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Emmitt Smith: A Lasting Legacy

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By JOE HENDERSON

jhenderson@tampatrib.com

Published: January 30, 2009

TAMPA - The call went out to eighth-graders interested in playing football the next season for Pensacola's Escambia High School. Dwight Thomas, the new coach, already had an idea just how big a job it was going to be. When the position opened, he was the only one who applied.

Escambia was a dead-end, athletically and socially. On the field, the school had one winning season in the previous 18. Thomas was the team's fourth coach in four years. The Gators had three wins combined in the previous three years.

It was just as hard off the field. Only 7 percent of the students had their biological mother and father at home, and the wounds of a racial divide in Pensacola about a decade before hadn't fully healed.

But among the kids dressed in shorts, T-shirts, flip-flops and ratty tennis shoes, one youngster caught Thomas' eye that day. He wore a polo shirt, tucked in. Nice slacks. Dress shoes. He was confident without being cocky. He was respectful and deferential.

Thomas remembers that, "He walked right up to me and said, 'My name is Emmitt Smith. I want to play football for you.'"

The story of that impressive young man echoes more than a quarter-century later. He became a star, leaving Escambia in 1987 with 8,804 yards, 106 touchdowns and two state championships. He set records at the University of Florida. As a member of the Dallas Cowboys, he became the career rushing leader in National Football League history.

In 2010, the first time he is eligible for enshrinement, he surely will join the best of the best in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

They Knew His Name

Emmitt Jr. and Mary Smith have been married 42 years. He drives a bus for ECAT - Escambia County Area Transit. Thirty-five years on the job and, he says proudly, "Over 1 million miles of safety." Mary Smith is retired after working at a bank.

"Football is his gift," Emmitt Jr. says of his son, Emmitt Smith III. "I have to say I'm not surprised at what he has done at all. Watching him from the first time he stepped on a field when he was 8 years old, I knew if he kept his head on right and worked hard, he could do anything."

His head was always right.

"I had known Emmitt since he was about 10 years old, and he always stood out. He had manners, was very polite, very respectful. He was unusual. There was something about him," said Jimmy Nichols, who was the offensive coordinator at Escambia then and is the current head coach.

High school freshmen didn't play varsity much anywhere back then; Thomas had never used one. Nichols knew how good the new kid could be, though, and argued with Thomas to give him a shot.

"In practice we couldn't tackle the guy," Nichols said.

Neither could anyone else. On the opening night of the season, the freshman got the ball. After rushing for 148 yards and two touchdowns, he kept getting it. By the end of his sophomore year, Escambia was a state champion.

Then there was the game his junior year against Tallahassee Leon. A hurricane went through Pensacola a day or so before the game.

"We probably shouldn't have played the game; there was deep water everywhere and the field was basically mud," said Johnny Nichols, who was Escambia's quarterback and later roomed with Smith at Florida.

First play, pitch to Emmitt. He went 91 yards through the mud and muck for a touchdown.

Then there was the night he shut down the Milton Panthers.

It was a rivalry game and both teams were loaded; Escambia was en route to a second consecutive state title. The game was in Pensacola and Milton fans kept chanting, "Home town, goin' down ... home town, goin' down."

Thomas likes to say he only had three plays - handoff to Emmitt, pitch to Emmitt or a pass to Emmitt. He called "power right" for the first play that night.

"I'm not kidding, now. They had nine guys on defense lined up in the hole to stop him," he said.

They needed more.

Thomas swears the pile went back 9 yards when Emmitt hit the hole. He has it on old black and white film, the Milton kids being pushed back, fighting to bring down No. 24 for Escambia, those oak-tree legs churning as the chant from the Milton stands turned to a gasp.

"The crowd sat down after that," Thomas said.

Gave Up Basketball

Escambia at one time was all-white, and desegregation didn't go over easily. The school mascot had to be changed from the Rebels to the Gators. The fight song was "Dixie." There were a lot of riots in the 1970s, the worst of which landed Escambia High in the national news.

Some of the bad feelings remained when Emmitt showed up about a decade later.

"There was still a lot of that, it's true," his father said. "He never discussed it with us, but things began to change when he went to Escambia. People rallied around the team and started cheering for them. As they started playing better, more people got behind them."

Normally, he would have gone to Pensacola High - his home is four blocks from there - but he wound up at Escambia after boundary lines were redrawn to ensure better racial balance.

"Did the success Emmitt enjoyed help heal some wounds? Absolutely," said Norm Ross, who was Escambia's basketball coach then and now works as deputy superintendent of Escambia County schools.

It's funny how things work out. Suppose Thomas had stuck to his "no freshmen" philosophy. Smith might have wound up being a basketball star. He wanted to be on the team - he was a middle-school terror in the sport. Not many coaches turn down a player who might start, but Ross did.

"His future was in football, and he needed to get faster," Ross said. "I told him he needed to run track instead of play basketball. I made him a deal; if he would do that, I'd let him play basketball as a senior, which I did. He just looked at me and said, 'Yes, sir.'"

That's the Emmitt they remember. He doesn't go back to Pensacola much these days; he lives in Dallas with his wife and four children. He has broadcasting duties with ESPN and gigs on shows like "Dancing With the Stars."

Those who knew him best then say they hear from him often, though. As big as he has become, to his friends he is still the young man who stood out from the crowd one afternoon in Pensacola.

"I never heard him say one negative thing to another player in four years," Thomas said. "He sat in the front row, never missed practice, and went to class. He was also the toughest player I've ever coached. I coached for 33 years and I've seen a lot of great players come along, but Emmitt Smith, to me, is the greatest player of all time."

Reporter Joe Henderson can be reached at (813) 259-7861.

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