A knee injury, USC ... and then Dr. Dossett

      (Third in a series)
      College football did not turn out as well as Drew Dossett had hoped it would. A damaged left knee cut short his career at the University of Southern California.
      Dr. Andrew Dossett's medical career has been a huge success, and still is, as we've expressed.
      So why USC when, in 1978 and early 1979, he could have chosen to attend college on a football scholarship wherever he wanted?
     He knew he would follow a pre-med curriculum, being a doctor had been in his mind for years and he had the grades it would require. So football was a factor -- and Southern Cal had been the national champion (split with Alabama) in '78.
     But why not LSU, which -- as always -- wanted any blue-chip prospect in Louisiana to stay near home? Sure, the Tigers could use a 6-5, 230-pound inside linebacker who could run and tackle, and was tough ... and smart.
     "Charlie Mac [McClendon] was a lame-duck coach," Dr. Dossett recalled earlier this week, and that proved true (1979 was the last of his 18 seasons as LSU head coach). But there was another reason.
     USC provided a "chance to punch out of the South, and I took it. I wanted to broaden my horizons. I knew I wanted to return to the South eventually [to live and work]. But I was never going to LSU."
     But he would be back on the LSU campus soon -- on the opposing team's sideline. 
     As his senior football season at Jesuit High in Shreveport ended, in the Class AAA state semifinals, and recruiting heated up, he had offers from "every major university in the South, Notre Dame, UCLA, USC ... "
     LSU was not even on the "visits" list. That included Ole Miss, SMU, Baylor, Texas, Oklahoma and Southern Cal.
     "USC seemed like the right school," Dossett remembered. "I was interested in the city (Los Angeles) and the academics, and it was a good football program."
     Actually, it was better than good. The Trojans had a talent-laden roster (see below); a bright, young, personable head coach (John Robinson); a coaching staff that, Dossett recalls, "was pretty remarkable"; and a history of success, including Rose Bowl victories under Robinson in 1976 and '78.
      The '78 team's 12-1 record included a 24-14 victory over Alabama in Birmingham. Two games later, USC lost at Arizona State 24-14, and that cost it a unanimous national title.
     After the season, USC was voted No. 1 in The Associated Press poll, but the United Press International poll made Alabama No. 1 and USC No. 2. ("The coaches voted for Bear Bryant, imagine that," Dossett noted.)
     Still, Drew loved what he saw and felt at USC, and he signed the scholarship papers.
     Two months later, his football future was badly shaken.
---   
      Playing volleyball in a P.E. class at Jesuit, "a freak accident" shattered his left knee. Torn ACL and a number of other problems -- Dr. Dossett, orthopedic expert, can detail them.  
      It looked as if there was no way he could play as a USC freshman in 1979 ... but he did.
      Dr. Billy Bundrick, the best-known orthopedic surgeon in North Louisiana, did the reconstructive surgery. Six months later, Drew Dossett was a special-teams regular for the Trojans.
      He would have preferred to redshirt, as many college freshmen do in athletics. But that particular year, Drew said, the NCAA rule was that freshmen could not redshirt.
      "They [the NCAA] twice came to our house to check out our recruiting process," Dossett said, "and they told us about the rule. I didn't want to waste a year, so I worked hard at the rehab -- three workouts a day -- and I was back. But I felt like I was only at about 70 percent."

Drew Dossett, University of Southern
California freshman linebacker-special
teams player, 1979 (USC photo)

