'Hungry' made footballfu1,1 agiiin Bv PATMcHUGHES Democrat Sports .Writer The Dallas Cowboys wen' 8·6 in 1974 and missed the 'Ia tiona! Football League playoffs for thr li rs t time in eight sea· sons. In 1975. th e Cowbovs went 10-4, made th e pla~·offs as the wild card team and went all the wav to the Super Bawl. Dallas quarterback Roger Staubach says the difference was attitide " Last ve<Jr we had a lot of voung. hun-. gry players . i!nd the.v had · good atti– tudes.' ' Staubach said "They main– tained that attitude as long as we were winning. It was fun playing football last vear · Staubach was in Searcv Wednesdav to speak to more than 400 hil!h ·ch ol and rille~e : tuden t. at lheYouth 1tizenship Scmmar al Hard lng College Spint. mDalla " eren t exactly high after the 1974 • 3'son. Staubach aid !he mflux of new young play r. !l<l :e l)le 'owbnvs a di r ren attitude. and lhal carried them to the uper Bowl 1'hl' owbo also had the knack last s a~on or('ol'llin up wlUl a b1g game 01' plav when thev had t() hav it - Iii( the last· E!cfmd tou hc!own against Mione: .sota to get into !'he National nf renee playoffs and the :17·7 def~at of the Los Angeles Ram. II'll! t trtt the. uper Bowl . In the Super Bowl. o·alla · fell to Pitts– burgh . 21 -17. "Last vear was the first time since I have heei1 playmg With th .owb y, •lhe~l I h' e ~ny('ll pla~lng football.' ' aid Staubac•h ~a queJ !jon and an·wer . e. – ;;ion ··Last vear it was reall y fun E ven !:hough we hlld won lheSuper Bowl a few ,. ar: before we had ome pr blems. Last year, though, football was fun again .·· Q: Looking over last season, you have to be satisfied with the way things turned out. But when the season began, the pic· ture ~idn 't seem rosy. STAUBACH : Last season we lost a lot of good people. We Jos.t Calvin Hill to Hawaii (World Football League) , and Bob Lilly retired. to name two. But we had a go.od draft. and a Jot of young peo– ple moved into starting positions - like Ed .Jones So a lot of things fell into place I' ru. bt!' id . lh imprflved attitude Last vcor tb re wa a lot uf !)tepl k ism before th s a. on heean We had a lot f Rap: to 1111. It \'as r builrlm· yeal"- I wa ·n·t rommp nrr IllYhe:-~ ·ea on. o there wE>r~ a lot ofar •a. onnur 1 .1 mthat were qu estion marks. I guess we answered all those question ma rks in our on the P8COPd first preseasongame- Los Angeles beat us :!5·7 . . We broke traini ng camp with that game and came back to Dallas when it was over . At the Dallas airport after the game there was no one there to meet us , not even the wives. So we really had to set the world on fire to get people behind us . Of course. the year before we had that 8·6 record and missed the playoffs, and I guess ever. body had gotten used to ~e pl ayoff and kind of expect:ed to be m them In Chicago the year before. they ·, bicago Bears! had an 8-6 record, and th vgave them a p~rade in downtown Chicago. But ln Dallas. ~e people didn't have a whole lot of good things to ay about us. Q: When did you start to turn things around Ia 1sea on? UBACB: When we mel LA. in the rir l am t•f the regular season and beat lhl.'m IR-7 .Of ~ourse. w had a good f!;Jme a~ainsl thl!In in lhe playoff . and wh n we came bl\<'k from that trip you couldn 't get near the airport. there were so many people. So that first victory against L.A. in the regular eason did the trick It gave us a I t of onfidence. If vou have a lot of cpnfidence you can bOunce back even if you los~lhe.game. and tbat' what we did. ihrouf!hout the year. .. Qf cour e. last year near the end of the preseason. we plclted up the player wh!)m I thought was one of the kevs toour eason - t:'reston Pearson. I still talk to some of the Pittsburgh players. and they are still surprised that the Pittsburgh people let him go. Q: That wild finish