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Troy Aikman could not have walked into a worse situation. The Dallas Cowboys had just fired
Tom Landry, the only coach the team had ever had, and replaced him with Jimmy Johnson, a coach
Aikman had once committed to play for at Oklahoma State before changing his mind and heading across
the state.
When Aikman, the Oklahoma Sooner, next met Johnson on the football field, in 1985, Johnson was
coach of the University of Miami and, as things turned out, the Hurricanes defense broke Aikman's leg.
Aikman was on the sidelines when Oklahoma won the national championship that season. When the two
finally did get together in Dallas in 1989, Aikman went 0-11 as a starter, and Johnson was 1-15 as the coach.
Aikman was the star quarterback in high school for the Henryetta (Oklahoma) Hens, before he went
to college in Norman, then transferred to UCLA. Unable to play in 1986 as a transfer student, he
made up for lost time over the next two years with 5,298 yars passing, 41 touchdowns, and just 17 interceptions.
He was rewarded by being th first overall draft selection. Dallas then had its worst season since
the city first received a National Football League expansion franchise in 1960. But, just three
years after the nightmare beginning to his pro career, Aikman and the Cowboys went 13-3, swept through
the playoffs, and trounced Buffalo 52-17 in Super Bowl XXVII as Aikman completed 22 of 30 passes
for 273 yards and 4 touchdowns to earn MVP honors. The next year Dallas beat the Bills 30-13. Super
Bowl XXX made it three NFL championships for Aikman in four seasons. |
