FanPost

Hail Mary got me to Super Bowl X

I just commented on another thread that "I wasn't going to write a FanPost about this", but the 1975 "Hail Mary" game (Dallas at Minnesota) set off my one and only Super Bowl experience. In hindsight, I should have written this a year ago, on the fortieth anniversary of this season.

But, with tonight's game at Minnesota bringing up memories of that playoff game at the Met, let me offer an expanded version of the story that is in my profile.

In 1975, fresh off missing the playoffs for the first time in a decade, the Cowboys - re-energized with a rookie crop known as The Dirty Dozen - missed winning the division, but made the playoffs as the wild card (there was only one wild card back then to enter the playoffs with each conference's three division champions).

My father, a medical doctor in East Texas, was offered access to a small private plane by a pharmaceutical company as a way of saying "thank you" for prescribing their medicine). His response to their offer was, "Well, the Cowboys might go to the Super Bowl this year. If they do, we'll take up your offer and let you fly us to Miami."

The Hail Mary game was the hard game (WC at #1 seed). The Rams won the 2-3 game over the St. Louis Cardinals and hosted the Cowboys the following week. Cowboys blew them out 37-7 to earn a ticket to Super Bowl X against the Steelers.

I'm not sure how my father obtained tickets. All he ever told me was that he had to pay a scalper $75 each for six tickets together, and he was outraged at paying so much money for tickets that had a face price of $25.

I was in college - at Oklahoma Baptist University in Shawnee, OK. On January 17, the day before the Super Bowl, I got up early and drove to Fort Smith, AR (pharmaceutical company was headquartered in Gravette, and the plane was at the nearest airport, in Siloam Springs), got on the six-seat plane and flew south to pick up my parents and another couple. We refueled in Tallahassee and flew to Merritt Island, FL (near the Space Center). We ate supper with relatives who lived there, and spent the night there.

The next morning, we flew to Miami. The Super Bowl was becoming, but had not become the star-studded spectacular that it is. But, we couldn't fly into MIA, and had to fly to Opa-Locka airport and take a cab to the stadium.

It was cool that day, but sunny. Our upper-level seats faced the afternoon sun. I took pictures at the game using a Polaroid (instant) camera, and even took a couple of pictures of the Cowboys' Cheerleaders. After the game, we retraced our steps - cab to airport, refueled at Tallahassee, dropped off my parents and the other couple in East Texas, and I hopped off the plane in Fort Smith.

I drove to campus and got back in time to take a shower and go to class at 8:00. Naturally, most of the conversation was about the Super Bowl the previous day. When I said, "I was there", everyone laughed. How could a college student in Oklahoma have gone to the Super Bowl - in Miami - and back in class the next morning?

I replied, "I have pictures", showed off my sunburned face, and pulled out the Polaroids. Just like Rudolph, I was a celebrity for a day.

The only thing better would have been a Cowboys win. Just like the Packers games in the 60s, where the Cowboys fought uphill battles against experienced opponents, and were a play away from winning or tying - this game felt the same way. Steelers were the defending champions, and the Cowboys were upstarts. The Steelers held on to win as a last-second desperation pass into the end zone was intercepted.

After playoff success that began in 1966 (I don't count the "playoff bowl" the previous season when the 7-7 Cowboys lost to the Colts in an exhibition game between the second-place teams in each NFL conference), with NFL Championship Game losses to Green Bay, division losses to Cleveland, and the Super Bowl V loss to Baltimore, the Cowboys finally reached the pinnacle - finally winning the "Ultimate Game" - Super Bowl VI over Miami (quotes are because of the famous Duane Thomas interview with Tom Brookshier). After two more seasons with playoff disappointment, the Cowboys missed the playoffs, even though they had a winning record (8-6).

Reloaded with this special group of rookies, it would be a decade before the Cowboys would miss the playoffs again. Two years later, they again decisively won a Super Bowl. The following year, the Cowboys were in the same position that the Steelers - defending champions and expecting to win the game. That game left us very unsatisfied - not just from the result, but from the events that actually happened in the game.

The Staubach era ended a year later, short of the Super Bowl, as his final pass was completed to Herb Scott.

I do not expect to ever attend a Super Bowl again, but I will always be grateful for the opportunity to attend one. Without the Hail Mary, this wouldn't have happened.

Another user-created commentary provided by a BTB reader.