It's been a while since I posted, but the timing is right for this one.
This week, my all-time favorite Pensacola Celebrity is back in the news. Emmitt Smith will be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame this weekend in Canton, OH! Tonight on ESPN Emmitt appears on the show "Homecoming" talking about where he got his start. All week in the Pensacola News Journal there have been special articles. Well, I want to contribute and give my history as an Emmitt Smith fan. I may not get all the dates and facts entirely correct, but here is my experience with Emmitt...
I did not grow up a sports fan. My family was not particularly into sports. We would watch the Superbowl each year, but I chose who to cheer for by how cool their uniform was! I tended to cheer for underdogs, or against the establishment. For instance, when the Dallas Cowboys were all the rage in the 70's, I would tend to cheer against them. But overall, it just did not matter.
In the Fall of 1981 I was a Freshman Trombone player in the band at Escambia High School. We played at all the football games, and it was kind of fun! We were 3-7 that year, and apparently had been for some time. Many people came to see the band, then left after halftime. My Sophomore year a friend on the football team told me their goal was to not be 3-7! We were either 2-8 or 1-9, I can't remember. When we actually scored, the band had to search for our music for the fight song!
My Junior year, things changed. A new coach arrived, and new attitudes. Another friend on the football team told me about the first day of practice. The coach brought out a freshman player to play on the varsity team. My friend said the plan was to knock him back to the Freshman team and show him his place. The next thing he knew, the freshman had knocked him backwards, stepping on his hand on the way to the end zone! That freshman was Emmitt Smith!
Emmitt's Freshman year was a real change for us. We started winning! And it was much more fun! We learned the fight song! That year we lost to Milton I believe in the district playoffs. But there was much more to come!
My Senior year, Emmitt led the team to the State Championship! He had a great team around him, but he was distinctly the star of the team. I seem to remember winning the playoffs in overtime, the next round in double overtime, the next in triple overtime, then I think it was Jacksonville Lee in Quadruple overtime! The band was seated for that one in folding chairs on the track in Jacksonville. We had all lost our voices yelling and screaming during the game. We tried to keep cheering, but nothing would come out! If I remember correctly, the actual State Championship game was nowhere near as exciting, but we won, and had our first State Championship! I had become more of a football fan.
The next year I went to Millsaps College in Jackson, MS for college. My sister started as a Freshman at Escambia, and she was also in the band. I did make it back to Pensacola for a few games that year. The thing I remember most that year was that Escambia played the MS State Champion, Magee High School. Magee was halfway between Jackson and Hattiesburg. Denis McKinnon, the Captain of Escambia's team my Senior Year was a freshman at Southern Miss in Hattiesburg. My roomate and high school friend Martin Dunlap and I met Denis in Magee. My sister and the band had made a bunch of signs for us, and we posted them around Magee! We watched part of their practice in our bright Orange State Champion T-Shirts! At one point at a stop sign, a large number of Magee students came rushing up to the car. We thought we were in trouble! They just wanted to know how we thought they looked, what their chances were. Emmitt and Escambia beat them soundly that Friday Night!
I also traveled to Gainesville that year to see one of the playoff games. Escambia and Emmitt once again won the State Championship.
Emmitt's senior year I did not get to see as many games, but still made it to town for a few. One of these was the most hyped high school game I ever saw. Again my memories may not coincide with the facts, but here was my experience... The game was the last of the season against arch-rival Pensacola High. Whoever won would take the district title. Tickets were given away on the radio! I seem to remember getting there before 5 in the afternoon, and the crowd was already building. By game time, there was no aisle in the stadium, and people were several deep around the edges. The game had a number of VERY questionable calls, and Escambia ended up losing the game. It had been televised on local TV, and I believe replays showed the calls were questionable. One included a long signature sideline run by Emmitt for a touchdown. The opposing coach yelled at the ref until the ref gave in and called that Emmitt had stepped out of bounds. It was a very depressing game.
During this last couple years the nation had taken note of Emmitt and Escambia. We had been ranked in the USA Today as the top High School football team in the country for a time. Since Escambia didn't make the playoffs, they were invited to play in a special High School "Bowl" game at the University of Florida that year. I always wondered if that was a recruiting move by UF? Whatever the case, Emmitt went on to play at the University of Florida.
For me this was an easy transition. I already had tons of Orange and Blue, and Gator shirts as those were the colors and mascot at Escambia. Many of my friends were at UF, and I had actually wanted to go there as well. Millsaps was a great school, but they did not really go in for the sports. They had a good team, but nobody seemed to care. So once a year at least, I would roadtrip to see the UF Gators and Emmitt play to renew my faith in football.
When I graduated from Millsaps, I decided to go to UF to pursue a second degree. Those plans did not work out, but I spent a fantastic year at UF, and got to go to almost every game they played! As it happens, this was Emmitt's final year at UF as well.
When he left school early to go to the NFL draft, and went to the Cowboys, I wasn't sure what to think. I had not been a Cowboys fan, had not liked Jimmy Johnson when he was at Miami, and was not sure what to think. But honestly, I had no real strong feelings in the NFL, and as always, I am an Emmitt fan, so I became a Cowboys fan.
I did my grad school at Tulane. Another school that did not support their team well at the time. I continued my traditional yearly Gators game, and got to see an occasional Saints game as well. When I graduated in 92, I took a job in Dallas! The last time I saw Emmitt reasonably close was at a preseason scrimmage game open to the public at Texas Stadium. We could walk on the field and meet the players. Emmitt was so mobbed with people, I got within about 15 feet, and din't want to try and push further. It was crazy! That year was the first year the Cowboys won the Superbowl with Emmitt. I became a voracious fan, reading everything I could get my hands on. Collecting T-shirts, figures, cards, etc. I still have boxes of stuff I have saved tracking Emmitt from the days at Escambia through UF and to the Cowboys.
Not long before I left Dallas to return to Pensacola, Emmitt had left Dallas to play for the Arizona Cardinals. This was another in a series of events that made it easier for me to leave Dallas. Funny how things work out...
He even turned me into a dance fan when he competed in Dancing With the Stars. I watched every episode, and called in as many times as I could get through on as many phones as I could to vote for him.
I cannot really claim to know Emmitt personally. I have spoken to him on only a couple of occasions. I last talked to him on the UF campus his last year there. My family sold him his first train set before he left Pensacola. I understand he is still a Model Railroader. But in all my years in Dallas, working in a train shop, and living not far away, I never crossed paths with him again. I visited his family's store and Emmitt museum when it was over in Town and Country Plaza. I bought a club membership card and autograph, and have only recently taken the card out of my wallett, even though the store has been gone for years. I still hope one day when he come to visit his family he might come by the Hobby Shop again where he bought his first train set. But that's probably just a dream. It doesn't matter anyway. I am a big fan, and I appreciate all the entertainment he has provided me over the years.
I am an Emmitt Fan. And I wish him and his family congratulations on this well deserved honor.
