Why Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones hitchhiked across America
If you’ve ever listened to a Jerry Jones press conference or media availability, you’ve probably heard an unprompted story or two about something in his 83 years on this planet. And odds are, you’ve probably heard the same story a few times, too.
Maybe it was how he made Jay-Z promise that wide receiver Dez Bryant would show up to meetings on time, or how he once bought land in Palo Alto so he would have a reason to hang around his daughter while she attended Stanford. The list goes on. And while speaking to local reporters on his luxury bus in Indianapolis on Friday night, Jones offered a new tale.
While talking about his strong desire to win a Super Bowl, Jones said that he would hitchhike back home to Dallas from Indianapolis if it would guarantee that he would lift another Lombardi Trophy.
A reporter asked, “Well, have you ever hitchhiked before?”
“I didn’t know there was another way to go,” Jones said. “I hitchhiked every place I went.”
Jones then told a story about how he and a friend once spent a month hitchhiking across America and back to their hometown of Little Rock, Arkansas.
“My buddy and I, we were in the [college] all-star game,” he said. “We left Little Rock and each had 15 bucks. All we ate were Fritos and 7-Ups. We were gone almost a month, and we hitchhiked all the way to California, and then we came back the backside down by the Gulf. We never stayed in a hotel room, and we hitchhiked all the way back and all the way around. That was our graduation trip, and we had a good time. The only time we stayed in a room was the night before we got home.”
Fritos and 7-Ups. What a diet before playing in an all-star game. It’s just one of many things associated with this story that show that the 1960s were a much different time than the era we live in today.
This story was originally published March 2, 2026 at 11:43 AM.