      He was a young player among an accomplished, talented team.
      USC had four eventual Pro Football Hall of Fame players -- offensive linemen Anthony Munoz and Bruce Matthews, cornerback Ronnie Lott, and running back Marcus Allen. Tailback Charles White was the Heisman Trophy winner that year; Allen, his fullback, won it two years later at tailback. 
      The entire secondary -- Joey Browner, Dennis Smith, Jeff Fisher (future NFL coach) and Lott -- played significantly in the NFL. There were familiar NFL-players-to-be -- tight end Hoby Brenner and offensive linemen Keith Van Horne and Brad Budde.
      The coaching staff, among others, included three notable future Dallas Cowboys assistants -- Norv Turner, Paul Hackett (later also the USC head coach) and Hudson Houck.
      Turner, still coaching in the NFL, remains a good friend of Dossett's ("when our daughter was in college in San Diego, she rented one of his houses"), as does Houck, who is in a group with Dr. Drew that annually attends the Masters.
      Munoz was 6-6, 280 pounds -- "the biggest guy ever," Dossett recalls. "Now that's the tight end [in the NFL]."
      Matthews provided Dossett a light moment in their freshman year -- a reminder that he was from the South.
      "I was walking across campus one day, and I saw Bruce," Drew recalled. "He asked where I was headed. I said, 'I'm fixin' to go to lunch.' He said, 'Wait, fixin' to? What is that?'
      "It was the first time I realized that wasn't proper grammar."
---
      USC did not lose a game that season. Because it was his only season, Drew Dossett never played in a losing game at USC. But there was one tie. It was costly.
       Ranked No. 1 nationally for six weeks in a row, the Trojans had a 21-0 lead on Stanford at halftime. Then, as Dossett remembered, Turk Schonert -- subbing for John Elway at quarterback -- hit enough passes to save a 21-21 tie for the Cardinal.
       USC won the rest of its games, including a 42-23 rout at Notre Dame, and the Rose Bowl, 17-16 against Ohio State and gambling QB Art Schlichter.
       But Alabama went unbeaten (12-0) and was voted national champion, the last of its six national titles under "The Bear." USC finished No. 2.
       One game was special for Dossett, USC's fourth game that season -- Sept. 29 at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge. He told his teammates how raucous the crowd could be at LSU, and the game that night proved him right.
       It remains a legendary one. (See links below)
http://www.lsusports.net/ViewArticle.dbml?ATCLID=204803448
http://www.nola.com/lsu/index.ssf/2009/09/players_and_fans_cant_forget_t.html
          The Tigers were ranked No. 20 and big underdogs to No. 1. But LSU's defense was dominant for three quarters and was trying to protect a 12-3 lead.
       But the Trojans' famed toss sweep took hold and two fourth-quarter TD drives won it for them.
       Many LSU people have not forgotten a "phantom" facemask call on a third-down incomplete pass that helped keep alive USC's late 79-yard drive for the winning touchdown that came with only 32 seconds remaining.
       It was arguably the best game of McClendon's last season at LSU (7-5 record), although the Tigers later lost only 3-0 to Alabama in a heavy rain. 
       His left knee hurting, Dossett decided to take his redshirt year in 1980. When he hurt it badly again in spring practice in 1981, the USC team doctors "retired me." They told him, as he would tell Michael Irvin and Prince Fielder years later, that it would be in his best interests to not play again.
       "I was OK with that," he said. "I was scared to play. I was a shell of myself. The knee was unstable. I didn't feel like I had a leg under me."
       So he turned to academics, for good.  He graduated in four years with a degree in exercise physiology, summa cum laude with a 3.92 grade-point average. 
---
       He always wanted to be a doctor. When he was still in grade school, a visit to a young, smooth Shreveport orthopedics doctor, Carl Goodman, inspired him. "I told my mother, I want to be like him," Drew recalled.
       After USC, the road to a profession began at highly recommended University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas. A huge jump in out-of-state tuition caused a year's delay as he established Texas residency.
       Once he finished med school, he did an orthopedic residency in the Parkland Hospital chain. Then, recommended by Dr. John Conway -- who had been the Texas Rangers' team doctor for 15 years -- and following his route, he returned to Los Angeles for a one-year fellowship in spine surgery, studying under Dr. Robert Watkins at the Kerlan-Jobe Orthopedic Clinic.
      Watkins, Robert Kerlan, Frank Jobe (developer of Tommy John elbow ligament replacement surgery) ... big names in athletics injury treatments.
      Jobe, Drew says, in fact offered him a job. But the aim was to return to Dallas.
      Watkins inspired his choice to be a neck/spine specialist. "I thought I wanted to be a sports medicine doctor," Dr. Dossett said, "but from a technical standpoint, the neck/spine surgery was much more difficult" and the challenge was appealing.
      Now his reputation is established, and growing, and the Carrell Clinic Spine Center opened on Oct. 3.
 ---
       Dr. Dossett's left knee continued balky and tenuous for years. "I could dunk a basketball off either leg when I was a kid," he said, "but after I hurt it, I could never dunk off my left leg again."
       After 10 operations -- 10 -- a knee replacement five years ago was a relief. He's in shape, saying, "I've been 225 to 230 pounds since I was 16, my wife has me eating the right things, and I exercise [stationary bike] on a regular basis."
       Better yet, he can play as much golf as his busy schedule permits. With an 8 handicap, he's a good and willing player.
       He remains in touch with his old friends from Jesuit/Loyola College Prep, such as tonight's 40th anniversary state championship reunion in Shreveport.
       "He is the man," said John James Marshall, the senior quarterback of the 1976 Flyers. "To think that in a field like that, he's that good. He's that in demand. He has athletes from all over the nation coming in to see him."
       LCP assistant principal Tony Rinaudo, like so many others associated with the school, is an admirer.    
       "He is a genuine person, a classy person," said Rinaudo. "He always was like that as a student, and he still is."
       Marshall says the key to Dr. Dorsett's success is "he was driven. Drew wanted to be the best at whatever he did."
        At Jesuit, Marshall added, "He knew he was good. The talent was there, but he wasn't braggadocios, he got along with everyone. You knew he was going to make something of himself.
       "... Even after he got hurt at USC and had to quit football, he just turned to academics and then medicine, and made the very best of it.
       "... I'm a big, big fan of his. I've liked him since he was a sophomore.
        "He is very driven."
 ---
        The Cowboys' connection with Shreveport-Bossier includes cornerback Morris Claiborne (Fair Park High/LSU) and, from Haughton (in east Bossier Parish), the rookie quarterback, Dak Prescott.
         "Nice young man," said Dr. Dossett of Romo's current (and maybe permanent) stand-in. Drew said when he introduced himself to Prescott, he told him that Haughton was Jesuit's main rival when was a Flyer in the 1970s. "He laughed at that."
         Prescott, he added, "is up to the challenge. He is one of those guys who gets it. The game's not too big for him."
         He declined to offer an opinion on the Romo-or-Prescott question. "That's for other people," he said. "It's not my responsibility."
         Helping Romo -- and many others -- mend and prepare to play, that is his task.
         And it's not time to tell Romo that he need not play any more. "It's an L1 fracture, and it's healing properly," Dr. Dossett. "Once he's healed, he'll be fine." 
         So you might spot Dr. Drew at Cowboys' games in the bench area among the big guys. Hopefully you won't see him on the field. If you do, you know the hurting Cowboys are in good hands.


Before the 2014 baseball season opener, Dr. Dossett and his staff
wished the Texas Rangers well. (Facebook photo)

For a five-star linebacker, high school football was a dream

          (Second in a series)

Drew Dossett, with Jesuit head coach Tony
Catanese and the 1978 high school
 All-America plaque.

