'I
thought it was the beginning of the end for the Cowboys'
WFAA-TV sports director Dale Hansen
has covered many big stories in his 20-plus years
in Dallas. Three of the biggest sports stories all
occurred Feb. 25, albeit in different years.
Hansen
and the team at WFAA won a Peabody Award for their
coverage of the SMU football recruiting scandal that
led to harsh NCAA penalties levied against the school
in 1987. Two years later, the Cowboys were sold to
a relatively unknown Arkansas businessman named Jerry
Jones, who promptly fired the legendary Tom Landry.
Six years later, the Big Eight formally invited Texas,
Texas Tech, Texas A&M and Baylor from the Southwest
Conference and the Big 12 was formed.
Recently, Hansen talked with Dallas Web Staff's Ted
Gangi about these stories and how they changed the
landscape of football – and sports – in Texas.
What did you know about Jerry Jones and how
skeptical were you when he bought the team?
I didn't know anything about Jerry Jones when he bought
the football team and, after seeing him at that initial
press conference, I was very skeptical about the whole
deal. It's far and away the biggest story I have ever
been involved in. Here comes a guy from Arkansas,
replaces Tom Landry with Jimmy Johnson, and really comes off poorly
at that initial press conference. I thought it was
the beginning of the end for the Dallas Cowboys.
Two years before that, you were intimately
involved in how the SMU scandal unfolded. What was
your initial thought when the NCAA handed out its
harsh penalty to SMU?
I didn't think it was going to happen. It was a strange
day. It was an amazing story. As I have also said
many times, I think it was terribly unfortunate and
it was lousy, lousy story to do. But I am as proud
as I could possibly be that we did it at Channel 8.
The Big Eight swooped in and added four of
the Texas schools from the Southwest Conference in
1994. When did you first learn of this, and did you
think it was a good thing at the time?
I still think it's a good thing, and I thought it
was a good thing at that time. The Big Eight was top
heavy. The Southwest Conference was top heavy. Now,
the Big 12 is one of the great conferences in America.
I don't think it was close to being as big a story
as Jerry Jones and the Cowboys or the SMU investigation.
It did seem somewhat inevitable and I did think –
and I have been proven right about this – that the
Big 12 would be an outstanding conference.
What makes the Cowboys' sale and the SMU investigation
the top two stories that you have covered in Dallas?
And, why is one bigger than the other in your mind?
The Cowboys story is bigger because the Cowboys are
bigger. The aura of Tom Landry. The remarkable run
of Landry, Gil Brandt and Tex Schramm coming to an
end was just a story that people will talk about and
write about and analyze for years to come. It was
one of those things you just didn't think would ever
happen. To see the Cowboys change so dramatically
and in such a short period of time, it had such an
emotional impact that the scars of that still carry
over today. As for the SMU investigation, I was getting
death threats at my house. A bird with a broken neck
was delivered to my office. The SMU story is better
in many ways from an individual point of view because
we were directly involved in the story, and the side
stories from that I will never forget. I am 55 now
and when I am 105, I will still remember every one
of them.
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