Thirty years ago today Jerry Jones bought the Dallas Cowboys for $140 million and fired the only coach the Cowboys had ever known.
It remains the biggest sports story in North Texas history and NBC 5 is the one who broke it. The Dallas Cowboys are now estimated to be worth more than $4 billion dollars.
NBC 5 Photojournalist Kerry Smith reflected on the whirlwind coverage surrounding the sale of the Cowboys in February of 1989.
"We were so excited at every step of the way when we had an exclusive because nobody was working it," Smith said.
Smith says the credit goes to then-sports reporter Tom Murray who developed a crucial source. The pair followed every interested buyer of the Cowboys –- from a group of Japanese investors to the founder of the Dallas Mavericks Don Carter.
"You know we were the only ones that knew Don Carter wrote a $10 million dollar check and was very anxious to buy the team," Smith said.
Ultimately, the pair learned a rather unknown oilman from Arkansas was making a big push for the team and they spent three days holed up in a Miami hotel room waiting to break the news and get an interview with expected incoming head coach Jimmy Johnson, but the confirmation didn’t come until after station management told the pair to come back to Fort Worth.
As soon as they landed back in North Texas, Smith said Tom Murray’s source confirmed the sale to Jerry Jones.
NBC 5 broke the news during a Thursday night episode of "L.A. Law" but Smith says few others in the Dallas media world believed the story was true until Jerry Jones and Jimmy Johnson were spotted at Mia’s eating lunch the following day. A picture of the pair snapped by a Dallas Morning News photographer has become iconic.
"Everybody said, 'Wow, I guess Channel 5 knew what they were talking about because at this point nobody believed us,'" Smith said.
Smith said he’s still in disbelief over how he knew about the sale, but people closest to the team like then-General Manager Tex Scrhamm and head Coach Tom Landry appeared to be in the dark.
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On Saturday, Feb. 28 -– two days after NBC5 broke the story -- Cowboys fan met Jerry Jones in a press conference and were upset over the immediate firing of legendary Landry.
"[Jones] expected everyone to welcome him with open arms and I’m not sure that was the case and some people still view him skeptically because of that," Smith said.
Smith remembers waiting outside Landry’s home to get the first interview after he’d been fired.
"I had admired Tom Landry so much, personally, it was very said," Smith said. "He stopped, rolled down the window and we did a full interview with him and he never even got out of the car."
Smith thinks in the end, fans have forgiven Jones after those three Super Bowl wins in the 1990s.
