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About the series
Each week, staff writer Ray Buck takes a look at the history of the Cowboys - from a great game to a singular moment to a memorable player - in his online-exclusive offering, Old 'Boys Club.
Next Friday
"The catch" by "Bullet" Bob Hayes that turned Tom Landry’s head for the first time. Hint: The game was played in Oklahoma.
Each week, staff writer Ray Buck takes a look at the history of the Cowboys - from a great game to a singular moment to a memorable player - in his online-exclusive offering, Old 'Boys Club.
Next Friday
"The catch" by "Bullet" Bob Hayes that turned Tom Landry’s head for the first time. Hint: The game was played in Oklahoma.
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Just before Christmas 1964, Jim Ray Smith said goodbye to the Dallas Cowboys and a nine-year NFL career.
He had played for only two coaches — Paul Brown (Cleveland Browns) and Tom Landry (Cowboys) — a pair of “hard-headed” Hall of Famers (Smith’s choice of words) whom he found to be as different in their approach to football as they were alike in their everyday values.“In nine years,” said Smith, “I never heard either one of them say a profanity.”Born southwest of Houston in West Columbia, Smith is a Baylor Bear and past chairman of the Cotton Bowl Athletic Association. He recently was inducted into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame.But because he spent seven seasons in Cleveland (1956-62) — blocking for the great Jim Brown — and two seasons in Dallas (1963-64) — just trying to stay healthy — Jim Ray is better remembered as a Brown than a Cowboy.“In Dallas, I had two knee operations, two concussions, two broken hands and a cracked third vertebra in my neck,” said Smith. “So, I paid the price.”This all happened after he retired.Smith hung ’em up after the ’62 season to start his own real estate business (he had been working for a firm in Dallas) but then was “talked into” just meeting with the Cowboys. After all, he was living in town anyway.“I just felt I was a traitor if I played for anyone other than Cleveland,” he recalled.Not that Cleveland would be the same anymore. After that same ’62 season, a young Art Modell fired the legendary Paul Brown during Pro Bowl week. Smith had just informed Modell of his plans to retire.It wasn’t a ploy. Smith wasn’t looking for more money, more playing time or a longer cot at training camp.His top salary in Cleveland had been $18,750, and now the Cowboys were willing to make him (so they claimed) the highest-paid offensive lineman in the league at $25,000.That was big money in 1962. But it was an even bigger decision for Smith to completely change business plans and hitch his wagon to the upstart Cowboys.Smith earned a solid reputation in the NFL on an established team, with established players, earning five Pro Bowl trips in seven years. He had blocked for the best (Bobby Mitchell, Jim Brown).....and blocked against the best.But now he would surprise even himself by agreeing to give pro football one more shot in Big D. Maybe it was his inner-Texan talking.
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