Dolphins' Johnson and Cowboys' Lacewell don't speak to each other

By Jason Cole / Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel (Oct. 25, 1996)

DAVIE, Fla. (KRT) - Jimmy Johnson's first real job in college coaching came with Larry Lacewell's help. When Johnson needed guidance in 1984 over whether to take the University of Miami job, he sought Lacewell's advice.

Johnson was the best man at Lacewell's wedding. He hired Lacewell to run the scouting and personnel when he took over as coach of the Dallas Cowboys.

But when Lacewell stayed at Dallas after Johnson split with owner Jerry Jones in 1994, the former confidant crossed the line. It's a measure of how much Johnson's leaving Dallas cut to the core that Johnson can summarize a 30-year relationship in two sentences.

"Larry and I worked together back many years ago," Johnson said Thursday. "But I haven't had any contact with him since I left Dallas."

What about being Lacewell's best man?

"I was the best man available," Johnson said, triggering a chorus of laughter. "Everybody else was tied up."

Jones, Johnson and Barry Switzer can talk around their relationships all they want, dancing through bitterness and anger. Johnson complimented Switzer on Wednesday for doing a good job holding the Cowboys together to win a Super Bowl last season. Johnson patted Jones on the back Tuesday for being a great businessman.

He held no bone out for Lacewell, whom he once praised in his 1993 book, "Turning the Thing Around." Without Lacewell, Johnson might not be where he is today. He might not have followed Howard Schnellenberger at UM, then taken over for Tom Landry in 1989 and Don Shula this season.

Johnson might not be able to dismiss the pressure of following a legend by saying simply, "Nobody cares as long as you win."

Lacewell wasn't a mentor or guiding force. But he was the guy who told Johnson to go for the UM job rather than take a conservative approach. Such luminaries as former Cowboys director of scouting Gil Brandt were telling Johnson to keep away from the Hurricanes. Lacewell told Johnson to think of the opportunity.

"I'm surprised he ever listens to anybody," Lacewell said in a sarcastic drawl.

Lacewell remembers the night at a college coaches' conference in 1984, coincidentally being held in Dallas and sponsored by the Cowboys. Lacewell was in his hotel room when he got a late call from Johnson, then the head coach at Oklahoma State.

"I think I had a bottle of scotch when I walked in. Jimmy was pacing around and Linda Kay (Johnson's ex-wife) was sitting on the bed," Lacewell said. "Jimmy asked me what I thought he should do. I said, 'Jimmy, have you ever beaten Oklahoma or Nebraska?' I knew the answer. Then I said: 'Sooner or later, your alumni (are) going to figure you ain't beat them. Have you won a national championship? You can win one at Miami.' "

Johnson would be following a guy who had brought UM back to prominence. He would be inheriting Schnellenberger's staff because athletic director Sam Jankovich didn't want to clean house so late in the year. Among the staff members were assistants who had applied for the head-coaching job and felt jilted. Bottom line, they weren't Johnson's Lacewell had been there, done that. He knew it wasn't fun, but it could be done.

"I think I was one of the rare ones who encouraged him," Lacewell said. "I did it because I was a football coach. Some people said it would damage his career or things like that. But it was like when he was at Clemson. He'd only been there a month when we called him."

That was 1970. Lacewell was an assistant at Oklahoma. He had coached with Johnson three years earlier at Wichita State. Lacewell was impressed enough to get Johnson an offer at OU. The problem was walking away from Clemson after one month.

"A lot of people said stay at Clemson, that he would hurt his career by jumping ship so fast," Lacewell said. "I told him he better figure out where he thought he wanted to be in his career. I told him, 'You don't owe anything to anybody in this business.' I think he has taken that to a new height, but my role was just to tell him what I really thought."

Lacewell takes no credit for the rest of the story. He was just a conduit. He knew Johnson long ago and knew that Johnson had the personality to do this.

"I think he's a lot different than the guy I first met at Wichita State. Whether he's different than the guy who sat in that room (in 1984), I don't know. He has always been a confident guy. He's a one-way guy. He's going to succeed," Lacewell said.

"He has succeeded where others would have failed. The Dallas thing is the most impressive thing. The Dallas Cowboys job, when he took it, was a bad job. The University of Miami was a good job. But I think there's a difference. The other two moves were uncalculated. He didn't know he was going to UM or to Dallas. This move was by his own doing. He was sitting and waiting on it."

Johnson is going for the hat trick of legend-following and he has upped the ante each time.

"Rarely does a person follow a legend who has the personality to make it work. Frankly, normally it doesn't work. There aren't too many who can do it. Bear Bryant could have followed anybody. He was Bear Bryant. He didn't care," said Lacewell, who seems to realize that he has paid Johnson a bit too much reverence. It's time for a tweak.

"Barry Switzer did a pretty good job following Jimmy and Barry followed Chuck Fairbanks (at Oklahoma). There is a comparison there. He wasn't following a legend in Fairbanks, but my God, what a legend he followed in Jimmy. That's what they say."

(c) 1996, Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.). Distributed by Knight-Ridder/Tribune.