Zampese led Troy Aikman and the Cowboys to a Super Bowl XXX win. One of the top offensive minds of his era, he’ll now be honored in Canton. | From @ToddBrock24f7
One of the architects of the Cowboys’ most recent Super Bowl victory is making his way to Canton.
Ernie Zampese, the longtime offensive coach who served as coordinator in Dallas from 1994 to 1997 and then returned for a second stint with the team as a consultant, has been named a winner of the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s inaugural “Awards of Excellence.”
The new awards are meant to recognize significant contributions made to the game by individuals from four football disciplines who are not typically considered for enshrinement along players and head coaches.
“These 20 outstanding assistant coaches, athletic trainers, equipment managers, and public relations personnel not only helped to determine results on the field, but they also helped to promote the game’s growth, safety, and popularity over several decades of devotion to their teams and to the National Football League,” Hall of Fame President Jim Porter said in a statement.
Zampese will be one of the assistant coaches honored Thursday, along with Fritz Shurmur, Terry Robiskie, Alex Gibbs, and Jimmy Raye.
The 86-year-old Zampese worked on a handful of NFL staffs nearly nonstop from 1976 until 2004. He already had 18 years of pro experience on his résumé when he came to Dallas in 1994. The Cowboys had just won their second straight Lombardi Trophy, and offensive coordinator Norv Turner had just left to take the head coaching job in Washington.
Then an established OC, Zampese was thought to be content to stay in Southern California, where he had played halfback collegiately for the Trojans and gotten his start in coaching with turns at Cal Poly, San Diego State, and the San Diego Chargers before joining the Los Angeles Rams.
“I think first of all, it’s the possibility of going to a Super Bowl,” Zampese said of the decision to move, per the Los Angeles Times. “I think that’s what we all aspire to do in this profession.”
Less than eight weeks after Zampese accepted the Cowboys job, head coach Jimmy Johnson’s departure rocked the organization. Barry Switzer was taking the reins. And Zampese would now be charged with trying to keep the Dallas offense within the ranks of the elite.
He did just that.
In his first year with Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith, and Michael Irvin, Zampese’s unit finished second in the league in scoring, averaging 25.9 points per game. They compiled a 12-4 record, only to lose to San Francisco in a wild NFC championship game.
The following year, the Cowboys offense ranked third in points scored (27.2 per game), went 12-4 again, and beat the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XXX.
The Dallas dynasty effectively ended with that title. The Cowboys offense dropped to 25th and 22nd in the league in scoring the next two seasons. Zampese, though, had cemented his reputation as an offensive mastermind and moved on to helm the New England offense in 1998.
After two years with the Patriots, Zampese returned to Dallas as an offensive consultant starting with the 2000 season. It was head coach Dave Campo’s first… and would be Aikman’s last.
In his Hall of Fame speech years later, the Cowboys quarterback would call Zampese “one of the best offensive minds and greatest people that this game has ever known.”
And now Zampese will take his place alongside those legends at the Hall.
The four groups presenting these Awards of Excellence helped to create their own selection committees and set their own criteria for choosing the class members to be honored. The Hall of Fame did not take part in any nominating or voting, but will display the winners’ names in Canton.
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