Dallas Cowboys legend Drew Pearson made sure 1970s-era Afro looked tight in HOF bust
Sculptor Scott Myers has worked with some of the greatest football players who ever lived.
That’s a perk of the job when you’re one of a handful of artists across the country who create the busts that sit forever in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.
But no Hall of Famer ever took it upon himself to help Myers perfect his bust. Not until Dallas Cowboys legend Drew Pearson.
Pearson will be inducted along with seven others as part of the Class of 2021 during a ceremony Sunday afternoon. Myers also sculpted the bust for Cowboys legend Cliff Harris, who is one of 20 inductees in the Class of 2020. That class, which was postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, who will go in Saturday. Myers also did the bust for the late Packers great Bobby Dillon, who is in the Class of ‘20.
Myers, 62, has created 24 Hall of Fame busts, including six Cowboys, since 2003. He’s also a full-time veterinarian in Granbury.
While inspecting the bust in one of the late stages of creation, Pearson actually did something no player had ever done with Myers: He put his hands on the clay.
“I’ve had people look really close, but no one has ever wanted to touch it,” said Myers, who was at the hair-sculpting stage of creation. “I told him, ‘yeah, touch it.’”
Pearson wanted his bust to show off his 1970s-era Afro and beard. He told Myers that from the start.
“This is what you do when you want to get it right,” Pearson joked in a video shot by Myers at the moment. “You double-team it with Scott and Drew. It’s going to be the best bust ever.”
Pearson actually just added a couple balls of clay that eventually Myers shaped into the Afro. It took about 700 little balls of clay to do the hair.
“You need to create a sense of volume when you do the hair and on that one, there was a lot of it,” Myers said.
Myers said Pearson and Harris, which are likely to be the last Tom Landry-era Cowboys to be inducted, were two of the friendliest players he’s ever met.
“They were so much fun, approachable and friendly. They were just the best,” he said.
Harris will be inducted second on Saturday. Pearson goes first on Sunday.
This story was originally published August 6, 2021 at 6:00 AM.