against Minnesota has to have been one of the more exciting games played in the FL. Wbat was going through your mind after you threw the pa s tbat won it'! TAUBACH: I didn"L even s e the catch. r ju t lhrew it, and Nate Wnght . lipped. and Dre'w tPearson Imade a fan– ta Uc catch. The film don' t show any pushing. Usually after a game we don 't have a "> .r ' prayer:· · b~cause the locker ··fooir{ ' is chaos: .We' don 't have the chance to ~et together. The feeling in the locker room after tflat game was one or jw t hock. Then one or our players said "Let's have a little-prayer." Sowe$aid a little prayer. We all got down on one knee. Coach Landry start:ed off by saying. ''Lord, we thank you. nol that we won thegame, we don 't want to thank you for that, we want to thank you for our abilities and the opportunity to be out there in a great play~!f game. Again. it's not U:at we won. And I spoke up and.said. "Lord. don't believe that. We wouldn't be down here onone knee if we hadn 't won that game.'' Q: Duane Thomas has rejoined the Cowboys. He seems to have been able to overcome some of the problems he has had in the past. Is that the case? STAUBACH: Duane has been a very perplexed person. A lot of it goes back very deep. He has had his problems beyond what appears on the surface. Fouryears ago. when he wa with u . he complett>ly i olated himself from every– bodv But hL problem. do go back a long w&V. He has been "taken'' b. an agent, andhehas had some family problems. ~ow he's more mature. I think. He' been working out like crazy - he'. been on the practice field every day. Hewas in our quarterback .chool for two week . and hi attitude eems fine . Hopefully. it wlll staY tha t way But the ituation 1 unpredictable. HE''s been away · four vear . but he looks fine right now. · He should be able to make our team. if he's all that he eems to be physicaUy. He's played a little since he left o . But be's rtill young. Q: Going iDto training camp, which opens in a few "'eeks, bow does the situa– tion a& running.back look? ST UBACH: rt houldbevery compet– itive . . Charley Young i the running ba k whom I Jier onallY tlrlnkwill be one of the top running back · In the league. if he can tay healthy. Hehas had some problems with his ankl . But right now I would aay he is lhe best·conditioned Dalla Cow– boy. He' in fantastic shape. He· ~n workinJ!; out a lot. and he's sttong and very uick. He could be abig factor this ·ear He and-Bob Newhouse. wh61tad•great vear lasf vear ~ reaJLvhelp.us. Prft· tonP8ar9on baek. aadh'em~alGt to us last year. Doug ~· ts an w One run.ning 'Yf ,H abig touchdown agai · \a. e at ~Ye 1.-idlAW8 1 ~ . . ~Lodirt c 'It you a; at qaariB tbit .-.Do ou think Landry is 1otnr to let ldm play more? TAUBACH: I tbink CUnt ~ to play. He sometime t~ off In a lot of different directions. He's not pushing to plav. or anvthlng. bat once he gets to start or gets to play. he.'ll-probablyse~Ue down. Of course he hall.a lot of ph teal talent. This will be his third year. and he'll be pushing me. We al o have another quarterback in camp- Dann White - wbo we picked up from the World Football League. He and Clint are both 24 years old. and this will also be Danny third year In pro ba ll. Dannv is also a fine punter. and might give Mlt.chltoopes a challenge for: (he punter'. position. Those two are pretty good prospects for the quarterback position. It looks as though If I falter at all. then zappo, rm back in· the Navy. b - I}- Domoc ral pholo S tau bach sp e (lk:;. Dal las Cowboyquar terbackRoger Staubar h spoke lo more than400 high schuol and coll ege student at Ha rd– ing Coll ege at Scti rcy Wednesday as pa rt of the school's annual YouthCi t– izensh ip Seminar. Arkansas Democrat Little Rock, Arkansas
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