Thursday, March 31, 1988AThe Battalion/Page 13
row recalls pro ball days,
^laments Cardinals move
By Tim Stanfield
Reporter
[though 23 years have passed
s Texas A&M Assistant Athletic
ctor John David Crow donned a
ouis Cardinal uniform, the for-
All-Pro halfback noted with re-
that his former team is now the
jnenix Cardinals.
JWhen I heard that (club owner)
dtohiiiijU Bidwell had announced the
id fori®) was definitely moving, many
stolememories popped into my
inadkBd,” Crow said recently. “Though
: en thtj
gCanasj
namt!
d a
ed.
ime,
the ji®
>b in
o was u
oldmej
and (scout) Larry Wilson are the
| men currently associated with
(Cardinals who were there when
ere, Carolyn (Crow’s wife) and I
have close friends that we made
ng our five years there.
"I played two years for the Cardi-
ij in Chicago, but the move to St.
didn’t bother me because we
fti’t established any roots. Now I
k 1 know how some of the older
Jers felt then because we did feel
home in St. Louis.”
ipion<f®he Cardinals also drafted an-
phast mer Aggie in 1958, Bobby Joe Con-
■ Conrad played 1 1 seasons for
itt anciteii before finishing his pro career
jilf)69 with the Dallas Cowboys,
visifcr!»'j hate to see them move,” Con-
oand ad paid on March 16. “While I don’t
mow all the facts, I do know that
r. Bidwell went through proper
Bedures in order for the NFL to
ipprove the move.”
Tonrad pointed out that Bidwell
was the previous NFL owner to
low such procedure when the
Jninals moved from Chicago.
“(Robert) Irsay moved the Colts
■i Baltimore to Indianapolis
lout asking the league’s permis-
1 a few years ago,” Conrad con-
- Larptued. “And A1 Davis left Oakland
|Los Angeles shortly after win-
the Super Bowl in 1980.”
JFL owners approved the move
a 26-0-2 vote with Davis as one of
two who abstained. The primary
)n Bidwell sought to leave St.
s was Busch Stadium’s small ea
rn Oacijy (50,000, the least of any sta
ck to itim in the league). For the past sev-
lird .'fif years the Cardinals have
well gsteraged less than 50,000 per game,
urthc. Citv officials tried in vain to get
i one. wwell to await for financing a new
il by adium, but his patience ran out
Jim uritig this past season.
89 willjCuriously enough, the Cardinals
hit tvenjto St. Louis from Chicago after
i, biil. : tfl959 season for similar reasons.
>oints,!®ieir rdCOrd during the 1950s
iipleteaBthe worst among the 12 NFL
ad.iutfnchises, with many of their home
I7tojo|iies played before small crowds at
lode:; linisky Park in 1958 and Soldier
pointsifeld in 1959.
and liine NFL founder, George Halas,
Reached the Chicago Bears, who
mts audited their home games before
loston fgecrowds at Wrigley Field.
imebiiRow, who was the first pick of the
thtiifi
1958 NFL draft, recalled his first
game in Chicago with mixed feel-
ings.
“The very first time I touched the
ball as a pro, I was fortunate to run
for an 83-yard touchdown,” Crow
said. “While I was happy to do well
as a player, the day was marred
when several of the players’ wives,
including Carolyn, had a little alter
cation with some men outside our
dressing room.
“Now I don’t want to say anything
negative about Chicago or the peo
ple who live there, but that upset me.
I went to the team offices the next
day about it, and the wives were
moved to a secured area close to
where we were.”
Crow said that many of the play
ers lived in hotel apartments near
the stadium, which wasn’t a good
family environment.
When the club moved to St. Louis,
Crow, who is from Springhill, La.,
and other Southerners on the squad
were delighted. Not only were they
closer to home, but tbe city was
much smaller and housing was avail
able to them in which their wives and
children were more comfortable.
“Along with getting better players
in the draft, I think that was a major
reason the team improved,” Crow
said. “Carolyn and I even rented a
house our last two seasons.”
Professionally, Crow’s five years
in St. Louis were his best, as he twice
rushed for more than 1,000 yards
and was the first St. Louis Cardinal
to make the Pro Bowl.
In 1960 he gained a club-record
1,071 yards rushing and led the NFL
with a 5.9-yard per carry. He also
broke the club one-game rushing re
cord with 203 yards on 24 carries in
the final game of the season against
the Pittsburgh Steelers.
“That was probably the highlight
season of my pro career,” Crow said.
“Losing 10 games in 1959 was more
than all the high school and college
teams that I played on lost com
bined. I never liked losing at all, so
our team improvement was special
to me.