       Dr. Andrew Dossett has been one of the Dallas Cowboys' lead team physicians since 1999, so he's never been to the Super Bowl with them.
       But when he was Drew Dossett in the late 1970s, he knew what winning football was like. He experienced it. He's won a Super Bowl of sorts (a state championship) and a Rose Bowl.
       In high school (Jesuit of Shreveport), when he was a starting linebacker as a sophomore, his team won the 1976 Louisiana Class AAA state title. Two years later, when he was a much bigger senior also playing tight end, his team made it to the state semifinals.
       And not only was he chosen the "Outstanding Defensive Player" on the 1978 Class AAA All-State team, he was among the nation's top college recruits.
       If recruiting services and ratings had existed in 1978-79 -- too soon -- he likely would have been a five-star recruit.
       Southern California, then a powerhouse program and a co-national champion as he was being recruited, was his college choice.
       In his only season (freshman, 1979)  before a knee injury ended his playing career, he never experienced a loss (one tie), he did hear the fury and noise an LSU Tiger Stadium crowd could direct at an opponent (in this case, the nation's No. 1-ranked team), and the last game he played in was a Rose Bowl victory. 
       Not bad for a kid -- the doctor-to-be -- who wasn't sure he even wanted to play football, and before the state championship season, wasn't expected to be a starter.
---
       The Dossett family lived in the South Highlands neighborhood, Ontario Street. Three blocks from Betty Virginia Park in Shreveport and close to the city's oldest public high school, Byrd.
       Young Drew went to Catholic schools -- St. John's four years (grades 3-6) and St. Joseph's one year (7th grade) -- but, he says, he was trouble for the teaching nuns and "I wore out my welcome." It was "suggested" he transfer. So he was at a public school, Broadmoor Junior High, for one year (8th grade).
       Once he went to the all-male Catholic high school, Jesuit, in ninth grade, he was home.
       Anthony Catanese that fall (1975) was 26 and in his first year as head football coach. A tough starting defensive lineman on the 1966 Jesuit team that lost 7-0 in the Class AA state final, he had returned to the school as an assistant coach [to school legend Tony Sardisco] in 1971.
       Dossett, said Catanese, was "a model student. All the teachers were always complimentary of him. He never was a problem, never had any trouble with him. He was great in every facet of the school."
       Catanese's biggest problem was convincing Drew he needed to play football.
       "I almost quit that year [1976]," Dossett remembered. "I really liked basketball. That's what I wanted to play. I went to talk to Catanese, and he said, 'No one from this school ever gets a basketball scholarship.' "
       Sure, Catanese remembers the meeting. "I couldn't let that happen," he said, laughing. "He could have been very good in basketball. He had great touch on his shot, he could run the court, he had the athletic ability. But what is he going to do in college at 6-4 or so? I thought he'd have a better future in football."
      Still, Drew wasn't convinced. Credit a football save to Sports Illustrated.
       Encouraged by his grandmother to read the magazine, given a subscription by his family, he was a devoted weekly reader of SI. A 1976 article on Pittsburgh Steelers middle linebacker Jack Lambert -- the fierce budding star a year out of Kent State -- made the difference.
      The emphasis on Lambert's training and his toughness was Dossett's motivation to stay with the sport.
      "I decided I would play as hard as I could, do the best I could," he said, "and it was like a switch came on."
      Still, in August he was a second-team linebacker. Then he excelled in 7-on-7 drills, did well in a preseason scrimmage and when a prospective starter was injured, a series of personnel moves made Dossett a starter.
      "We plugged him in early," Catanese said. "He was a lot leaner, but he had a great sophomore year. He could move so well laterally, and stuff the run inside."
      He was the only sophomore to start for the Flyers in the regular season. But he was a fit for a dream team.
---
      That team, that magical season, that defense (nine shutouts and one field goal-only game), a 14-0 record and the state championship remains a sweet memory for Dossett and his teammates.  
       They will have a 40-year anniversary reunion Friday and Saturday in Shreveport, and they can identify with this season's Flyers. Loyola College Prep, as the school is known now, is 8-0 and aiming for the same district title (1-AAA) as the '76 team won.
       After that, who knows? If it works out like it did in 1976, the Flyers will be determined, disciplined ... and blessed.
       "Great team, great senior leadership," Dr. Dossett recalled this week. "Gene Mack (All-State tackle) was the heart and soul of the team, Paul Cordaro a tough running back, Vincent Glorioso a 140-pound offensive guard, Steve Scott a clutch kicker."
       And a young rangy linebacker making tackles everywhere, freed up by the old-timey wide tackle six defense (three-man secondary) designed to stop the run. And, most games, it did.
        "He was gangly, really skinny," the team's quarterback, future sportswriter/sports editor John James Marshall, said of Dossett. "But we knew he was talented, no one thought he shouldn't be out there. ... He had a nose for the ball, and he hit hard."
        "I remember seeing a sophomore who fit right in," said Tony Rinaudo, a former star halfback for the Flyers in the mid-1960s, later an assistant coach, head coach for eight years, athletic director and for the last decade an assistant principal at the school. "Never had seen a player who could fly laterally like he did. His speed laterally was just incredible. Sideline to sideline, he was just like a gazelle."
        After a season-opening shutout, the Flyers gave up 14 points in each of the next two games against Class AAAA opponents. In the next eight games, through the first round of the playoffs, Jesuit gave up three points total. 
        The Flyers escaped plenty, winning half their games by seven points or fewer. 
         The final shutout (7-0) came in the state championship game vs. North Louisiana rival Winnfield. Again, the Flyers shut down a high-powered offense, and one Jesuit offensive play settled it.
       The Flyers had two first downs in the game, but one was a screen pass from Marshall to Greg Page, who took it 62 yards for the score. Dream season completed.
       It was a bookend play for Page, who in the season opener intercepted a Hail Mary pass by Airline and, after the clock ran out, returned it 63 yards for a TD and a 6-0 victory. 
        Scott, Dossett's partner at linebacker, kicked nine field goals during the season, one providing a foggy 3-0 playoff-opening victory. The defense intercepted 35 passes, an average of 2 1/2 per game.
         Even Drew finally made an interception.
         "The one thing he didn't do was intercept a pass; he had so many chances, and he'd drop the ball," Marshall recalled. "We were all ribbing him about it."
        But in the state semifinals, at football-mad Lutcher, a Mississippi River border town upriver from New Orleans, the Flyers intercepted the All-State quarterback four times -- one by Dossett -- in a 17-7 victory.
        Years later Marshall got that game film, copied a clip of the Dossett interception, and sent it to him.
         As a junior in '77, Dossett was bigger and faster, and played some tight end, too. The team wasn't as talented, leadership wasn't as good, and the record was 5-5.
         But as a senior -- now grown to 6-4 and 225 -- Dossett excelled and the Flyers, after an opening one-point loss and a tie, rolled off 10 consecutive victories and into the state semifinals.
         "That team vastly overachieved without as much  talent," said Catanese, who left coaching after the 1981 season and has operated Shreveport Gymnastics ever since. "But we had [halfback] Scott Pendleton, Drew and [fullback] Mike Camden, and that was great leadership."
          Then Pendleton (concussion) had to miss the semifinal game against familiar rival Lutcher and Dossett left early with a knee injury (foreshadowing his future). The Flyers lost 20-0. The final record was 10-2-1.
           (The next week Lutcher edged defending state champion Haughton -- the school which, 35 years apart, gave us Joe Delaney and Dak Prescott -- 12-7 for the state title.)
           Asked if he could foresee how good a player Dossett would be, Catanese said, "I always thought he had that ability. He had the size, the smarts, mobility, toughness. He had everything.
           "And he had great leadership qualities. Sometimes kids with talent like that aren't leaders. But he had it."
           With the end of Drew's high school career came the all-star honors -- including All-American. The recruiting scene followed. It was a busy time for Drew; so many major schools were interested.
            Soon, however, came the day that really changed his football life.
            Next: An injured knee, USC ... and the medical field.           

