Former Cowboy Lockhart camps out for good cause

Eugene Lockart raised more than $500,000 for Big Brothers Big Sisters of North Texas by camping out in Texas Stadium for a week. Courtesy of Big Brothers Big Sisters of North Texas

It wasn't even Eugene Lockhart's meeting.

The one-time Cowboy, two-time Pro Bowler's agent sits on the board of Big Brothers Big Sisters of North Texas. The agent was taking the group's CEO, Charles Pierson, to chat-up current Cowboy Bradie James and he just figured Lockhart would be into saying hey to the linebacker patrolling the same stretch of grass he once did.

Lockhart said sure. Only, a few minutes into it, he starts shaking his head at Pierson's pitch. And he, Pierson remembers, "starts selling a lot harder than I was."

Lockhart was 46-years-old and had never been a Big Brother. In nine NFL seasons, he'd lent his mug to a Big Brother event, but he'd never done more, he says, "than show up." Now, all of a sudden, he's telling James to man up. He's in his car, he's pulling over to the side of the road and he's calling Pierson. He, Lockhart tells this man he's just met, is going to sleep on a football field until he raises half a million dollars for Big Brothers Big Sisters of North Texas.

"Everything with Eugene," Pierson says, desperately failing to keep from laughing, "is extreme."

To which Lockhart shrugs, and says totally unashamedly, "I thought they were moving a little slow."

So he told Big Brothers Big Sisters of North Texas it had a month to pull together a drive and he took himself to a sporting goods store. And no, he'd never seen a tent up close before.

"Anytime you're associated with the Dallas Cowboys," he says very practically, "you don't need to be camping."

So no, Texas Stadium doesn't exactly keep its doors open on non-football Sundays, but "I just asked Charlotte Jones at Michael Irvin's Hall of Fame party," he says, like asking the Jones family for a favor isn't the least bit daunting.

And yes, this idea out of nowhere, to sleep on an un-air-conditioned field in the middle of a Texas July for a potentially unlimited number of days was a mite batty.

"I thought it would be fun," Lockhart says, finally letting out a chuckle.

The 6-foot-2 hulk of a man all of Dallas knows as "The Hittin' Machine" drove out to Texas Stadium on July 15. He called his mission Laying it on the Line and settled on that $500,000 as a legitimate goal. Lockhart's passionate, but, like Pierson said, "he didn't want to spend a month out there."

He pitched his tent, his agent said he'd spend the first night with him, and people, clutching money, started streaming through the Cowboys' tunnel. Every time another $50,000 came in, Lockhart picked up his tent, his cot, the pillows and his gear, and he hauled it forward 10 yards. The Cowboys let him shower in their locker room and thank goodness for that -- the thermometer hit 90 every day.

Fast food joints brought in food, Lockhart mock-tackled kids and the local morning shows showed up every day at 5:30. In the pockets of quiet time, Lockhart sat in his tent and called random numbers, talking up Big Brothers Big Sisters.

He flailed at mosquitoes ("They were definitely on steroids ... they were talking to me," he said.) and he pulled a hammy during a footrace with a girl (Aww, that story won't go away."). There were visitors, like Lions tight end Dan Campbell and Jags' end Tony Brackens, who brought a $25,000 check.

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