“My average per carry led the
league, which was quite an honor
with a guy like (Cleveland Browns’
running back) Jim Brown in the
league. And I was named to the first-
team all-pro along with Brown.”
Conrad set an NFL record for
most consecutive games in which he
caught at least one pass (93), surpas
sing the old mark (78) held by for
mer Green Bay Packer star wide re
ceiver Don Hutson. He, too, played
in a Pro Bowl.
Both men were positive links be
tween the Chicago and St. Louis
Cardinal franchises. When Pitts
burgh defeated Chicago 35-20 in
December 1959, Crow scored the
Cardinals’ final touchdown with
1:05 to play in the fourth quarter on
a 9-yard pass from former Rice quar
terback King Hill.
Conrad kicked the extra-point, ce
menting the Aggie stamp on the
game.
“I didn’t realize that I scored the
final Chicago Cardinal point,” Con
rad said.
The St. Louis Cardinals opened
the 1960 season on Sept. 23 at the
Los Angeles Coliseum against the
L.A. Rams. Conrad scored the fran
chise’s first points, which came on a
12-yard field goal in the second
quarter.
But it was left to Crow to put his
initials on the first St. Louis touch
down, which came shortly after Con
rad’s first field goal on an 18-yard
pass from Hill.
Crow came right back to score the
Cardinals’ second touchdown catch
ing a 52-yard touchdown pass from
former SMU quarterback John
Roach in the third quarter.
Though Crow recalled a lot from
his early pro seasons, he wasn’t
aware of his place in Cardinal his
tory.
“I didn’t know that,” he said. “But
I do recall that we had several play
ers from Texas, including Don Gillis
(Rice), Charley Jackson (SMU), Joe
Robb (TCU) and two other Aggies,
Ken Beck and John Tracy.”
Crow was traded to the San Fran
cisco 49ers after St. Louis defeated
Green Bay in the 1964 Playoff Bowl.
He played four seasons with the
49ers, retiring after the 1968 season.
“I had heard from another for
mer NFL player that everyone in the
league shouldn’t play in the same
place for more than five years,”
Crow said. “Even though I was a
Cardinal for seven years, only five of
them were in one place.”
owboys’ White may miss camp;
jury could end lineman’s career
0
; their.- 1
trol
top
hebui. 1
t’hen ti]
s beeij
■oad ^1
vvani* 1
DALLAS (AP) — Playing a 14th
in in the NFL will be more diffi-
ihan Randy White had expected
■ completing one of the most
ful years of his football career,
fhite has a damaged disk in his
ck that might cause him to miss
of training camp and places his
|ej£r in jeopardy. Trainer Don
iren said he will suggest to coach
K Landry that White not partici-
in contact work at training
‘P
I If he starts butting heads out
:re with (offensie lineman) Nate
ton, we might not have him for
fcason,” Cochren said.
Hie original diagnosis was a
ned nerve. White was often in
n^tant pain after the third game of
sason and said he lost consider
able upper body strength because of
the neck injury.
He was often replaced late in the
season by rookie Danny Noonan. Al
though be will rarely talk about inju
ries, White said his shoulders some
times were numb.
White hasn’t even lifted weights
since the end of the season. One of
the strongest players on the team.
White has usually been a fanatic
weightlifter.
“Right now, all I can think about is
getting back to 100 percent so I can
make a significant contribution to
the football team,” said White, the
Cowboys’ first-round draft pick in
1975.
“Whatever it entails, I will do. If
they want me to sit out some of train
ing camp then I will do that, too.”
No doubt, White will be chal
lenged for his starting job by Noo
nan, who had a superb first season
after missing training camp as a con
tract holdout.
Laudry said: “I just think that
what Randy faces is a timing thing.
We will wait and see him work out
and hope he gets better. You can
have a disk problem and still not be
critical. Randy will have to show us
his improvement.”
Could White skip camp and still
participate in the 1988 season?
“You wouldn’t miss camp and still
play in the season,” Landry said. “He
might just practice once a day.”
The Cowboys have an age prob
lem in the defensive line. White
turned 35 in January and Ed Jones,
37, is the oldest player on the team.
LECTURE BY:
MR. RONALD PERRIN
MARKETING EXECUTIVE, AUSTIN
MODERATED BY:
PROF. LARRY YARAK
HISTORY DEPARTMENT, TEXAS A&M
THURSDAY MARCH 31,1988
TIME: 7:00PM.
PLACE: ROOM 701 RUDDER TOWER
TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY
SPONSORED BY:
SAUDI STUDENTS'ASSOCIATION
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