Still a star, not on the field but in his own field

April 22, 1995: Texas Rangers outfielder Juan Gonzalez, who will miss up to three weeks because of a herniated disc in his lower back, was re-examined by the team's spine consultant in Dallas. Dr. Drew Dossett reported that Gonzalez made improvement but still has soreness.
---
August 21, 2002: Cowboys receiver Raghib Ismail will have neck surgery today to repair damage from a collision with a teammate last week in practice. ... Dr. Dan Cooper described the injury as a huge herniated disk. ... Ismail will have the disk removed and the two vertebra around it fused together. The operation will be performed by Dr. Drew Dossett, who was responsible for the same procedure on many pro athletes, including former Cowboys fullback Daryl Johnston.
---
August 10, 2016, Fort Worth Star-Telegram: An emotional Prince Fielder announced on Wednesday that his 12-year baseball career is over after doctors recommended that the slugger stop playing after a second cervical spinal fusion surgery. Dr. Drew Dossett of Dallas, the Rangers’ spine specialist, confirmed the recommendation and performed surgery July 29.
---
September 1, 2016, Fort Worth Star-Telegram: (headline) Tony Romo likely to be out first 8 weeks for Cowboys. (in story) The compression fracture to Romo's L1 vertebra must fully heal before Dr. Drew Dossett clears Romo's return.

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/sports/nfl/dallas-cowboys/article99446612.html#storylink=cpy

***

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/sports/mlb/texas-rangers/article94910092.html#storylink=cpy

      Dr. Andrew Dossett -- Drew to those of us dating to Shreveport in the late 1970s -- doesn't need or want the type publicity his profession brings.
      He'd just as soon athletes remain healthy.

A too-familiar scene: Dr. Drew Dossett (left) escorts Cowboys
quarterback Tony Romo to the dressing room after a 2015 season
 Week 2 injury (broken collarbone) in Philadelphia.

      But he is ready to serve as team physician -- and the neck-spine-back specialist -- for the Dallas Cowboys and Texas Rangers. And that's just a small part of the job.
      He is a big man, in every sense -- as a husband and father and friend, professionally, and physically. At 6-foot-5 1/2 and 230 pounds, he even stands tall on the Cowboys' sideline among the giants now playing in the NFL.  
      Dr. Dossett is trim enough to look as if he could still play football. Then again, he is 55 years young.
      "The [NFL] players are Tarzan," he says and then jokes,  "I might look like Tarzan, but I am more like Jane."
      He can empathize with the athletes and their injuries. He was quite a football player in his day, those late 1970s -- a star linebacker at a strong program in high school (Jesuit of Shreveport), an All-American, one of the nation's top recruits, and then for one season in college with one of the country's top teams (Southern Cal).
      When Dr. Dossett has to tend to the injured athlete -- say Tony Romo -- he knows the feeling. Devastating and repetitive injuries to his left knee took him out of football before his sophomore season at USC. Visions of perhaps playing in the NFL one day were gone.
      He's in the league, though, through medicine. And it is easy to say he's in a select league of knowledge and respect in his specialty nationally.
      If there are athletes -- high school, college, pro -- with back, spine or neck issues, anywhere in the South or anywhere period, good chance they will be treated by Dr. Dossett of Dallas. 
      Cowboys and Rangers fans might know this: He has operated on Romo twice, Prince Fielder twice, Bobby Witt, Rusty Greer, Jay Novacek ... and that's just a partial list. Roy Oswalt, then pitching for Philadelphia, came to Dallas to be checked by Dr. Dossett when he was having issues.
      Not long after beginning his residency, he joined the Rangers as assistant team doctor in 1994. He's been to spring training regularly.
      And his first prominent athlete he treated: "When I just started my practice, I cut my teeth on Juan Gonzalez." 
      Then the Home-Run Derby champion, owner of a new contract from the Rangers, $30.7 million -- huge for the time -- the young outfielder  "ruptured a disk in his back tying his shoes in spring training," Dr. Dossett recalled. Rehab worked, preventing an operation, and Gonzalez went on to further stardom in Texas (two-time American League Most Valuable Player).
      Another Rangers' star, a Hall of Famer, he treated: catcher Ivan Rodriguez. "Pudge had back issues," Dr. Dossett said. "I took care of Pudge for a long time."
      He was a consultant with the Cowboys for three years, then became one of the team doctors -- with W.B. Carrell Clinic partner Dr. Dan Cooper, the lead Cowboys' physician -- in 1999.

