FRISCO, Texas – Even though watched Cowboys games on the TV during the 1970s and early 1980s, can't say ever focused in on longtime center John Fitzgerald. For sure, never saw him play in person.
But over this career of covering the Cowboys, got to know John from being around alumni events, interviewing him about days gone by and having been a guest of mine on radio shows.
That's how got to know John Fitzgerald well enough to call him "Fitzy," the nickname he became known by during his 10-year career with the Dallas Cowboys. He was a fourth-round draft choice out of Boston College in 1970, who spent that first year on what was then called the "taxi squad," forerunner to today's practice squad, before his retirement in January of 1982 after spending the 1981 season on injured reserve.
Fitzy passed away on Tuesday, April 14, two days shy of his 78th birthday.
But did get to know the gregarious Fitzgerald well enough to joke with him the last time we met, saying, "Fitzy, what are you doing in that wheelchair?"
Fitzy was here at The Star one day last year taking a tour with family and friends. No way, I said, did you tell them who you are, a guy who had spent 12 years with the organization, was a member in some form or fashion of four Super Bowl teams, winner of two. Hell, you should be brought in on a red carpet for having started in 109 of 137 games played.
He would only smile, as if he wasn't all that important, but that was humbly him.
As for the wheelchair, told me he gets around with a cane these days, but knowing there would be a lot of walking during the two-story tour here that day, decided he best use the wheelchair.
Asked him if he was just on one of those paid tours, and he nodded yes. There's a lot to see, but not all he deserved to see.
No way, you got to see the entire place, as much as I could show him.
"Did you get to go into the locker room?" I asked.
"No," he said.
Well, told him let's go. You got to see this place compared to the cramped old one on Forest and Abrams in North Dallas, which from the outside looked more like a corrugated metal transmission repair shop. The place had only one practice field out back, was equipped with an outdoor weight room (the word "room" used loosely) and a tiny team meeting room with the old elementary school desks we had back in those days, where you entered the seat from the side by lifting up the attached desk part.
Fitzy gasped in awe.
Told one of the security guys, "If not for guys like Fitzy back in those days, we wouldn't be standing here in a building like this," knowing he helped put this franchise on the map. Not only did he play in those four Super Bowls, winning two, but only once in his career did the Cowboys miss the playoffs (1974), a significant part of the team's record 20 consecutive winning seasons (1966-85).
But in case you didn't know, here is what Fitzy should be best known for, even though the closest he ever came to a Pro Bowl nomination was in a Sports Illustrated story where he was named to the unofficial "No-All Pro Bowl Team" as a center. See, Fitzy was the Cowboys' starting center in 1975 when head coach Tom Landry reinvented the "Shotgun Formation" to what we know it today.
Yep, Landry had him a center capable of snapping the ball head up backwards five to seven yards, allowing quarterback Roger Staubach an increased opportunity to quickly read defenses but also enhancing the versatility for "Roger the Dodger" to run the football.
Found a Fitzy interview remembering the first time he ran shotgun in a game. First preseason game of the 1975 season, against the Rams at the LA Coliseum. Oh, teams previously had dabbled in the shotgun way back when running a single-wing or in Canadian Football League games. But not like this, with a running back lined up next to Staubach.
Fitzy recalled on the first shotgun snap in that game, usually reserved for only third downs, Rams now Pro Football Hall of Fame defensive tackle Merlin Olsen lined up over him before the snap and started "giggling" at the notion, as if he was fixin' to knock his block off, though Fitzy proclaiming, "The snap was perfect."
Novel concept.
So novel a headline back in the old newspaper days referred to him as the "Triggerman." Then in a story during Super Bowl XIII week back in January of 1979 dealing with the shotgun, Fitzy proclaimed – and not sure ever called him John – "If you are going to get the (s---) knocked out of you, at least it's nice to see where it's coming from."
Honored to pass along this Hall of Fame-worthy story needing to be stored into perpetuity somewhere along the line.
Thanks, Fitzy. Heads up to the end.
