DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) — The Hail Mary still ranks as, arguably, the greatest play in NFL history, but it couldn’t have been done without the blocking from Rayfield Wright.
Also known as the Big Cat, Wright was always ready to pounce in protection of his teammates.
“He had this big hand and said, ‘Rook, it’s gonna be alright here,"” Cowboys Hall of Famer Tony Dorsett recalled. “When I had my first game, he said it’s gonna be alright. Big Cat said, ‘Follow me,’ and guess what I did…[I] followed him all the way to the Hall of Fame.”
But Tony Dorsett wasn’t the only one who followed Wright to Canton, Ohio.
Wright went into the Hall of Fame in 2006, and assured two-time Super Bowl champion Cliff Harris that it was worth the wait.
Harris was inducted in August of 2021.
“He and I were up for the Hall of Fame. He made it in the first time, and I didn’t. He was the first guy to call me when I didn’t make [it], and he was the first guy to call me when I did get in the next time,” Harris said.
At the Squaw Creek Golf Course in Willow Park, Texas, Wright’s presence is everywhere. And the only thing missing at his third annual Memorial Golf Tournament, was himself.
The football legend passed away in April of this year at the age of 76.
“It’s hard,” former teammate Bob Lilly said. “I’m getting old enough. I’m starting to think about the end of it myself. I’m not quite ready, but I don’t think Rayfield was ready either.”
The mission of the golf tournament is—and always will be—raising money for first responders. But, when you look around and see everyone from Cowboys Hall of Famer Mel Renfro to country music legend Randy Travis, you realize how many lives Wright impacted.
“He did quite a bit. Most people don’t understand how much he did for his community, and the people that surrounded him,” Billy Joe Dupree said.
Looking around the room, it didn’t feel like a sad occasion, but rather a celebration of one of the greatest Cowboys of all time. And no one knows that better than his wife Di Wright.
“I want to honor him in any way I can,” she said, holding back tears. “He deserves more than this, but this is what we can give him…I know the Lord has opened the heavens and he can see what’s happening in his honor.”