Dr. Drew Dossett

      He has been a consultant with the Dallas Stars since 1996, and with the Dallas Mavericks, and the New Orleans Saints, Houston Texans, Texas A&M, Baylor, etc.
       He is one of Shreveport's great success stories, similar to Terry Bradshaw (from football to broadcasting and entertainment) but not as well known.
       And while he might not even be the best-known orthopedics doctor from North Louisiana treating athletes -- that is Birmingham-based Dr. James Andrews, who pole vaulted from Homer High to LSU to renown as a surgeon -- Dr. Dossett is nearing the level of Dr. Andrews' acclaim.
---
      Do a search on Facebook for "Dr. Andrew Dossett" and you will find a dozen thank-yous for his work -- surgery and rehab -- in treating people who were hurting, severely limited in movement, and maybe faced with the threat of paralysis. There are notes from a rodeo bronc rider, a barrel racer, and ordinary folks. 
       "Most of my time is spent treating people like you," he said earlier this week. "Athletes, the high-profile cases, might be 5 to 10 percent of my work, but 90 percent of the heartbreak is with everyday people."
       Dr. Cooper, a specialist in reconstructive knee and shoulder surgeries, said Dr. Dossett gives the Cowboys "a nationally recognized expert in athletic spine injuries, with lots of credentials. There are only two or three guys like him in the country. That's a value that we can really rely on."
        Plus, Dr. Cooper added, "Number one, he is a true friend, a loyalist as someone working under me [with the Cowboys], especially in the early days when I joined the team.
        "Drew taught me about football. He knows the game, how it is to train, the weight room. He totally gets the culture of what it takes, and he conveyed that to me in the early days. He understands the coaches, understands the players, what it takes to rehab after an injury. A lot of people don't realize what it takes. Drew gets it."
       "You don't play football for your health," Dr. Dossett said. "Nothing about it is healthy. The mass and velocity of the game creates such a force, and the players are just so much bigger, stronger and faster today."
       More potential work for the doctors.
       But his loyalty is to the profession, not entirely to the team or the athletes.
       One of the first Cowboys players to hear from Dr. Dossett that it would be in his best interests to end his career, after the 1999 season, because of a spinal injury was Hall of Fame wide receiver Michael Irvin. This past August, the same message was given to the large Rangers first baseman, Prince Fielder.
       "Drew understands the gravity of it," Dr. Cooper said, "and he has the fortitude to tell people what they need to hear. Some might try to talk him out of it, but he won't waver."
       About Irvin, Drew offers what he calls a "Dossett-ism": "Never make a decision that ends both of your careers." (Think about that.)
       On Fielder, "You have to do what's best for him, and in this case, it was that he not play anymore. You have to look after the best interests of the player, not the best interest of the team."
---

Drew Dossett, Jesuit High
School linebacker

       Dr. Dossett will be with the Cowboys for their Sunday night NFC East showdown with the Philadelphia Eagles at AT&T Stadium. But he will spend Friday and Saturday back in Shreveport to see his mother and to attend the 40th anniversary reunion of his high school's state championship football team.
       The school, founded in 1902, was all-male Jesuit High when Dossett attended (1975-79) and is now coed Loyola College Prep, still located on Jordan Street as it has been since 1938.
       In the 1976 season, linebacker Drew Dossett was a developing star, for most of the season the only sophomore starter on a senior-heavy team. With an almost unyielding defense -- eight games in a row without giving up a touchdown -- the Flyers went 14-0, joining the 1967 team as unbeaten state champs.
       His loyalty to the school and to his teammates is one reason the reunion is happening, just as it did in 2006 at the 30-year mark.
       John James Marshall was the senior quarterback of the 1976 team, later a talented sportswriter at the Shreveport Journal (full disclosure, we were co-workers there, 1982-87) and then the paper's final executive sports editor. He is back at the school dealing in media relations, publications and alumni functions.
       The '76 team had a 30-year reunion in 2006, and Dossett was an instigator of that, Marshall said. "In mid-September [this year], Drew called and said, 'Are we doing this again?'  
       "We think the world of him," Marshall added. "He always cares about the school, he calls, he stays connected."
       Going to Jesuit, Dr. Dossett explained, "was the most formative thing I've ever done. No question about it. The Jesuits (Catholic order) have been educating kids since 1515. It is the most egalitarian education you could ever receive.
       "It is about being fair, about doing the right thing, making the right decisions, even if it is, say, at 3 a.m.," he added. "If you're fair, if you do what's right, it works out."
       He is such a believer in the Jesuit teaching that four sons -- he and wife Natalie, married for 10 years, have a combined six children (four his, two hers) -- attended Dallas Jesuit High School.
       More education: One child is a sophomore at University of Georgia, one is a freshman at University of Alabama, there are graduates of Georgia, University of San Diego and University of Colorado, and the oldest son is a graduate of the Naval Academy and a Navy SEAL, with an MBA from the Wharton School (University of Pennsylvania) who now works for Google.
       The Dossetts lived in the Bluffview area of North Dallas. But we know Dr. Drew is also at home with the Cowboys, Rangers, etc., and this weekend, back home in Shreveport, where his journey began.
        Next: A football star, a career cut short            

A little football player for the ages

Jesuit's Tony Papa: Unstoppable high-school
running back (photo from helmethut.com)

