. Foreword by Hall of Famer Drew Pearson. Few really adjust, some commit suicide. https://cityofirving.rezgo.com/details/328826/hole-in-the-roof-book-signing-and-authors-talk. Jones may not have been aware of it when he bought the Cowboys, but to his credit, he was a quick study. John collected art as an investment. Recalling his wit and sense of humor, Mr. If that name sounds familiar, it may be. 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. After all, Michael Irvin makes about $1.2 million and drives a Mercedes. Hence, Schramm oversaw most of the Cowboys day-to-day business matters, and represented the Cowboys at league meetingsa prerogative normally reserved to the owner. His loyalty has spanned all three eras, from Clint Murchison to Bum Bright to Jerry Jones. [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 primary suite has two bathrooms (one complete with a coffee bar), and both are adorned with marble finishes. 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. 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. These young kids seem to be having so much fun. Her current book is "BURL: Journalism Giant and Media Trailblazer," to be published by Andrews McMeel Publishing (AMP) on September 6, 2022. Most of what Clint said was unintelligible, but he kept pointing with his cane and trying to talk. There was the Lays commercial preceding Michael Jacksons Heal the World spectacular: Mike Ditka and Howie Long and Phil Simms and Lawrence Taylor and the rest making fun of Tom Landrys bald head to sell potato chips. Vietnam was loomirg, and I was trying to figure out how to dodge the draft. More than $500 million in liabilities have been filed against the Murchison estate in the last two years. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. From custody battles to death, as with Shannon Murchison, once married to Clint Murchison, III, son of the founder of the Dallas Cowboys. She said he died of complications caused by pneumonia. And this years version of Americas team doesnt want to hear from guys like me at all. An unassuming, softspoken native of Tyler, Tex., Mr. Murchison (pronounced MER-kiss-un) was born Sept. 5, 1921, the son of Clint W. Murchison Sr., who made a fortune in the . Somebody get that gol durn Bill Glass, Reeves said in his angry Georgia drawl. The primary suite has its own wing, which amounts to more than 2,000 square feet. The Cowboys and the Super Bowl have come a long way from that close encounter we had in 1966-67. In 1985, Murchison designed, constructed and financed a 30-acre campus-style headquarters for the Dallas Cowboys called Valley Ranch located in Irving, Texas. The new stadium has yet to lay claim to a Super Bowl-winning Cowboys team. The old days. Cheerful and Optimistic. Theyll win at least three. Murchison would call up J. Edgar Hoover and get the new number and the midnight chicken calls would begin again. 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Young said the home was passed on to Clint Murchison Sr.'s son and daughter-in-law, John and Lucille Lupe Murchison. John was more conservative than daring, more measured than maniacal. He said it interfered with concentration. There was an error retrieving your Wish Lists. 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. Reviewed in the United States on February 3, 2010. Clinton Williams Murchison, Sr. (April 11, 1895 - 20 June 1969), was a noted Texas-based oil magnate and political operative. Finally, I could make out the word cowboy. Cowboy, Clint said again and smiled slightly. The huddle turned strangely quiet for a moment. Soon after Clint Jr. left MIT to return to Dallas to stake his place in the family business, Clint Sr. received a letter from the MIT professor with whom Clint Jr. lived as an undergraduate. Its the only way I can deal with mis particular dilemma. The theory suggests that Murchison's connections to certain Dallas industrialists as well as influence in American politics, at the time, facilitated the assassination of the president. 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. In biblical terms, the story of the Cowboys financial empire is one of Clint begat Jerry. , Dimensions Author Jane Wolfe lived in Dallas for forty years before recently relocating to her hometown of Columbus, Ohio. This story ends with Super Bowl XXVII. Clint William Murchison Jr. was the last surviving son of Clint Murchison Sr., a Texas wildcatter who rode the oil boom of the 1920's to fame and fortune. Learn more. Adjusted for inflation, that amounts to roughly $2.8 million in 2020. And what a world it was. Looking for more Posh Properties stories? 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. It was the first to use seat option bonds to help fund construction and first to offer luxury suites on a commercial scale. 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. Clint was the first American sports owner to see the stadium as the primary source of revenue, even more so than television. He doesnt want to hear it any more. There he teamed up with boyhood friend Richardson, who was nibbling at the edges of a scary new enterprise oil leases. The Murchison wealth was left to Clint Jr. and his younger brother, John. [11] Texas Stadium was the first dedicated football stadium to offer luxury suites. Clint Jr.s risk-taking would lead him to the world of professional football and allow his team to succeed. As Wolfe notes in her book, The professor told Murchison that it was a great loss to science that his son Clint had gone into business.. The Packers went instead and we became the team that couldnt win the big game. He only had a few childhood friends. Anything short of a world championship followed by designing your own line of sporting goods means failure. With its mix of popular music, DJ's and news, Radio Nord became very popular. I could just picture all their agents arguing about fees and residuals with the guys from PepsiCo. Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app. Ive heard that before. Carter has already heard this. After high school, he enrolled at Trinity University, then in Waxahachie, where he was expelled three weeks later for shooting craps. The old NFL, country music and rock n roll. I was led to this book from Brian Burrough's "The Big Rich." Clint Jr. became enamored of education and its extracurricular dividend football, which gave him his own identity beyond his dad. Get the latest news from Steve Brown and the business staff. After all, I made more money in the offseason in an advertising printing business with Bobby Hayes than I ever made in football. You left it all on the field and youre 29 years old with your life stretching out in front of you like a thousand miles of bad road. Carter accepts and respects my decision, though he does not like it. ''With his engineering background, he was very much 'hands on' during its construction. 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. Help others learn more about this product by uploading a video! The home has a solarium, with access to the garden, as well as a trophy room with original murals signed by Reveau Bassett. During those years, I watched from the outside as professional football became a billion-dollar business, with the Super Bowl its showcase event. Theyll never get old. Not that it was much of a game. Clinton Williams Murchison Jr. (September 12, 1923 - March 30, 1987) was a businessman and founder of the Dallas Cowboys football team. Mr. 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. At their fathers knee, Woolley wrote, Clint Jr. and John learned how to wheel and deal. Soon, Clint Sr. was sharing his idea of an education, designed to ensure enduring wealth and chisel the Murchison name into the granite of high society. It sits on property that was part of the Dallas Polo Club in the 1920s, she said. Photos not seen by PW. His grandfather founded the First National Bank in Athens. 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. It is a perfect example of the generation gap between my son and me-the old Cowboys and the new Cowboys. The operation was handled by Delta Drilling, owned by Joe Zeppa. It was a pleasure to read. Radio Nord broadcast in Swedish for 16 months, between March 8, 1961 and June 30, 1962. And Murchison didnt stop with the fight song. The club came apart from the top. 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I just didnt like the way they treated peo-ple.