Eric Dickerson shares 1st picture of legendary gold Trans Am
When he was coming out of Sealy, Texas, in 1979, Eric Dickerson was the most coveted high school running back in the country.
Dickerson ran for a then-playoff record 296 yards and scored four touchdowns (three rushing and one receiving) in a 42-20 Class 2A state championship win. Dickerson left high school with more than 5,900 career rushing yards.
Numbers like that had programs from coast-to-coast knocking on his front door to land his commitment. It also had schools bending the recruiting rules to do whatever it took to get him to sign.
One of the enticements was a gold Trans Am he said was given to get him to commit to Texas A&M — a car he kept even after he signed with SMU.
For decades, Eric Dickerson denied the rumor that it was given to him by A&M. He always claimed his grandmother bought him the iconic vehicle.
But he finally ‘fessed up in January, as part of an early release of his memoir, “Watch My Smoke: The Eric Dickerson Story,” written with Greg Hanlon. An excerpt from the book published in D Magazine revealed how he got the car and what eventually happened with it.
To stoke excitement about the book and further entrench the gold Trans Am in recruiting lore, Dickerson shared the first-ever picture of himself and “the” vehicle on social media.
Eric Dickerson’s Trans Am best-recruiting story in Texas
There have been some grand recruiting stories emerge from the Lone Star State in recent years, especially in the world of social media. But longtime Texas high school football observers say nothing will ever top Dickerson’s golden ride.
“To this day, it’s the best and most talked-about recruiting story in the state of Texas,” said On3’s Gerry Hamilton, who’s covered the state for more than 20 years. “It’s been message-board lore for two decades. And it’s exciting to finally see Eric talking about what really happened with the Trans Am.”
In the excerpt, Eric Dickerson explains how he was under significant pressure to go to Texas A&M. He said he received a suitcase filled with $50,000 allegedly from the Aggies to get him to commit there. He did not take the deals that came his way.
“Even though I turned that money down, A&M stayed after me and remained in the picture — there was that much pressure for me to go there,” Dickerson wrote in his memoir, according to D Magazine’s excerpt. “And then, a few weeks later, I mentioned to my stepdad in passing that I really liked the new Pontiac Trans Am. I’d seen it at a dealership on I-10 that I used to drive by to visit my grandparents in Houston. I just liked it — the bird on the hood, the fins on the side, and how sleek it was.
“It was an innocent comment. Under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t have remembered even saying it. But recruiting isn’t a normal circumstance, and before I knew it, I was talking to Shear, the big A&M booster in town. ‘We can make that happen,’ he said.”
What happened with the Trans Am?
Dickerson committed to A&M before eventually flipping to SMU because his great-aunt liked Mustangs coach Ron Meyer. Meyer even famously called the car the “Trans A&M.”
Much has been speculated about what happened to the car after he switched from the Aggies to the Ponies. There was even an urban legend that angry A&M boosters destroyed the car. But Dickerson said that never happened.
“I’m here to tell you that never happened,” Dickerson said, according to D Magazine’s excerpt. “I had the Trans Am my first few years at SMU, before I sold it to my best friend and fellow SMU running back, Charles Drayton. Thanks to an SMU booster named George Owen, I was driving a Corvette by then.
“So that’s the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but, straight from the horse’s mouth. Is that such a scandal? That the best player for one of the best teams in the country got a nice car? I don’t think so. I think I deserved that car — and a lot more than that.”
He has a point. Dickerson is in the College Football Hall of Fame and the NFL Hall of Fame after rushing for more than 13,000 yards and 90 touchdowns in his career with the Los Angeles Rams, Indianapolis Colts, Los Angeles Raiders and Atlanta Falcons. He was a consensus All-American at SMU.