       Tony Papa was a legendary football player, even when he was in elementary school.
       He was the kind of player you could root for, a little, compact guy with powerful legs who could run like heck. Few could keep up with him; those who did found him difficult to tackle. He was obviously a good athlete, from early on, and his determination made him something special.
       Before he even played a high school game and went on to play college football, he was a star.
       He was the star of Shreveport's recreational grade-school football leagues in the late 1950s and early 1960s -- the ones with weight limits (75 pounds, 90, 105, 120, etc.)
       He was a huge star in high school, too, a two-time All-State running back for Shreveport Jesuit, good enough in 1965 to be recruited by LSU and North Louisiana state schools and by Texas A&M, which is where he went as a freshman.
       A little guy -- only 5-foot-6 and 165 pounds in high school, five pounds heavier when he was a college junior. But a little guy with dynamite.
       And there he was Wednesday morning in Arlington, Texas, one of the pallbearers at the funeral of his high school coach, C.O. Brocato.
       I don't mean to slight any of the other pallbearers, but for me, it was  sentimental -- despite the occasion -- to see Tony Papa again. It's been decades. I certainly remember the sensational athlete, and the personable, friendly young man.
       He's not young anymore, of course. He's 67 now, a father of three and grandfather of seven, married for 45 years to the beautiful Carla -- and, yeah, he has less hair and some of it is even gray, and he's had heart bypass surgery.
       But he still looks young to me; he lacks the wrinkles many of us have; and, well, I'm thinking he could still run for 100 yards in a game, or 200, if someone would block for him.
       He's at his playing weight, too -- 172 ... but "my legs are shot." Football is a distant memory, but a great one.
       Making "greatest" selections is subjective, but if you list the "greatest" Jesuit players or the "greatest" running backs in North Louisiana of that era, Tony Papa is at or near the top of those lists.
       He is in two Halls of Fame for his football career -- at Loyola College Prep (the former St. John's and Jesuit) and at Northwestern State University, where he played two seasons after transferring from Texas A&M after a year.
       Also without slighting all the very talented football players Coach Brocato had at the school on Jordan Street from 1958 to 1968, I think they would agree that Tony Papa was the magic name when you talk 1960s Jesuit football.      
---
       I didn't need a reminder to recall Tony's career, but saw one on the obituary for Coach Brocato published in Shreveport -- a Shreveport Journal story from the 1964 season opener in which Jesuit upset Bossier 26-7 and the players gave Coach a victory ride on their shoulders.  The subhead, above the story headline: "Tony Papa gains 204 yards."
       It was his junior season, his breakout game. But his emergence wasn't a surprise. We all knew who Tony Papa was. Question was, could he do in high school -- because he was so little -- what he had done in kids' football?

