Inside the Star: The Ultimate Dallas Cowboys Fan Guide
Roger Staubach and the Cowboys faced relentless pressure from the Vikings during their 1975 playoff game
CHAPTER 1 HAIL MARY Roger Staubach is famous for many things As the greatest quarterback in Naval Academy history he won the Heisman Trophy in 1963 Then after serving four years in the military he joined the Dallas Cowboys He went from backup to starter to champion to Hall of Famer Dallas won two Super Bowls with Staubach at the helm and he made the NFL’s All-Decade team for the 1970s Despite all those achievements people always seem to ask Staubach about one play And one phrase Hail Mary
The same goes for Drew Pearson a star receiver for the Cowboys in the 1970s and also a member of the All-Decade team It slowly became the term for anybody that was kind of in trouble and you had a hope Staubach said years later Now the Hail Mary is used for politics for business and for football Especially football where every for desperation pass by a losing team at the end of a game is described the same way Hail Mary I get asked almost every day about the Hail Mary Pearson said In some way shape or form people ask me about that To this day when I sign autographs I write
Hail Mary always or Hail Mary to you Hail Mary wishes things like that So what prompted the phrase The Cowboys were visiting the Minnesota Vikings on December 28 1975 for a playoff game Dallas was a wild-card team with a 10 4 record The Vikings meanwhile were a powerhouse They had won the NFC Central with a 12 2 record which was tied for best in the league took The frigid Metropolitan Stadium where the wind chill was only 17 degrees Fahrenheit The Cowboys took a 10 7 lead early in the fourth quarter But then Minnesota went in front 14 10 and things started to look bleak for Dallas game place at
