Cowboys leaving Valley Ranch, longtime facility loaded with memories
What was state of the art back in 1985 is now considered behind the times.
The Dallas Cowboys will turn in one final practice at Valley Ranch, their practice facility for more than 30 years, this week at OTAs. After summer vacation, the Cowboys will report to training camp in Oxnard, Calif., and when they return a brand-new facility in Frisco, Tex. will be waiting for them — and “The Ranch,” as it’s commonly known, will be no more.
“I know I’m going to miss it, I’ll tell you that,” receiver Dez Bryant said via the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “I’m going to miss it. But I’m also looking forward to seeing that beautiful thing out in Frisco.”
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The team’s new $1.5 billion (that’s a real number, yes) training facility — known simply as “The Star” — includes (for real) a 12,000-seat indoor practice facility. The Cowboys haven’t had one since 2009, when their practice bubble collapsed amid a May storm during minicamps and left several injured, including scouting assistant Rich Behm, who was left paralyzed from the waist down.
That was an unfortunate incident at the Ranch, but there have been other memories for the Cowboys at they get set to move to new digs.
“It’s more than just walls and brick and mortar,” Stephen Jones said via ESPN. “It’s the personalities and the people that have gone through the building.”
Added Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett, who played for the Cowboys in the 1990s:
“I can remember being on this practice field with Michael Irvin, by ourselves on hot July days when no one else was around and he has a weighted vest on,” Garrett said. “He has a weighted girdle on. He’s got his shoulder pads; he’s got his helmet; he’s got his Walter Payton mouthpiece in; and he’s running route after route after route.”
Three Super Bowl-winning teams trained there. It has been home to eight Hall of Fame players (Troy Aikman, Larry Allen, Tony Dorsett, Charles Haley, Michael Irvin, Deion Sanders, Emmitt Smith and Randy White), two Hall of Fame coaches (Tom Landry and Bill Parcells, plus a third potential HOFer in Jimmy Johnson) and a Hall of Fame executive in Tex Schramm. And, of course, Jerry Jones — the Cowboys owner since 1989 also could end up in Canton one day.
The Ranch had been the only facility Jones knew before the Star began construction. When he bought the team, Jones held a press conference there and put his stamp on the organization as the boss from “socks to jocks” and turned the Cowboys from iconic team to multi-billion-dollar operation. Which is one reason why the Ranch is no more; it has become a bit outdated by modern facility standards.
Only the finest for the Joneses. The team will have spent more on its practice facility than its stadium. Again, that’s not a misprint. It will be considered the gold standard for modern training facilities in the NFL. But of course …
But as they get set to leave the Ranch, this week has been fun for media, coaches and players alike to play back their favorite memories of the old haunt, such as four key Cowboys — Tony Dorsett, Ed “Too Tall” Jones, Danny White and Randy White — crossing the picket line during the strike of 1987, to the bizarre Jones-Johnson divorce in 1994, or Antonio Bryant tossing his sweat-drenched jersey at Parcells for not playing him more in 2004.
But pound-for-pound, one of the coolest events we have evidence of happened in 2001. It came from Allen bench pressing — wait for it — 700 pounds. As in more than three times what they lift at the combine. That;s a seven and two zeroes. That’s insane. Garrett was witness to it, swearing that the bar bent during it. Take a look: The man whom some media members barely heard speak over the years basically goes into a trance and then lifts the weight of a golf cart … with a human sitting inside.
RIP, Valley Ranch. No one is quite certain what will happen to the old place after the Cowboys move out. But the memories will remain.
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Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at edholm@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!