Tony Papa: sixth-grade phenom

       Another reminder: Looking for photos to go with this piece, I went to the Internet and then to Jerry Byrd's book, Football Country, from 1981. On the back, there is a collage of players and coaches, and one of the photos is of a very young Tony running the ball.
       The caption for that photo: Tony Papa (14), running for 250 yards in 10 carries in 1959 sixth grade championship game, later broke city high school rushing record.
        You read that correctly: 250 yards in 10 carries.
        The Journal, in those days, had stories on SPAR (recreation) football. The Shreveport Times didn't, but SPAR athletics director Marvin "Hoot" Gibson -- a memorable character for us 1950s-60s kids -- wrote about Tony often in his "Recreation Ramblings" column in the Sunday Times sports sections.
        My joke: Tony was Peter Papa's son, and Hoot's adopted son.
        Tony the kid was only warming up playing on varsity as a Jesuit sophomore (1963 football season), but that Bossier game in 1964 was an answer to how good he could be in high school.
        The next week he ran for 244 yards. Then 133, 157, 183 and 137; he had at least 20 carries each game, 30 one game. Jesuit was 5-0-1 (a 6-6 tie with West Monroe) heading to defending Class AA state champion Minden in Week 7.
        It was a rival game and not long after kickoff, Papa was watching a long punt return after he had fielded the kick and handed off the ball on a criss-cross maneuver. He was far away, trailing the play, when out of nowhere a Minden player hit him low, wiped out his left knee, wrecked it -- and his season.
        Tony's knee needed surgery. He was on his way to a super season (1,058 yards rushing in six games (7.2 yards per carry, 176.3 yards per game). Done.
        The Minden game was a 20-20 tie. After Tony had surgery, Jesuit didn't win again -- losing by 3, and by 2, and playing a third tie that season to finish the regular season. A team that was a probable district champion was an also-ran.
         And because the Jesuit faithful felt the play in Minden was a cheap, "dirty" hit, the Flyers-Tide rivalry went from intense to off-the-charts.
---
        The knee rehab was difficult, but with his coach's encouragement ("he visited with me every day," Tony recalled) and that of his teammates, Papa was better than ever in 1965, his senior season, and with a much stronger supporting cast.
        It was one of Jesuit's best teams ever. Papa wasn't as productive as before, but still set the city rushing record (1,274 yards, 8.3 per carry). Plus, he was a standout defensive back.
        That Flyers team lost only once -- 6-0 late in the regular season to a Fair Park team that made the Class AAA state semifinals. But the Flyers' state championship hopes in Class AA ended with a semifinal "loss" -- on first downs (15-13), the tiebreaker then -- after a 19-19 tie at Morgan City.
        Papa was recruited by LSU ("a great thrill, everyone wanted to play for LSU," he recalled) and in fact, signed the Southeastern Conference letter-of-intent with the Tigers about the same time Terry Bradshaw did. (No national letter-of-intent then; players could sign with various conferences).
        Neither Papa nor Bradshaw wound up at LSU.
        An official visit to LSU, and the players' attitude about their coaching staff, caused concern and, besides, Jesuit quarterback Gary Kaposta was heading for Texas A&M and badgering Tony to join him there. 
        Gene Stallings was the Aggies' coach and Papa thought he was a compelling speaker -- and recruiter.
         "He said, 'LSU has got a lot of Tony Papas,' " Tony said, imitating Stallings' slow drawl. " 'We ain't got any Tony Papas.' "
         But soon A&M did, and he played for the freshman team in 1966 (freshmen didn't play varsity ball in Division I then).
         However, by the spring of 1967, A&M wasn't what he wanted. He wanted to transfer closer to home and contacted George Doherty, the assistant coach from Louisiana Tech who had recruited him in his Jesuit days. But Doherty had just been passed over for the Tech head coaching job after Joe Aillet retired, and was headed to Northwestern State as an assistant.
          He told Papa that and offered him a scholarship to NSU. After a day's deliberation, Tony accepted.
          But he didn't, couldn't, tell his father. He finished the semester at A&M, came home for the summer, and on the day he was to leave for fall football finally mustered the courage to tell his father he was going to Natchitoches, not College Station. Peter Papa wasn't happy, insisted he go back to A&M, but Tony -- an obedient son -- this time told his father -- shakily -- that he was going to make his own decision. And did so.
          Peter Papa eventually became a Demons' fan.
          After sitting out the 1967 season as a transfer, Tony was in the NSU backfield in 1968 and 1969. He wasn't the impact player he had been in high school, but good enough for Hall of Fame honors there.
          And so he played against Louisiana Tech in those seasons, and here is a story that Tech fans will appreciate.
---
          The 1968 State Fair Game was a classic, won by Tech 42-39 on Bradshaw's 82-yard touchdown bomb to Ken Liberto that began with 25 seconds remaining and ended at 0:13. Those who witnessed it can't forget it.
          A few seconds earlier, Tony Papa thought he had run for the first down that would have clinched a 39-35 Northwestern State victory. But an unusual penalty call against the Demons wiped it out. Fullback Richard Ware was called for "aiding the runner." 
          "The play was a power I, two backs leading and I was the 'I' back," Papa recalled. "I was carrying the ball behind Richard. Richard was flagged for aiding the runner No. 38. [But] No. 38 was in front of me, not behind, and the film proved it."
          NSU then failed to convert on 3rd-and-6, had to punt, and Tony said, "You know the rest of the story."
          We sure do. And us Tech people are thankful for the missed call.
---
           Tony Papa didn't only excel at football. He was an All-State baseball player, too, for Jesuit as a senior, after starting at shortstop as a freshman and then as the only sophomore on the Flyers' state championship team in 1964. Plus, he played four years of American Legion summer ball, including two city/Fourth District championship teams for Cobbs Barbecue.
     Like I said before, a sensational athlete.
     His football career ended with a spring-training concussion in 1970 and Peter Papa's advice: "You've had a great career, you're not going to play at the next level, so don't take a chance. Finish school and stay healthy."
     "My Dad was a wise man; that was the right decision," Tony reflected. 
     While NSU coach Glenn Gossett didn't want him to quit playing ("he was as nice as could be about everything," Tony said), he became a non-athlete, a regular student -- and then a graduate. And, he married Carla.
        He returned to Jesuit in the fall of 1971 as a coach on a Tony-dominated coaching staff (Sardisco head coach; Papa, Rinaudo and Catanese as new assistants).
        After a couple of years, he left coaching to help his father run the family grocery business for five years, then moved gradually into insurance sales -- and he's still at it.
        In his 1981 book, Jerry Byrd picked Papa as one of the all-time running backs in North Louisiana high school football.
        "Papa was the most explosive high school runner I've ever seen," Byrd wrote. "He would've easily broken the state record for rushing yardage in a season if a knee injury hadn't ended his [junior] season after five games. He never completely regained his quickness after surgery, although he was good enough to repeat as an All-Stater the following year. He was also a super defensive back."
           It has been 3 1/2 decades since then and that area has had many outstanding running backs. But I'd say few were as exciting, as dynamic, as Jesuit's little No. 24 in 1964-65.
           That tough little kid could run.     
              (Photos from Shreveport Journal/Football Country and SB Metro Leader -- the NSU Independence Bowl luncheon, 2014)
              



     

'Most interesting man ... most interesting life'

         Cosimo O. Brocato -- C.O., to the world, Coach to many of us -- was, as I've heard it said and seen it written, funeralized Wednesday morning.
         As I sat in the chapel at St. Maria Goretti Catholic Church in Arlington, Texas, before and during the Mass of Christian Burial, I thought of Coach and of the Jesuit High School Flyers of Shreveport -- the 1960s Flyers.
         Because while he has been remembered for years and especially since his death (after bladder cancer) on Sept. 1 as the super NFL talent scout for 40-plus years, those of us from Shreveport, those of us from the 1960s glory days, knew him as a legendary coach.
         Legendary isn't enough. He was a giant to us, even those from across town.
         While not many people in that chapel Wednesday morning, other than his family, knew much about the high school coaching phase of his life, there were at least five of his former St. John's/Jesuit players -- among his pallbearers -- who knew what I knew.
         So the stories I heard Wednesday, in the reception after the funeral service, were about how tough, how demanding, C.O. Brocato was as a coach at Jesuit  in the 1960s. I've been hearing those stories for years.
         And one of his star players, Tony Papa -- a name that all Jesuit fans and most Shreveport and North Louisiana football fans from those days will remember -- was one of the story tellers.

A Shreveport Journal photo: The Jesuit Flyers give their coach
a victory ride after the 1964 season-opening upset of Bossier.

