IRVING - Ever since the Dallas Cowboys dumped him, Tex Schramm has gone to games at Texas Stadium and imagined seeing his name added to the franchise's Ring of Honor.
"I never gave up hope," the 82-year-old Schramm said, his eyes tearing up. "Things that should happen to people that deserve them, usually do happen."
This fall, it finally will.
Team owner Jerry Jones, who forced Schramm out 14 years ago, has decided that the man who created the ring should be in it, too. Schramm will become the 12th member - and he was responsible for bringing the other 11 to the Cowboys.
Schramm was the team's president and general manager from 1960-89. He hired Tom Landry and was with Jones the day he fired the coach. Schramm left soon after, with Jones taking over his role.
But it was Schramm who built the Cowboys into "America's Team" and capitalized on marketing them that way. The cheerleaders were his idea, and many of his other innovations helped the NFL blossom.
"Tex is an innovator, creator, leader and a visionary," Jones said.
Schramm is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, too. He had been the only member of the organization honored in Canton, Ohio, but not Irving, Texas.
"I think we've all rooted for the fact that Tex should be in the Ring of Honor," said Hall of Fame quarterback Roger Staubach. "I think Jerry is bringing together the whole history of the Dallas Cowboys."
At a news conference Wednesday, Schramm and Jones wouldn't address their contentious breakup or the years of silence since.
Despite sitting side-by-side, they didn't shake hands and never made eye contact.
But with the Cowboys' bounty of five Super Bowl trophies in front of them, both were all smiles.
"It's a big thing to me to be sitting here right now," Schramm said. "I want to thank Jerry very much for taking this step."
Jones said he hasn't yet decided which game the induction will take place, but hinted that it could come on Thanksgiving against the Miami Dolphins.
Schramm was a CBS Sports executive when Cowboys founder Clint Murchison hired him to run his expansion team.
Among his first hires was Landry, an assistant coach for the New York Giants who went on to win 270 games and two Super Bowls in 29 seasons.
With Schramm and Landry at the helm, Dallas made 18 playoff appearances, won 13 division titles and appeared in five Super Bowls. The Cowboys won championships at the end of the 1971 and 1977 seasons and lost the other three by a combined 11 points.
"He had a keen understanding of why football is a great game," Jones said. "He took a team that was winless in its first year to the pinnacle of being known as America's Team."
Schramm also established the Ring of Honor for "former players and coaches who made outstanding contributions to the club." Bob Lilly was the first member in 1975. Honorees' names and their years of service are displayed on the facade of the upper deck, high above the Cowboys' bench.
Schramm will join Landry, Staubach, Lilly, Bob Hayes, Mel Renfro, Tony Dorsett, Chuck Howley, Lee Roy Jordan, Don Meredith, Don Perkins and Randy White in the ring.
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