Texas Tech football has date with Deion Sanders. What other Cowboys came through Lubbock?
When the Texas Tech football team hosts Colorado on Saturday, there might be more star gazing than usual. Colorado coach Deion Sanders will be at least the 29th member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame to take part in a game in Lubbock. And whereas Sanders is a polarizing figure among college football fans, he might get a warmer reception across Texas given he spent five seasons with the Dallas Cowboys and made All-Pro during four of those seasons.
Several more who have worn the Cowboys' star with distinction actually had their day at Jones Stadium. Here are some you may or may not know came through Lubbock.
DT Bob Lilly: Before he became known as "Mr. Cowboy," Lilly was a junior on a TCU team that beat the Red Raiders 14-8 in 1959. He went on to play 14 seasons in Dallas, making the Pro Bowl 11 times, first- or second-team All-Pro nine times and the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
More: How a 2002 change to NCAA protocol shapes Tahj Brooks's Texas Tech football record chase More: Texas Tech football bowl projections: Upset win over Iowa State puts Pop-Tarts back in playRB Walt Garrison: The snuff-dipping real-life cowboy scored a touchdown for Oklahoma State in a 17-14 loss to Tech in 1965. He played nine years for Dallas, winning a Super Bowl and making a Pro Bowl.
Jerry Jones and Jimmy Johnson: Sixty years ago this month, third-ranked Arkansas beat Tech 17-0 in a regular-season finale at Jones Stadium, moving to 10-0 in a season the Razorbacks were crowned national champions by the Football Writers Association of America. Jones and Johnson were starters on that team years before they reunited as Cowboys owner and coach.
Barry Switzer: The coach of the Cowboys' fifth Super Bowl champion and third of the 1990s led the West to a 36-6 victory in the 1974 Coaches All-America Game, an event staged at Jones Stadium every year from 1970-76.
LB D.D. Lewis, Mississippi State: Mississippi State, an 18-point underdog, came into Jones Stadium in October 1967 and upset No. 10 Tech 7-3. Lewis, credited with nine tackles and 10 assists, was named the SEC lineman of the week. He later won two Super Bowls during a 13-year NFL career spent entirely with the Tom Landry-era Cowboys.
WR Drew Pearson: Pearson went from undrafted free agent from Tulsa in 1973 to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2021. In a 1972 game at Jones Stadium, he caught six passes for 114 yards and a touchdown in a 35-18 loss to the Red Raiders.
RB Duane Thomas, West Texas State, WR Charlie Waters, Clemson, DL John Fitzgerald, Boston College: The Cowboys drafted them in the first, third and fourth rounds of the 1970 NFL draft, and they played in the Coaches All-America Game at Jones Stadium five months later. Waters caught a touchdown pass in the East's 34-27 victory. He became a three-time Pro Bowl safety for the Cowboys, and Fitzgerald became a Cowboys fixture at center.
More: When football helped the healingLB Thomas "Hollywood" Henderson, Langston, LB Bob Breunig, Arizona State: Henderson and Breunig were first-and third-round draft picks by the Cowboys five months before they played at Jones Stadium. Players usually wore their college teams' helmets in the Coaches All-America Game, but Henderson wore a Cowboys helmet with the star in the 1975 game. Breunig spent his entire 10-year NFL career in Dallas, making the Pro Bowl three times. He and Henderson started alongside each other when the Cowboys won Super Bowl XII.
DT Russell Maryland, Miami: In a rare late-October nonconference game in 1990, eighth-ranked Miami destroyed Tech 45-10, racking up 10 sacks against a young offensive line and holding the Red Raiders to 93 total yards. Six months later, the Cowboys made Maryland the first overall pick in the 1991 draft.
S Roy Williams, Oklahoma: Before he became a five-time Pro Bowl honoree in seven seasons with the Cowboys, Williams played on Sooners teams in 1999 and 2001 at Jones Stadium. The Red Raiders beat OU 38-28 in 1999, famous for being Spike Dykes' last game and Kliff Kingsbury's first college start. Two years later, No. 3 OU won 30-13 with Williams making a team-high eight tackles.
OL Andre Gurode, Colorado: He made the Pro Bowl five times in a 12-year NFL career spent mostly with Dallas, but Gurode's Jones Stadium experience wasn't the best. Tech routed Colorado 31-10 in 1999 behind a 230-yard rushing output from Shaud Williams.
WR Dez Bryant, Oklahoma State: Bryant might have been a go-to guy for Dallas from 2010-17, but he and Oklahoma State were obliterated by the Red Raiders 56-20 in November 2008. The outcome made No. 2 Tech 10-0 and No. 8 Oklahoma State 8-2.