          The photo display in the lobby of the church was a snapshot of Coach's life -- as a kid, with family and friends, as a high school football player on the very practice field where he later would coach, as a star running back-linebacker-placekicker at Baylor University (where he helped the 1951 team play -- and lose a close game -- to Georgia Tech in the Orange Bowl), as a young coach of various sports, in those 1960s golden days at Jesuit, and dozens of shots of him conducting tryouts/drills at NFL Pro Days and workouts.
         He had hair in those high school and Baylor days; then he went bald during the Jesuit coaching days -- hence the ever-present hats -- and then, on and off, he had hair again. Don't think I would have asked him about this subject, though.
          I thought it was significant that his funeral service was held only a little more than a long touchdown pass away from Maverick Stadium on the University of Texas-Arlington campus because there in the mid-1970s is where his coaching career ended.
           He had been a brilliant state championship coach at Jesuit, taking a program that had never had any success in the school's long history and building it from an 0-10 season before he returned as coach and winning five district championships in 11 years -- the last four in a row, all unbeaten in district.
           Twice his teams played for state titles, losing the first time and then winning 34-33 against Lake Charles in 1967 -- definitely one of the greatest high school games I've seen in 50-plus years -- to cap a 13-0 season. And, in my opinion -- and I know Tony Papa agrees -- his 1965 team (Papa's senior season) might have been the best of the Flyers' teams, eliminated on first downs after a tie game with Morgan City in the semifinals.
          His college coaching career, as a defensive coordinator at Northern Arizona and then UTA, was only so-so, but it had its good moments. And when he left coaching in the mid-1970s -- UTA was on its way to shutting down its program -- he turned to the NFL.
           He scouted talent, scouted and evaluated college players, working for a combine for a few years, but for almost four decades for the Houston Oilers-turned-Tennessee Titans. He was honored often in recent years by that organization for his work, and the team named its draft room for him.
            Thanks to Charean Williams, the superb NFL/Cowboys writer for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram who wrote several nice stories about him over the years and did the first Bible reading at Wednesday's service, Coach Brocato three times was on the Pro Football Hall of Fame nomination list.
           As hard-driving as he was as a coach, he also was a taskmaster as a scout. Several stories have detailed that and I had to laugh Wednesday when someone recalled Coach's work.
            "The other scouts all looked to him; they didn't get started until he arrived [at a workout]," he said. "He was their leader. I told the kids working out, 'He's a nice guy, but do what he says. You don't want to mess with him." 
            He was direct and plain-spoken and, well, he could be coarse. There were those who -- frankly -- despised him. But as several people recalled last week, away from football he could be charming and talkative, and he was a sharp dresser with -- as several Jesuit grads remembered -- the most polished shoes in town. 
            Father Luke Robertson, who conducted Wednesday's service, recalled his recent visit at Coach Brocato's home nearby the stadium and church -- he lived in Arlington with his wife Lucy (who died in 2010) since 1972 -- and that Coach was his usual story-telling self.
           Father Robertson summed it up nicely: "He was the most interesting man who led the most interesting life."
---
           I don't know that the Jesuit football Flyers of the late 1950s and 1960s would use "interesting" to describe their coach. Tyrannical might be better.
           As the headline on Jimmy Watson's story in The Shreveport Times last week said, "Brocato's Jesuit players loved, feared him."
           Here's Art Adams' recollection (from that story): "He would get right over you and knocked the crap out of you, and no one thought anything of it in those days. We all went two ways, so he would run you to death to get you ready."
           Think Tony Papa, his star player of 1964 and 1965, had any sway?
           "I was a team captain [in 1965], with Joe Looney, and we're in practice on one of those hot August days, and we're all dying, all thirsty," Tony recalled Wednesday. "Joe says, 'Tony, go ask him if we can take a water break.' So I get up my courage and go up to him and say, 'Coach, some of the guys want to take a break.'
           "He blows the whistle and calls the team together and says, 'Tony says you guys need a break. Who needs a break? How many of you? Raise your hands.' "
           As he relates this, Papa shrinks down in his chair to show the players' reaction. No one raised their hand.  
           "He then tells us to take a lap around the field, and then we go back to scrimmaging."
           Because I was at a school across town, my exposure to Coach Brocato was limited to watching him guide (and berate) his team's players when we played them in two games, a jamboree and in a couple of preseason scrimmages. I could tell it was a little rougher than our coaches, who could be pretty demanding (but not like that).
           I also was around Coach when he umpired high school and American Legion baseball, and he was a diligent and fair umpire. Suffice to say, no one gave him much trouble.
           Papa recalled another classic Brocato incident.
           We (Woodlawn) had routed Jesuit (it was either 45-0 or 37-0, 1962 or 1963) and when the Flyers' bus got back to the school, Coach Brocato asked the players: "Who drove their cars to school today?"
           Papa said, "We didn't know exactly what he meant, but a few guys finally raised their hands. Then Coach said, 'Bring those cars around to the practice field and turn on the lights.'
        "So then we practiced for about an hour."
---
        As I spoke to Becky Brocato, Coach and Lucy's daughter, on Wednesday, a tall, elderly gray-haired man came to tell her goodbye. He was holding a 1952 Orange Bowl program and he thanked her for presenting it to him.
        He introduced himself as Gale Galloway and said he had been C.O.'s teammate on the 1951 Baylor team, a starting center and linebacker. C.O. played running back and, as Galloway put it, "came in at linebacker when we really needed him."
        When I got home, I looked for information on that Baylor team, coached by George Sauer, a longtime college coach and then Baylor athletic director and father of a future New York Jets' Super Bowl hero wide receiver.
        Here is what the Baylor football guide told me: Galloway is a former chairman of the Baylor board of regents, past president of the Baylor "B" Association and the Baylor Alumni Association, and president-CEO of GLG Energy, an oil production company.
        Not knowing all that, I asked him if he could have foreseen Coach Brocato's career.
        "I knew that whatever C.O. was going to do, and I didn't know that it was going to be in football," he said, "that he would be a success. I knew he would do it well, and he would do it right."
        The football world was fortunate that the game was Coach Brocato's life's work.
        He is being buried this morning in Shreveport, and I'm sure Jesuit (once St. John's, now Loyola College Prep) will be well-represented. We all know they are burying a legend.
         (Next: Tony Papa, also a legend)