Jerry and Barry Aren’t Why Cowboys Are NFL Champions

Frank Luksa wrote a “thank you, Clint Murchison” column recently in the Dallas Morning News, pointing out that Murchison, not Jerry Jones or Barry Switzer, is responsible for the Cowboys’ lofty position today.

“You marvel at the price he paid for the Cowboy franchise [in 1960], $550,000,” Luksa wrote. “On the present market, that fetches a reserve linebacker.”

But Murchison, who died in 1987, left an enduring monument, Luksa wrote. It’s Texas Stadium, completed in 1971.

“Texas Stadium is new, modern and pleasing to the eye as ever. . . . The threat of the Cowboys leaving Texas Stadium to relocate has never been a remote possibility. . . .

“It is because of Murchison the Cowboys are rooted here forever.

“The real reason the Cowboys will never leave is the stadium that Clint built, and for which we thank him again.”

Luksa also noted the suites in Texas Stadium originally sold for $50,000 and many have since changed hands for as much as $1 million.

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Trivia time: Before this season, who was the NBA’s lifetime free-throw percentage leader?

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Floyd’s back: Floyd Patterson, the heavyweight boxing champion in the 1950s and ‘60s, was recently named chairman of New York’s boxing commission.

At 61, Patterson looks fit enough to launch a comeback.

Still at his fighting weight, 185-190 pounds, he either runs four miles a day near his home in the Catskills or does 200 sit-ups, jumps rope and punches a heavy bag.

“I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, I don’t use drugs,” he said. “Physical fitness gives you a beautiful feeling, and you’ll never want to lose that feeling to drugs or alcohol.”

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The Friar is back: The mascot who first represented the San Diego Padre baseball team in 1958 is being brought back, the club announced. He’s the brown-robed, rotund friar with the baseball bat. He was introduced when the Padres were a Pacific Coast League team.

The friar slipped into temporary oblivion when a guy in a chicken suit supplanted him for a few years, but some traditionalists favored the friar.

After all, San Diego teams have been called Padres for 60 years, and their stadium is a stone’s throw away from the first mission in California.

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Fear of flying: Phil Hickey, a 6-foot-10 Notre Dame freshman, achieved a milestone this week.

He was a passenger in an airplane.

When he flew home to Wellsboro, Pa., for Christmas, the plane shook violently, terrifying him. Previously, he had had no fear of flying. But after Christmas, his mother had to drive him back to Notre Dame.

Since then, he stayed home when the Irish flew to two road games. For another, at Georgetown, he drove.

This week, he was on the team flight to New York for a game at Manhattan.

“I’m definitely sure I want to stay here and beat this,” he said. “Right now, I’m trying to work on it. It’s not something you cure overnight.”

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Trivia answer: Mark Price, .906.

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Quotebook: Floyd Patterson: “I made $13 million my whole career. Mike Tyson made $22 million for one fight.”