Rayfield Wright

RAYFIELD Wright remembers his first NFL start as clearly as if it were yesterday. It was 1969, and his Dallas Cowboys were playing the rival Los Angeles Rams. A seventh-round pick out of little Fort Valley (Ga.) State in '67, the unheralded Wright had come into the league as a defensive end. But this day Cowboys coach Tom Landry was using him as an emergency replacement for injured All-Pro right tackle Ralph Neely. The man he would face all afternoon? The Rams' future Hall of Fame defensive end Deacon Jones.

"The Deacon was in his prime," Wright recalls. "He was the most feared defensive lineman in the game, and I still think he's the best of the great defensive ends I ever faced. His eyes were as red as fire, and after he took his stance, he was pawing his leg in the dirt like a bull. [ Dallas quarterback] Craig Morton went, 'Hut!' As an offensive lineman, you're taught only to hear the quarterback's voice. Nothing else. I'm listening in case there's an audible, and in the pause between Huts! I hear a deep, heavy voice say, 'Does yo' mama know you're out here?' It was Deacon Jones.

"I'm wondering, How does he know my mama? Then Morton gives the second Hut! and Deacon head-slaps me and runs right over me. Luckily the play was going the other way. I looked over to the sideline, thinking they were going to take me out, but Coach Landry was looking the other way. Deacon's big hand reaches down to help me up, and he says, 'Rookie, welcome to the NFL.' I told him, ' Mr. Jones, you don't know my mama, so don't talk about her. You want to play the game, let's play.' Coach Landry never did take me out that day, and I ended up getting a game ball."

It was the first of many. Nicknamed Big Cat because of his size (6' 6", 255 pounds) and quickness, Wright remained the anchor of the Cowboys' offensive line for the rest of his career (1967-79). He was named first or second team All-NFL six times and was selected to the NFL's 1970s All-Decade Team. Wright played in six Pro Bowls, six NFC Championship Games and five Super Bowls, two of them Dallas victories ('72 and '78). A Cowboys co-captain for seven seasons, Wright never played on a losing team in the pros, and Dallas made the playoffs in 12 of his 13 seasons. "Rayfield could do it all," said former Cowboys running back Calvin Hill after Wright's election to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. "He could pull. He could run in the open field. He could finesse-block and power-block in the run game. And there was no one better in pass-blocking. He was dominant." Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach agrees, saying simply, "He was the very best at his position in the NFL."

As a right tackle Wright was usually paired against the opponent's best pass rusher, and in the memorable 1975 postseason he faced the Rams' Jack Youngblood, the Steelers' L.C. Greenwood and the Vikings' Carl Eller back-to-back-to-back. Every game he kept them at bay. "He just had so much size and quickness," says Steelers Hall of Famer Joe Greene. "This guy had great range and punch. Rayfield Wright should have been in the Hall of Fame long ago."

Born in Griffin, Ga., and raised by his mother and grandmother, the 60-year-old Wright now lives outside Fort Worth, Texas. Humble and soft-spoken, he's a successful businessman with a broad range of interests. He's CEO of Wright Sports & Nutrition, a health and nutrition company, and president of PetroSun Drilling Inc., a provider of oil field services. He's also a partner with 1st Team Lending. In his spare time Wright mentors young athletes and supports organizations such as the Nelson Children's Center and Disability Resources. "I work with a lot of young kids who feel they don't have the opportunity to make it in this world," Wright says. His autobiography, Wright Up Front, which was published late last year, traces his own rise from poverty with the help of his faith and his family.

Wright, the first Cowboys offensive lineman to be elected to the Hall of Fame, was at this year's Super Bowl in Detroit when he got the news. It was the day before the game, and he was with a group in the hotel suite of Gil Brandt, the man who drafted him. "Everyone started yelling and screaming, and I remember putting my hands over my head and getting pretty emotional," Wright says. "I didn't come into the NFL with the Hall of Fame on my mind. I came to help the Cowboys win games. My favorite memory is after we won our first Super Bowl. We'd lost the year before, in 1970, on a couple of controversial calls, and afterward we held a team meeting where we decided then and there to dedicate ourselves to getting back the next year and finishing the job. We'd been called the team that couldn't win the big one. And in 1971 we got back there, and this time we beat Miami 24-3. I picked Coach Landry up on my shoulders and helped carry him off the field. The joy of winning, of seeing the smile on Coach Landry's face ... I'll never forget that."