More photos » by TONY GUTIERREZ - AP

Emmitt Smith is NFL's all-time leading rusher. Now, Dallas fans have a chance to pay homage to #22's glory by voting for him in the first ever Hall of Fame fan's choice poll.

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The number 12,739 was the first football statistic that really meant something to me. It represents the career rushing yards of my boyhood hero, Tony Dorsett. As a fan of the Dallas Cowboys, I took pride in the fact that he was second only to Walter Payton in the category. Then, along came Eric Dickerson led by his 2,105-yard season. Every year, his yardage increased, threatening to knock Dorsett out of second. In 1989, an amazing rookie named Barry Sanders burst onto the scene with a 1,470-yard campaign and a 5.3 YPC.

I knew Dorsett's reign at number two would not last much longer.

For years, Dorsett's total stayed strong behind Payton's seemingly unreachable 16,726 yards. At least when the announcers would show a graphic on it, I would get to see the star emblem between the Chicago Bears' "C" and the Cleveland Browns' orange helmet (Jim Brown). But as the years passed, my fear that the Cowboys would no longer have a top five all-time leading rusher was starting to become a reality.

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The Original Doomsday Defense Front Four- George Andrie, Bob Lilly, Jethro Pugh and Larry Cole.

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I had the pleasure of recently meeting Larry Cole at a luncheon in Decatur, Texas. Cole played defensive end and defensive tackle for the Cowboys from 1968 through 1980. He played in five Super Bowls, winning two of them. He was drafted in the 16th-round and wore the star his entire career. He played for one coach, Tom Landry.

Today, Larry is a very successful real estate developer in the DFW area and the CEO of Larry Cole Communities. He's tall, thinner than his playing days, but I can imagine how big and imposing he was with pads and at his playing weight.

He's a very gracious man and still is a big Cowboys fan. When I introduced myself and asked him if he still followed the Cowboys, his passion for the team and the game was evident. I wondered if he would be willing to give me some insights into his days as an original member of the Doomsday Defense and share his perspective on the current Dallas Cowboys. I asked if he would answer 10 questions, (I snuck in an extra) he agreed, and the Q&A results follow the jump.

Larry, thank you for taking time to speak with BTB and thanks for the great Cowboy memories!

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Randy White, the Manster.

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I had the opportunity to meet and spend several hours with Tom Rafferty at a sports equipment show in San Antonio. Rafferty is still a big man, albeit much slimmer than in his NFL offensive lineman days. He has since been stricken with an unexplained malady that has caused him to lose feeling in his legs, but at that show his athleticism was still very apparent.

Invariably the talk drifted to the Cowboys and his days on some of those championship teams. I asked him who was the meanest player in the league during those days. I was expecting him to say Conrad Dobler who had a reputation as a dirty player, or even the Raiders Jack Tatum, the Assassin.

I was surprised at his immediate response.

"Randy White, without a doubt, the meanest guy in the league." He said. I asked if Randy White was a dirty player, and he explained that White was not dirty, just mean.  I asked him to define mean.

"Mean is a guy who comes after you with everything he has, on every play, the whole play, and he has a lot to bring. When you go up against him, you are just glad when the game is over because you feel like you have been fighting a buzz saw for the last hour. You just hope you can hold on. That was Randy and anyone who had to go against him will tell you that. He deserved the nickname, Manster, half man, half monster."

I saw a clip on television about Hollywood Henderson and he was laughing as he told the story about picking a fight with Randy White in the locker room. Drew Pearson added some commentary about that incident and Pearson too was laughing as he recalled Henderson getting in Randy White's face. Pearson's comment was something similar to, - ‘I knew Hollywood was crazy when he picked a fight with Randy White, probably the toughest guy in the league.' White threw the linebacker to the floor and pounced on him. In the same video, Henderson stated that he felt lucky Randy White didn't kill him.

The controversial but popular book, "Boys will be Boys" by Jeff Pearlman, relates a story about Charles Haley, a locker room bully, riding his Harley into Randy White's restaurant. White asked Haley to get the bike out of the restaurant, Haley swung and Randy White clocked the inebriated Haley, knocking him unconscious.

Is any current Cowboy as mean as the Manster?