Babe in the Woods: The Cowboys' Color Man and His Son Endure a Black Period
By the time Luke Laufenberg sat down at Mia’s, his life was destined to get worse before it got better.
“I was eating alone, hoping the pain in my bones would just sort of magically disappear,” Luke says of his lunch in December. “But before I could finish, it was excruciating. On a scale of 1 to 10? Eleven.”
The iconic Tex-Mex restaurant on Lemmon Avenue in Oak Lawn served as the unofficial launching pad of the Cowboys’ 1990s dynasty. Jerry Jones and Jimmy Johnson scarfed enchiladas and sipped margaritas there in 1989, the night before the Arkansas oil tycoon was unveiled as the new owner of America’s Team. At the club’s Valley Ranch headquarters less than 24 hours later, Jones announced he was firing legendary coach Tom Landry and replacing him with Johnson, the bombastic, successful college coach with zero pro experience.
After a tortuous rookie season in which the Cowboys went 1-15, the Jones-Johnson duo eventually grew healthy enough to win consecutive Super Bowls and propel the franchise into an unprecedented three championships in four years.
Read more: http://www.dallasobserver.com/news/football-player-luke-laufenberg-battles-rare-cancer-with-help-from-his-extended-cowboys-family-10850775
Luke Laufenberg and his father, Babe, at a Mesa Community College football game.