Despite he’s leaving Detroit lions today ‘Disappointment will be on………
Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell’s Glen Rose, Texas roots | Fort Worth Star-Telegram
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How a young man from Glen Rose, Texas wound up saving Detroit & their Lions
BY MAC ENGEL
UPDATED JANUARY 28, 2024 10:27 AM
To you, and the entire NFL, it’s Dan.
They’re all wrong.
It’s Daniel.
Daniel Campbell.
“Everyone has caught up in the ‘Dan’ thing,” said Richard Dye, who coached the man who is known throughout the NFL as Dan Campbell, when they were together in Glen Rose. “To me, and most of us who knew him then, he’s ‘Daniel Campbell.’”
In 1993, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram called Daniel Campbell a “player to watch.” He was listed as a 6-foot-5, 230 pound running back/defensive back.
“We let him play safety, and he was an animal; no one threw to the middle,” said Dye, who was an assistant football coach and head basketball coach at Glen Rose high school in the early ‘90s. “He is just like the guy you see on TV – he will take your head off.”
It’s 2024, and Dan Campbell of Glen Rose, Texas is the Dean of Detroit; he has flipped the Lions from Gawd-awful-terrible and has them in the NFC title game.
Most of Campbell’s coaches and classmates from his time at Glen Rose have moved elsewhere, or to the great beyond; there are a few who remain in the town 54 miles southwest of Fort Worth that is known more for its nuclear power plant and history with dinosaurs.
For those who known Campbell as “Daniel,” and still live in this town of 3,000, on Sunday Tigers country will become Lions country.
For the NFC championship game against San Francisco, there will be a watching party at the Sexton Mill restaurant and bar, a place with pool tables, a fire pit and a view of the Paluxy River.
For the people of Glen Rose who know Dan Campbell as Daniel, they will be in Santa Clara on Sunday, whether they happen to be in Levi’s Stadium, at Sexton Mill, or on their couch.
DAN CAMPBELL IS TEXAS COUNTRY
Campbell didn’t actually live in the big city of Glen Rose. More like the “greater metro area” of Glen Rose.
Daniel lived between Morgan and Walnut Springs. Otherwise known as, “the country.”
Those respective decimal-dot communities, at the time, offered 6-man football teams. The idea of Daniel Campbell in 6-man football creates images of The Terminator walking amid strewn bodies on a field.
Campbell could have attended nearby Meridian high school, which back then was Class A.
The Campbell’s needed something bigger for their “bigger” son; Glen Rose was bigger. The enrollment was about 300 people. Again, it was bigger, not big.
“We had some pretty good athletes to go along with him,” Dye said, “but he had the gift.”
The “gift” that Dye refers is to 6-foot-5, 230 pounds. At Glen Rose that “gift” turned Daniel Campbell into Daniel Bunyan.
“We threw the ball three or four times a games, if we needed to or not,” Dye sad. “Whatever we asked (Campbell) to do, he’d do it.
“He returned a punt once 75 yards for a touchdown. He played basketball, and he was a high jumper. He ran the hurdles. He ran the third leg of the mile relay.”
That gift eventually turned into a scholarship at Texas A&M, where he played tight end.
HEAD COACH DAN CAMPBELL
The sheriff in Somervell County, Alan West, was a high school teammate of Campbell’s, and for the people who called him a teammate at Glen Rose his success at A&M and in the NFL is their success. They don’t claim it, but they enjoy it.
“All of my guys who I hang out with from high school still talk about this and they’re like, ‘Can you believe this?’” West said in a phone interview. “Yeah. I do. I can believe it. I’ve watched it when we here, and when he went to Texas A&M.
“I was the second string quarterback, and he was first string defense. He’s the guy who hits you, and helps you up. He had a demeanor about him. You didn’t know where he was going but you knew he was going somewhere.”
West recalls one Glen Rose football game in their senior year when they trailed 21-0 at the half.
People were leaving at half time, headed to parties, or home. The Glen Rose coaches walked off to do their normal half time routine, which left the players to themselves.
“So Daniel has a pep talk to us, and gets after us a little bit, before the coaches come in,” West said. “We come out in the third quarter and tie it, and we ended up winning it. Games like that, moments like that, it’s a brotherhood that you never lose. The last time we all walked off a field together was in Whitney in 1993.”
Immediately after the Lions hired Campbell, in 2021, his introductory press conference left people laughing. The type of laughter where people say, “This guy’s a joke.” The Lions were familiar with hiring jokes.
Campbell wasn’t joking.
“That first press conference, talking about ‘biting off knee caps,’ I understand what he’s trying to get across,” Dye said. “I don’t care how ‘high school’ it sounds; he wanted them to be tougher than anyone else. That’s what we did at Glen Rose.
“When you listen to his players talk about him it’s how much he cares about them. He’s very genuine in his feelings for his players. If he got anything from us, those are the things that I hope he got from us, that he cares deeply for his folks.”
The Campbell people met that day is Daniel. It’s a little hokey, and it’s also genuine.
“He’s a good ol’ country boy is who he is,” West said. “When we grew up we’d fish. We’d listen to music. We’d run the streets around here. He was never a stranger to anybody. He grew up on a farm and he had a good upbringing. He’d help anybody.”
That’s the Dan Campbell Glen Rose knows.
He just goes by Daniel.
This story was originally published January 26, 2024 9:47 AM.
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Mac Engel is an award-winning columnist who has covered sports since the dawn of man; Cowboys, TCU, Stars, Rangers, Mavericks, etc. Olympics. Movies. Concerts. Books. He combines dry wit with 1st-person reporting to complement an annoying personality.
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