By MARY L. KIRBY
The phone rang in the other room, and everyone held their breath.
“Hey, Daddy, I’m going to be a Dallas Cowboy!” came the shout from Manuel Johnson.
Minutes later, about 5:30 p.m. Sunday, the ESPN2 channel flashed the message across the bottom of the screen: “Dallas Cowboys, Round 7, Number 229, Manuel Johnson, Oklahoma.”
Whoops and hollers went up in the home of Eleanor Johnson on FM 2263 in the Long Pine Community.
Lula Johnson started videotaping the reaction of her brother, Manuel Johnson, Sr., while her mother, Helen Johnson, stood in the doorway taking it all in. Manna Johnson, Reyven Osborne and Landon Osborne all joined in the celebration of the success of their cousin, Manuel Johnson, Jr., only the second National Football League draft pick in history from Gilmer High School.
Kenneth Pettway, the first GHS pick, was selected in 2005 by the Houston Texans in the seventh round out of Grambling State. He has spent four years in the NFL, playing for the Texans, Jacksonville Jaguars and Green Bay Packers. Kenneth Collier played for the Houston Oilers in the 60s, but that was when Houston belonged to the American Football League before the AFL-NFL merger.
Dee Mackey went from East Texas State to the San Francisco 49ers, but he played for Union Grove, not Gilmer.
It came later than he had hoped for, but Manuel Johnson was a seventh round pick of the Cowboys. The round before, the Cowboys had selected Stephen Hodge of Tatum and TCU.
The battles between Hodge and Johnson when they played for Tatum and Gilmer live on in the memories of Eagle and Buckeye fans. Now the two East Texans will be facing each other on the opposite sides of the line in the Cowboys’ summer camp.
“It’s a dream come true,” said his father. “The Dallas Cowboys! America’s team!”
“Remember all those videos we watched together of the Cowboys,” “Big Man” said to his son. “‘Little Man’ can tell you history [of the Cowboys] he’s too young to know because of those tapes.”
When Manuel got off the phone with Jerry Jones, the Cowboys owner, the former Buckeye quarterback joined the happy throng.
“Jerry Jones told me that they needed to take care of the defensive backs first, and that I was the only wide receiver they took,” Manuel Johnson said. “He said they could not believe I went that late, and that they had their eye on me the whole time.”
Moments later, he was busy responding to text messages on his cell phone, as his cousins, aunts and friends were busy answering their cell phones.
In a few minutes, he was on the phone calling his coach, Jeff Traylor.
“I told you I thought it would be the Cowboys,” Johnson told his high school coach.
“To me, the draft pick just continues the legacy of Manuel Johnson,” Traylor said later to The Mirror.
“Today kids in Gilmer believe they can be state champions because of him,” Traylor continued, as he thought of the 16-0 season in 2004. “They believe they can qualify for a Division I college at a big time university and graduate because of him.”
“And now he goes to ‘America’s team,’” Traylor said. “We will never know how much a difference he has made, but it is no coincidence that we have had all the Division I players since he was [recruited by Oklahoma].”
And after Sunday, the young man called Manny Johnson by the television reporters prepares for the next phase of his career: a shot at joining a professional football team.
Mirror Photos / Mary Laschinger Kirby
TWO MANUEL JOHNSONS, the son, left, and the father let loose their excitement at the Oklahoma Sooner senior’s selection Sunday afternoon as a wide receiver by the Dallas Cowboys, as confirmed by his name flashing across the screen of the television in Eleanor Johnson’s home.
The phone rang in the other room, and everyone held their breath.
“Hey, Daddy, I’m going to be a Dallas Cowboy!” came the shout from Manuel Johnson.
Minutes later, about 5:30 p.m. Sunday, the ESPN2 channel flashed the message across the bottom of the screen: “Dallas Cowboys, Round 7, Number 229, Manuel Johnson, Oklahoma.”
Whoops and hollers went up in the home of Eleanor Johnson on FM 2263 in the Long Pine Community.
Lula Johnson started videotaping the reaction of her brother, Manuel Johnson, Sr., while her mother, Helen Johnson, stood in the doorway taking it all in. Manna Johnson, Reyven Osborne and Landon Osborne all joined in the celebration of the success of their cousin, Manuel Johnson, Jr., only the second National Football League draft pick in history from Gilmer High School.
Kenneth Pettway, the first GHS pick, was selected in 2005 by the Houston Texans in the seventh round out of Grambling State. He has spent four years in the NFL, playing for the Texans, Jacksonville Jaguars and Green Bay Packers. Kenneth Collier played for the Houston Oilers in the 60s, but that was when Houston belonged to the American Football League before the AFL-NFL merger.
Dee Mackey went from East Texas State to the San Francisco 49ers, but he played for Union Grove, not Gilmer.
It came later than he had hoped for, but Manuel Johnson was a seventh round pick of the Cowboys. The round before, the Cowboys had selected Stephen Hodge of Tatum and TCU.
The battles between Hodge and Johnson when they played for Tatum and Gilmer live on in the memories of Eagle and Buckeye fans. Now the two East Texans will be facing each other on the opposite sides of the line in the Cowboys’ summer camp.
“It’s a dream come true,” said his father. “The Dallas Cowboys! America’s team!”
“Remember all those videos we watched together of the Cowboys,” “Big Man” said to his son. “‘Little Man’ can tell you history [of the Cowboys] he’s too young to know because of those tapes.”
When Manuel got off the phone with Jerry Jones, the Cowboys owner, the former Buckeye quarterback joined the happy throng.
“Jerry Jones told me that they needed to take care of the defensive backs first, and that I was the only wide receiver they took,” Manuel Johnson said. “He said they could not believe I went that late, and that they had their eye on me the whole time.”
Moments later, he was busy responding to text messages on his cell phone, as his cousins, aunts and friends were busy answering their cell phones.
In a few minutes, he was on the phone calling his coach, Jeff Traylor.
“I told you I thought it would be the Cowboys,” Johnson told his high school coach.
“To me, the draft pick just continues the legacy of Manuel Johnson,” Traylor said later to The Mirror.
“Today kids in Gilmer believe they can be state champions because of him,” Traylor continued, as he thought of the 16-0 season in 2004. “They believe they can qualify for a Division I college at a big time university and graduate because of him.”
“And now he goes to ‘America’s team,’” Traylor said. “We will never know how much a difference he has made, but it is no coincidence that we have had all the Division I players since he was [recruited by Oklahoma].”
And after Sunday, the young man called Manny Johnson by the television reporters prepares for the next phase of his career: a shot at joining a professional football team.
Mirror Photos / Mary Laschinger Kirby
TWO MANUEL JOHNSONS, the son, left, and the father let loose their excitement at the Oklahoma Sooner senior’s selection Sunday afternoon as a wide receiver by the Dallas Cowboys, as confirmed by his name flashing across the screen of the television in Eleanor Johnson’s home.
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