Cowboys Great "Big Cat" Rayfield Wright Enters Hall of Fame

Former Dallas Cowboys tackle Rayfield Wright is about to officially enter the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Looking back, it's amazing that a guy from a tiny school who settled into position after three years on an NFL roster would get to Canton at all...

Wright was drafted by the Dallas Cowboys in the seventh round out of tiny Fort Valley State (current enrollment: nearly 2,500). Hall of Famer? In those days, common wisdom was that Wright might not even make the team. But at 6'6", not-yet 255 pounds, Wright was solid if not schwarzeneggerian, and his outstanding reaction time kept him on the Cowboys for the 1967 season.

The Dallas coaching staff still didn't know what to do with him, however. Through three seasons, they tried Wright at TE and DE. Ultimately, Coach Tom Landry himself made the decision to put Wright on the offensive line when starting RT Ralph Neely got injured, a move that offensive line coach Jim Myers may have groused about silently at the time but was later eternally thankful.

As Wright recalled, Landry told him something on the order of "yeah, you'll make a good tackle. You learn fast. You block good at tight end. You just need to gain some weight." Wright was all too ready to play Lou Gehrig to Neely's Wally Pipp and stayed in the spot for the decade.

After, in the estimation of Wright himself, "being known as the team in the late '60s ... that couldn't win the big game," what followed for Wright and his Dallas Cowboys were the sensational '70s. It was a decade in which the 'Pokes racked up a 105-47 for a winning percentage of nearly .700. The Cowboys played in a dominant seven NFC championship games and five Super Bowls from 1970 to '79. The Roger Staubach-led offense was ranked no. 1 three times.

Wright led an offensive line that became known for its notorious stinginess for the quarterback sack. In Wright's heyday, he found himself lined up against defensive ends such as Hall of Famers Jack Youngblood, Carl Eller, Elvin Bethea, a young Lee Roy Selmon and, in his first start, Deacon Jones.

In fact, the confrontation between Wright and the Deacon in the game against the Los Angeles Rams would go on ESPN Classic's "Tales of Trash Talking" if such a show existed. On the first play from scrimmage, Deacon asked, "Boy, does your mama know you out here?" and proceeded to pancake the newbie. Jones reportedly called down to Wright an already oldie-but-goodie: "Hey, rookie, welcome to the NFL." To which Wright responded, "Well, Mr. Jones, you don't know my mama, so don't talk about her. You want to play the game this way, we'll play it." New guy Wright got up and played the game that way. Oh, and he got the game ball.

At his speech in response to the nod, Wright refreshed a few memories about a rather stunning feature of Dallas Cowboys history. Despite all the legends, glory years and Super Bowl wins, only five Cowboys were Hallers before this year's additions Troy Aikman and Wright. "...out of all the great teams that the Dallas Cowboys have had over the years," Wright said, "there has not been an offensive lineman placed in the Hall of Fame. I will be the first one." Though Aikman and Wright never played together, fellow HOFers Randy White and Tony Dorsett bridge the gap between these two greats' eras.

"Big Cat" Wright will gain immortality in Canton, Ohio, on August 5th with his well-deserved entry into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. If no speaker to introduce Wright has been named, a nomination: his line coach Myers. When asked about Wright's career, Myers succinctly stated, "We tried to make a tight end out of Rayfield. Then we tried him on the defensive line. And then he made a great coach out of me."

And that just about says it all.