TopVet: Roger Staubach, Hall of Fame Quarterback

Roger Staubach, whose college coach called him “the greatest quarterback Navy ever had,” won the Heisman trophy in 1963 as a junior when he led the Midshipmen to a 9-2 record and the No. 2 national ranking. As “Roger the Dodger,” the scrambling, strong-armed quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys during the glory years of the 1970s, he led “America’s Team” to six National Football Conference championship games, winning four of them, and to victories in Super Bowls VI – he was also named MVP in that game – and XII.

Now he’s the quarterback (actually, he’s Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer) of The Staubach Company, a diversified commercial real estate company headquartered in Dallas that he started in 1970, his second years with the Cowboys. The 59-year-old Texan is one of the leading players in North Texas commercial real estate, having expanded his company’s business to include finance, design and construction, property and portfolio management, and related services.

Drafted in the tenth round of the 1964 draft – most teams were scared off by his military obligations – he served four years as a Naval officer, spending one year in Vietnam, before joining the Cowboys in 1969 as a 27-year-old rookie. He became the starting quarterback in 1971 and for the next nine seasons quarterbacked Dallas to 95 wins against only 35 losses, a .731 winning percentage. “Captain Comeback,” as he was also dubbed, led the Cowboys to 23 come-from-behind victories in the fourth quarter. He retired in 1979, having led the National Football League in passing four times, having been named All-NFC four times, and having been named to six Pro Bowls. He was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1985, his first year of eligibility. Roger Staubach, said his coach Tom Landry, “might be the best combination of a passer, an athlete, and a leader ever to play in the NFL.”

Today he serves on the Board of Trustees of American AAdvantage Funds; the Board of Directors of the United Way of America, Brinker International, and “PowerUP: Bridging the Digital Divide”: and the Board of Advisors of the Children’s Scholarship Fund. He is active in the American Cancer Society Annual Children’s Luncheon and numerous other civic and charitable causes and professional organizations