As the nation reflects on the sad day of Nov. 22, 1963 when President John F. Kennedy was shot in Dallas, many at Valley Ranch won't be able to comprehend the tragic events that took place 50 years ago.
Cowboys owner/general manager Jerry Jones had just turned 21 and was a junior offensive lineman at the University of Arkansas. He recalled watching the coverage with his wife Gene, who also attended Arkansas and was his girlfriend at the time.
"Gene and I were sitting in front of a small television in our apartment at school and just glued to it. It actually was over a period of two or three days," he recalled. ". (We were) really shaken. Confidence in the things that we just took for granted. Just shaken and created a questionable mentality, which is partly what you learn as you grow up is that nothing's for sure and things happen and you have to adjust."
Jerry remembered the uncertainty surrounding the decision to play the game the following Saturday between Arkansas and Texas Tech. [embedded_ad]
"We had a dilemma. We played, I think it was Texas Tech, on Saturday after President Kennedy's death. There was a really significant push to cancel the game. There were pickets and signs carried by the pickets to not play the game. But universities wanted to play the game. I think Tech was already there. We played the game, and it turned out it was homecoming, and my sister was the queen as a freshman. All of those things come to my mind when I think of not only the day he got shot, but the scenario of how it impacted what was going to be a pretty positive situation for our family and for the weekend. It turned out that all of our minds were focused on the loss of our president."
