Saturday, January 10, 1998

It's only fitting Switzer ride off with Robinson and Osborne

By BERRY TRAMEL / The Daily Oklahoman

First went Eddie Robinson, with a coast-to-coast tip of the hat that included even ABC's "Nightline." You don't get any bigger than "Nightline."

Then went Tom Osborne, with a 32-vote salute from college football's coaches, who didn't want to see the good doctor leave without a slice of national-title pie.

And now goes Barry Switzer, with a swift kick in the pants and hearty I-told-you-so's from fiction writers like me.

The Daily Oklahoman reported Friday that the Dallas Cowboys will fire Switzer within the next couple of days. A coach with a legendary record bereft of legendary status will be out of the game for good.

It's only fitting that he ride off with Robinson and Osborne, for they, more than any others, remind us of what kind of coach was Switzer.

Robinson is retiring after 57 years as the coach at Grambling, a school that gave blacks a chance to play big-time football.

Switzer did the same. Oklahoma was recruiting black athletes before Switzer became head coach in 1973, but he embraced the concept unlike any other coach before him. Before it was fashionable, he had black captains, black quarterbacks, black assistant coaches. He didn't care.

He went into black homes and made like he still was an Arkansas teen-ager who had been catting around with a black pal. He slept on Alvin Ross' couch, he put his stocking feet on Keith Jackson's ottoman, he ate the cracklin' bread baked by Andre Johnson's mother.

And it wasn't fake. It was genuine.

Osborne is retiring after the most amazing 25-year career in college football history. A 255-49-3 record. Three national titles in the last four years. Sixty wins in his last five years.

A winning percentage of .836, fifth-best in college football history. One notch below Switzer's .837.

It's hard to believe, since the wounds remain fresh from Nebraska's 73-21 and 69-7 victories over Oklahoma the last two years, but Osborne retires with a 13-13 record against OU. He went 5-12 head-up against Sooners coach Switzer.

Osborne's program and record are without peer, but he came out second-best against the Switz. To this day, Switzer is revered in Nebraska, because Cornhusker fans know how he could get a football team ready to play in November.

Osborne was in Dallas this week for the American Football Coaches Association convention and was asked if he had been contacted by Cowboy owner Jerry Jones.

"No," Osborne said. "They've got a guy there I couldn't whip."

Not anymore, they don't.

Switzer's four star-crossed seasons in Dallas are over. He won a Super Bowl and a Bozo the Coach headline. He made new friends like Michael Irvin and new enemies like Troy Aikman.

I've said it before, but the bottom line of Switzer's saga in Big D: He wasn't the problem, but he wasn't the solution.

The talent is too close in the NFL. There aren't any Iowa States to coast past. No magic either, Sooner or any other kind. Switzer's loose rein worked for a while, but then it didn't, and the Cowboys sank to 6-10 this season.

Dallas fullback Daryl Johnston, one of the quiet Cowboys, even went on ESPN this week and said the team lacked discipline and had extremely poor practice habits this season.

It was bound to happen, and now it has. Switzer is gone from Dallas, and good riddance will be about all he gets.

But it shouldn't be. He deserves the same respect as Robinson and Osborne. And the same salutes.

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service.)