Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Anything But A Silver Spoon For Switzer Cowboys Coach’s Childhood Involved No Frills, No Thrills

Bob Glauber Newsday

It was called Sam Lawson’s community, a small cluster of shacks in an impoverished area of rural Arkansas where the dirt-poor families had little to call their own except for the squalid conditions in which they lived.

No indoor plumbing. No telephones. No television. No radio. Leaky, tin-covered roofs. Splintered floorboards. Rats. Termites. Cockroaches.

This was the backdrop to Barry Switzer’s childhood.

“We didn’t have nothing back then,” the Dallas Cowboys’ coach said. “There were about 12 black shanty shacks way out in the country, and I lived about 800 yards off a gravel road in the woods.”

It was a destitute childhood Switzer would wish on no one. Yet it was there in the impoverished back country of Arkansas that the foundation of Switzer’s success as a college and National Football League head coach would be cast. It was there that Switzer, who grew up the only white child in a black community, would develop what he calls the “ability to relate to the black player.”

In fact, Switzer credits the relationships he forged during his childhood with setting the stage for his three national collegiate championships at the University of Oklahoma and for his success with the Cowboys. And several Cowboys players agree that Switzer’s positive relationships with black players have contributed immeasurably to his ability to manage the team and allow it to flourish. Dallas is one step away from winning its third Super Bowl in the last four years, and Switzer’s first.

“It’s my youth and my experience of growing up in the black community that’s helped me so much over the years,” Switzer said. “I was the only white guy around. I used to ride the school bus, and I’d be the only white guy. I grew up with black people. I played with them. I used to go in their homes, eat in their homes, and sit in their homes. We didn’t have no television or radio, and I was up there every day with them. That’s just the way I grew up.”

Switzer traces much of his initial success in coaching with his ability to relate to black players at a time when other college coaches simply did not know how.

“The (coaches) I was competing against in recruiting, they didn’t know,” Switzer said. “They didn’t have that experience that I had. The only blacks they’d been around in their lives were a butler or a maid. They had never gone through what I did, so they never knew.

“As a coach at Oklahoma, I got the label that I was a recruiter because I did do a great job recruiting and I know the reasons why,” he said. “I came along at the time of the emergence of the black athlete in college football. I had great communication skills with the black athletes. We’re talking about recruiting 17- and 18-year-old kids. They’re introverted, they didn’t have a lot of self-confidence, they lacked all the things I lacked when I grew up. I was always able to have a great communication with black athletes for that reason.

“Then later on as a head coach, the relationships with the players continued,” he said. “Those are the most important things that I enjoy. The greatest reward that I’ve had is not all the championships and all the victories - and there’s been a lot of them - but it’s been the relationships with the players that grew from a player-coach relationship into friendships.”

Many of the Cowboys’ black players credit Switzer’s warm and understanding relationships with creating a harmonious atmosphere around the club.

“Maybe black players can identify with him and he can identify with black players because he understands where black players come from,” running back Emmitt Smith said. “They come from basically the same background. When you have that same kind of understanding, you can understand the different language in all that stuff between the two (races).”

Guard Nate Newton said Switzer’s background could easily have led to a sense of racial alienation but instead served to reinforce his appreciation of his black players.

“To go through what he’s been through, he could have every reason to dislike black people,” Newton said. “But he doesn’t. He gets along, and he can relate. That’s all we as black people are asking for, to be accepted for who they are. Barry is a good man. He doesn’t create a crisis. He respects you as a man.”

Interestingly, Switzer’s primary source of conflict on the team is his relationship with quarterback Troy Aikman, who is one of three white starters. And there are some players who suggest that the source of Aikman’s disillusionment with Switzer stems in part from what Aikman perceives to be the coach’s leniency. So while some black players have said Switzer’s laid-back attitude has been a factor in fostering harmonious relationships, some players believe Aikman would rather see Switzer have stricter standards.

“Troy doesn’t think Barry favors black players by any means, but he would rather see Barry come down a little harder on players if they make mistakes,” said Cowboys defensive back Bill Bates, who is white. “I think that Troy would like to see Barry tighten the screws a little more.”

Other players say that Aikman has been continually frustrated by Switzer’s refusal to criticize players for their performance. But Aikman is in the minority when it comes to second-guessing Switzer’s approach.

“There’s a genuine quality about Barry,” said linebacker Dixon Edwards, who is black. “He seems to notice what’s genuine in people. I don’t know if it’s a black or a white thing, but it’s how genuine you are.”

xxxx SUPER SUNDAY TV: Pregame 12:30 p.m.; kickoff 3:20 (NBC) Radio: KTRW 970, 2:45 p.m.