While the Texas Exes and other college-football lovers were partying down at Eddie Deen’s, the 1992 Dallas Cowboys were in full force at the Westin Stonebriar. Who would assemble this Super Duper Super Bowl team for a Friday night dinner and golf tournament the next day to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their Super Bowl Championship?
Pat and Emmitt Smith did just that for the “How ‘Bout them Cowboys!” reunion.
Benefiting the Smiths’ foundation, it initially appeared that Mother Nature was going to rain on their parade.
The originally planned outdoor red carpet was forced indoors in a very crowded hallway. It might not have been so jammed but every media outlet except KERA was there.
But it was not without some casualties. It seems that the hotel had removed two trees to accommodate the outdoor media meet and greet.
But the cramped conditions of the red carpet was sort of a dress rehearsal for what was to come. Just past the media gauntlet, guests found a cozy situation in an equally crowded reception. The jammed group around the mega bar was glad to see familiar faces from the past. It was when the doors to the ballroom opened that it became apparent that this was Super Bowl of crowded conditions.
While it made perfect sense to have the dinner at the Westin, since the Emmitt Smith Celebrity Invitational golf tournament the next morning was taking place at TPC Craig Ranch, the ballroom made maneuvering upfront and personal. Sorta like fitting a size 10 foot into a size 8 shoe.
The 6,200-square-foot ballroom with its 16-foot-high ceilings can normally accommodate 310 for dinner. But on this night it had to make room for staging at the front of the room for the team to gather and interviews and presentations to take place. And then there was the stage for the television crews to set up and against the back of the room, the event production team. Somewhere organizers managed to cram in seating for 350+ and a head table for the Smiths and Dallas Cowboy owners and high-ranking executives. As hard as it was for guests to make their way through the back-to-back chairs, pity the poor servers who had to work the room.
But don’t go thinking that it was professional football guys and their families only. Heck, no. There was Nancy Lieberman, “24’s” Dennis Haysbert, Jana and Mike Brosin, Nancy and Robbie Briggs and Event Chairs Dee Lincoln and husband John DiNardo.
The program opened with former Cowboys coach Jimmy Johnson on a really big screen telling the players to sit down and get ready for the evening that included the entire team on stage leading off with Troy Aikman and concluding with host Emmitt. In between Brad Sham‘s interviewing members of the team on stage, Newy Scruggs picked out certain guests for their comments that was hard to hear due to guests catching up at tables. And yet, no one couldn’t hear Michael Irvin as he stood at his table to interject comments with those on stage.
While everyone was on good behavior, leave it to Nate Newton who brought up the subject of “bounties.” According to Nate, back in those days “I don’t want to say they were giving out bounty money, but we made a lot of money doing something. [Laughter] . . . They were called big plays.”