IRVING – As he always has, the man seemed to embody everything about Texas football, right down to the cowboy hat and boots.
O.A. Phillips, known to everyone as Bum, watched from the side Thursday as son Wade was introduced as the Cowboys' head coach.
Bum, the colorful coach who once christened the Houston Oilers as "Texas' Team" after a memorable Thanksgiving win over the Cowboys, understood the significance of taking over America's Team.
"This is probably the premier coaching job in the country," he said.
After the Valley Ranch news conference had ended, the old coach was surrounded by reporters, many of who had grown up watching his Oilers challenge the Pittsburgh Steelers for AFC supremacy in the 1970s.
Phillips is 83, looks at least 20 years younger and has made only a few concessions to age. He wears a hearing aid. And the 7 ½ -hour drive from his Goliad ranch might keep him from watching a lot of Cowboys games in person.
Otherwise, he seemed to have sprung from a time capsule, even though he coached his last NFL game in 1985.
Phillips has become a fan.
"He's not making decisions any more," said wife Debbie, holding her husband's trademark cowboy hat, the one he won't wear indoors. "He says his second guesses are a lot better than his first guesses."
After the Oilers long ago moved to Tennessee, Phillips adopted the expansion Texans as his new team. Now he'll cheer for the Cowboys, too.
"You're kind of between a rock and a hard spot," Phillips said. "Your son is coaching one team and the other town you love ...
"They're not on the schedule so I don't have to make the decision this year."
Wade Phillips seemed ready for questions about his dad's past jab at the Cowboys.
"I'm not going to be held accountable for things he said," he said, smiling.
At 59, the younger Phillips has coached four NFL teams and built acclaimed defenses. He is clearly his own man with his own accomplishments, yet he will always be the son of Bum.
The father said he was a bystander while his son met with Jerry Jones and went through a prolonged selection process.
When he does talk to his son, Bum Phillips said the two focus on family and tales from the past, not football.
"I had him two years in high school and two years in college and he worked for me 10," Bum Phillips said, "so I've told him everything I know."
For his part, cheering for the Cowboys might not be as big an adjustment as everybody thinks.
He remembers one-time Cowboys assistant Dick Nolan graciously inviting him to camps when he was coaching at Texas Western in the early 1960s. He learned man-to-man defense by watching what Tom Landry did.
VERNON BRYANT/DMN
Former NFL coach Bum Phillips is 83, still wears his cowboy hat and loves his adopted Houston Texans. Now, with his son as head coach, he'll cheer for the Dallas Cowboys, too.
When he was asked about walking through the Cowboys' locker room, he smiled.
"I've been here before," he said. "This ain't my first rodeo."
That verbal shot at the Cowboys came from his respect for the opponent.
The Oilers won, 30-24, in 1979, with Earl Campbell rumbling for 195 yards and two touchdowns.
Phillips recalled what he told his team on the way home.
"You remember that I said that this was just another game," Phillips told his players. "Well, I lied. It's a big game. A real big game."
