Gil Brandt, overshadowed by coach Tom Landry and general manager Tex Schramm as part of the trio that built the Dallas Cowboys into “America’s Team” in the 1970s, has died
The Pro Football Hall of Fame said Brandt died Thursday morning. No cause of death was given, but Brandt had been in declining health in recent years.
“To me,” said former Dallas running back Calvin Hill, a first-round pick in 1969, “Gil should have been the first one in terms of certainly from a personnel standpoint.” Schramm, Landry and Brandt were together for the franchise’s first 29 seasons, and Brandt was the last of the three to go after Jerry Jones bought the team in 1989 and immediately fired Landry. Schramm resigned shortly thereafter .
Animosity toward Jones didn’t last long for Brandt, who maintained a presence around the club even as his health forced him into a wheelchair for game days in the press box. Brandt even asked Jones to be his presenter in Canton. “I think Gil, in terms of quantifying so many things about scouting, was really ahead of his time,” Hill said. “They could look at all the individual things that go into making a player and a teammate and tried to quantify it.”
But the list of lower-round picks or undrafted players, particularly from smaller schools, under Brandt stood out as much as anything else. Brandt often mentioned Jethro Pugh, an unsung defensive lineman taken in the 11th round in 1965 out of tiny Elizabeth City State in North Carolina.
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