All these years later, John Wooten remains struck by the fact that not only did his bosses with the Dallas Cowboys not discourage his budding efforts to advance minority coaches and scouts, they helped fund them, paying for his flights and per diem as he traveled to meetings of what would become the Fritz Pollard Alliance.
The only resistance he got from Cowboys President and General Manager Tex Schramm in those early days was an understandable aversion to the idea that others might have a say in who he hired.
“It sounds like you all are trying to tell us what to do,” Schramm said during one of the few conversations they had about the matter.
“Tex, we’re not trying to tell you what to do,” Wooten said. “All we’re saying is, it’s about opportunity. You can’t tell me, Tex, that you hired the best guy for the job if you didn’t survey the field. You can tell me you hired who you wanted to hire. But don’t tell me you hired the best.”
Sensing he wasn’t making much ground with Schramm, Wooten drew a scouting parallel. He asked Schramm to envision a little-known player from Walla Walla, Wash., who reportedly stood 6-foot-4, weighed 280 pounds and ran the 40 in 4.6 seconds.
“How many teams are going up there to see him?” Wooten asked.
“All of us,” Schramm said.
“Then do the same thing here,” Wooten said. “That’s all we’re saying.”
Schramm thought for a moment.
“What the hell,” he told Wooten. “Do what you want.”
— Bill King