- The Real McCoy: During a recent radio interview, Cowboys COO and co-owner Stephen Jones was asked about the old trade value chart "Jimmy Johnson" developed during his first draft as head coach of the Cowboys back in 1989. Not so fast there. "Well, I have to correct you," Stephen began, and a correction needing to be made over and over again these past years. "In all due respect, that was a Mike McCoy draft chart. At the end of the day, I watched him put it together, and he showed me how he was putting it together. Obviously, Jimmy and Jerry used it. But that was a Mike McCoy draft chart. He was a valedictorian at Oklahoma and a petroleum engineer, and understood how to chart those things and come up with values." Pick by pick for 12 rounds back then, the Cowboys' former minority owner, who passed away at age 73 in 2021, demonstrated how much you would need to compensate a team for trading up however many spots or rounds. Another great character in Cowboys history.
- Ponding: No, this is not about water standing on a road after a rainstorm. This is about Indiana cornerback D'Angelo Ponds, who we discussed at length during Monday's Mick Shots Ponds at the NFL Scouting Combine came in at 5 feet 8½ inches and 182 pounds, raising questions about his size playing up against, say, a 6-4 receiver. But there were no questions about his athletic ability after running a 4.31 time in his Pro Day 40 and posting an astonishing vertical leap of 43½ inches. The two-time All-Big 10 cornerback and second-team All-America's production is off the charts. But when it comes to the draft, would you, at his size limitation, select him and how soon? Second round? End of the first? The guy just makes plays, reminiscent of former Redskins speedy undersized cornerback Darrell Green out of Texas A&I. Look, this comes down to working the percentages of how successful can a guy be at that size? There are exceptions. But how many?
- Coach Mac: First met Dave McGinnis back in 1977, he the University of Missouri defensive backs coach and me an aspiring reporter at the Columbia Tribune covering the team. Here was another great football character. After several more college stops, he landed in Chicago as the Bears' linebackers coach, me at the Dallas Times Herald. We would bump into each other over the years, especially after a Cowboys loss to Arizona in the Sun Devil Stadium locker room, when he was the Cardinals head coach in 2001. Invited me back into to his head coach's room for a nice chat. Great guy. Coach Joe always reminded me of him. Sad to hear at age 73 Dave passed away this past Monday, the guy from Snyder, Texas, and TCU. Coach Mac, as he became known in Nashville, finished out his football career as the Titans' radio analyst for the past nine seasons. The Tennessean in Nashville ran a fine tribute to their Coach Mac.
- Draft Tidbits: A month since the Cowboys placed the franchise tag on receiver George Pickens, Jones said the Cowboys have not received any trade propositions from another team, and there has been no hint of a team wanting to sign Pickens to an offer sheet where the Cowboys would have a right of first refusal. And if they did refuse, the signing team would owe the Cowboys two first-round draft choices … One mock draft had seven players from Ohio State going in the first three rounds, four among the first 12 picks, so not surprising Jones' answer when asked if he could see himself falling in love with an Ohio State player began with "Absolutely, you look at that, and in no way is this being critical, but when you look at some of those guys you go, How in the hell did they ever lose a football game?" … When score-boarding free agency so far, the Cowboys have retained rights to just four of their 15 unrestricted free agents, franchising Pickens and re-signing running back Javonte Williams, defensive end Sam Williams and cornerback Corey Ballentine, along with tendering two of their four restricted free agents, kicker Brandon Aubrey and guard T.J. Bass (signed), while losing two others not tendered, safety Juanyeh Thomas and center/guard Brock Hoffman. The Cowboys also re-signed both exclusive rights free agents, cornerbacks Josh Butler and Reddy Steward.
Since Jones is fresh off an interview with 105.3 The Fan on Tuesday, let's turn to the Cowboys' co-owner for this week's last word when discussing the advantages and disadvantages of drafting an older player, say one already 24 or so years old, as compared to a guy at maybe 21 who has played just three seasons in college.
"I think, you know, these players that are older, I think it's a two-edge sword," he said. "One is really good; certainly you're seeing it with quarterbacks. We were just talking about offensive linemen, how important it is as well. Some of these guys coming out are 24, 25 years old, but the flip side of that being they have a tremendous amount of experience, which really helps them transition right into the professional game.
"The more and more you look at these things, these players who only have started 12 games in college, you know, 24 is obviously a lot better and 36 is better than that. And four-year starters better than that. That really enables them to transition usually at a faster rate if they – still got to have the skill set, you know, the things that come with being a professional football player, but that helps.
"Now the downside of that is some of them are going to be then 28, 29, 30 years old when they come up on their second contract."
But guarantee the bottom line becomes, all that considered in the end, no matter the age, can they play?
