Pettis Norman invites his friends, fans, and colleagues to read his new autobiography, The Pettis Norman Story: A Journey Through the Cotton fields to the Super Bowl and into Servant Leadership.
Imagine sitting down with an old-school Dallas Cowboy and hearing tales about the early days — the plays, the teammates, Coach Landry, the Ice Bowl, Super Bowl V, and much more. Then imagine if other players weighed in and gave you an insider’s view from the field.
This is precisely what you can expect in Pettis Norman’s autobiography, filled with stories that capture the blood, sweat, and tears that built a legacy on and off the field. The book is available on Amazon, just in time for Christmas.
Pettis credits his parents, Fessor and Eloise “Elease” Norman of Lincolnton, Georgia, for instilling the values that carried him through a 12-year career in the NFL. He fondly recalls his grade school, junior high, high school, and college years in Charlotte, North Carolina prepared him for life on the gridiron and in corporate America. His football scholarship at Johnson C. Smith University was life-changing — and then the NFL came calling.
Pettis pays tribute to his late and legendary mentor and coach, Tom Landry, who said, “Pettis showed the fortitude, drive, and character to work his way up from very humble beginnings to gain a college degree and then become a vice-president of a bank in Dallas. He was an inspiration during times when people needed someone positive with whom to relate.”
In fact, the entire Landry family was fond of Pettis. “I remember carrying Pettis’s helmet every day after practice. Like my mom, I admire Pettis very much and he’s one of my all-time favorite Cowboys, too! I can’t say enough about Pettis. He’s a great person,” says Tom Landry Jr.
One chapter is devoted to iconic sports announcers who covered his career. “Pettis and I go back a long way. I first heard about him when he joined the cowboys in 1962. Five years later, I came on board as a broadcaster with the Cowboys Radio Network and met him in person at games and after games. Pettis was a gregarious and humble man, and still is. We knew a lot of the same people and have been friends ever since,” says Verne Lundquist, inductee into the Sun Bowl Hall of Fame and National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association Hall of Fame.
After retiring in his late seventies and spending five years penning his book, Pettis shares an 82-year story arc filled with glimpses into his Georgia roots (and later North Carolina), the Civil Rights Movement, his trade to the San Diego Chargers, his post-NFL entrepreneurialism, and his launch of the Dallas Together Forum which increased the hiring of minority and women-own businesses. Pettis worked with several U.S. Presidents and presidential candidates on issues he holds dear, as well.
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“Pettis is one of the true citizens of Dallas who cares, a former sportsman who devoted half his time to civic matters and never sought notoriety after his football career. He was always a person who exhibited calmness and had an innate insightfulness in his approach to very complex problems — calm and reasonable. He could lead men and women because he was just extraordinarily respected,” says Robert Decherd, chairman, president and chief executive of DallasNews Corporation, parent of The Dallas Morning News.
Take a look inside The Pettis Norman Story: A Journey Through the Cotton fields to the Super Bowl and into Servant Leadership on Amazon.
