FRISCO, Texas – What an extraordinary life Lee Roy Jordan lived during his 84 years, growing up in tiny Excel, Ala., born in 1941, having lived through many of the epic events over his 84 years before passing away this past week in Dallas on Aug. 30.
Think about all of this, Jordan, a Dallas Cowboys Ring of Honor linebacker over his 14-year career, a first-round draft choice in 1963 playing his final season in 1976, the heydays of the franchise's history following an All-America career at the University of Alabama.
Jordan played for two of the greatest coaches ever, Bear Bryant at Alabama and Tom Landry with the Cowboys. Who gets to do that over an 18-year period.
Jordan played with teams quarterbacked by Joe Namath at Alabama, Don Meredith and Roger Staubach with the Cowboys, and he will tell you stories about how Landry put him in charge of making sure Meredith, his roommate nights before games, didn't miss curfews, likely a more difficult task corralling Dandy Don than chasing down NFL running backs.
Jordan won a National Championship in 1961 with the Crimson
Tide and Super Bowl VI with the Cowboys, though playing in three during a five-time Pro Bowl career, not to mention having played in the Cowboys two NFL Championship games during the 1966 and 1967 seasons, both losses to the Green Bay Packers, the second in the infamous Ice Bowl.
While a team captain at Alabama his senior season, the Crimson Tide met Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl and Lee Roy went into the stands for the coin flip by President john Kennedy, Jordan remembering the meeting of a President being such a big thrill, "It was for a young guy like me from Excel, Alabama. To go up into the stands where the President, his wife and entourage was and actually win the coin toss and get the coin. So that was a big deal for me."
And not only was Lee Roy a first-round draft choice of the Cowboys in 1963, he also was the 14th pick in the American Football League draft by the Boston Patriots, and on the advice of Bear Byrant, decided to sign with the Cowboys in the more established NFL instead of the three-year-old AFL.
Why when it comes to historic events, Jordan lived through World War II, the assassination of President Kennedy in downtown Dallas his rookie season, the NFL-AFL merger and the advent of racial integration, especially after being raised in the Deep South, along with at the time a racially divided Dallas, Texas, crediting Landry and the Cowboys leading the way for the equal rights of Black people and Black players being treated equally in NFL cities.
And between lengthy interviews roughly10 years ago with Lee Roy and Cowboys head personnel guy Gil Brandt, learned of this rather you-kidding-me tale of when Jordan signed his rookie contract with the Cowboys, part of the signing bonus was for him to receive a brand-new car.
"They made a mistake and took me by Fin Ewing's Buick dealership and that was when the first year Riveria's were made," Jordan said. "There they were, sitting on the showroom floor, and I said, 'I'll take that one there.' Gil and Tex (Schramm, Cowboys president and GM) wanted me to give back $2,000 of my bonus because that car was a little more of an upscale car than what we had agreed on when we talked the contract over. So, I had to give back $2,000."
But then this: Lee Roy had to get back to Alabama for final exams the next day, so Brandt said no problem, he had a trip planned in that area and said he'd drive the car to him when made ready.
Ah, but there was a big problem.
"Gil called me on Friday as he was driving over, he said, 'I got bad news.' I said, 'What is it Gill?' He said, 'I just hit a cow in your car on the Interstate.' He said was in Meridian, Miss., and 'I got to have the car fixed before I can give it to you.' So, I ended up with a new wrecked car. It destroyed a cow in Mississippi."
Oh, that is only part of the story. Out in the country when the police chief arrived, according to Gil, the owner of the cow wanted Brandt to pay for his loss, even though the cow was in the middle of the road. Well, leave it to Gil to know the coach at Mississippi State who got him off the hook.
"I signed a bonus of about $7,000 and got the new car taken out of that and my first salary was $17,500," Lee Roy remembered vividly. "Second year was $18,500 and third year was $19,500. So, I got a $1,000 raise every year in that thing.
"I just laugh and think about all these contracts the last 15-20 years that have been so unreal."
Sort of like this "unreal" story during the amazingly very "real" 84-year life of Lee Roy Jordan.
