Lovie a big shot in Big Sandy
Bears coach's success spurs pride, excitement in his Texas hometown
The 9-year-old is wearing a blue football jersey and dreaming big.
''I want to play football,'' he said, ''then be a coach in the NFL.''
Why not? A guy who grew up 100 yards away did exactly that.
Bears coach Lovie Smith is living proof that a little boy's dream can come true in small-town America.
''Everyone talks about him, looks up to him, wants to be like him,'' said 17-year-old Vanity Darty, Damontray's sister. ''If he can do it, I can, too.''
On Sunday in Miami, Smith will be calling the shots for the Bears in the Super Bowl. But if anyone thinks the folks in Smith's hometown regard him differently now, perhaps as someone unapproachable, forget it.
''Around here, he's just Lovie,'' high school classmate Marie Rogers Dotson said.
''About the only thing that's changed in Lovie is his Afro,'' said Big Sandy teacher Lynda Childress, who befriended Smith during his year working at her school. ''What you see with Lovie is what you get. He's always been that way. He never had a bad word to say about anybody, just a positive attitude that would boost your spirits -- always. I cannot think of a better goodwill ambassador for Big Sandy.''
To make sure Smith knows how important he still is back home, Childress faxed him some handwritten letters from her students.
''I'm so glad you are from Big Sandy,'' one letter said. ''You have shown me that if I set goals, I can be anything I want.''
''Everyone in Big Sandy is excited that you became the first black American coach in the Super Bowl,'' another letter said. ''It will be even better when you win the Super Bowl.''
Heck, there's no telling how folks will respond if that happens. This little town hasn't had this much attention since murder suspect Jerry ''Animal'' McFadden escaped from the county jail in 1986, prompting the largest manhunt in state history.
Big Sandy is 100 miles east of Dallas, roughly halfway to Shreveport, La. The name came from piles of beautiful white sand that long ago were sold and hauled away on the two railroad tracks that cross here.
The town was founded in the 1870s, when the first train chugged through. The population was around 1,000 in 1958, when Smith was born. The latest census counted only a few hundred more residents.
Driving across town on U.S. Highway 80, the main road, takes two minutes -- three if you hit red on the only traffic light in town.
Although one of the city-limits signs boasts ''Needlecraft Capital of the South,'' the biggest employer is a company that fills magazine subscription and catalog orders. There are no fancy neighborhoods, no major attractions. The movie theater left decades ago. The old roller-skating rink is now a dance hall for senior citizens. The Dairy Queen was replaced by a pizza joint that since has been abandoned.
There is one drawing card: booze. Big Sandy is one of the few ''wet'' spots in eastern Texas, which is why five liquor stores occupy the intersection of 80 and Texas 155. Two stores even offer drive-through service.
''It doesn't pose any problems,'' Mayor Sonny Parsons said. ''And it does play a great part in our economy.''
Smith grew up in a house two blocks from where the Darty children live, on what was called Church Street until it was renamed Lovie Smith Drive two years ago.
Only 250 yards long, the street is a mess of scrubby woods and chain-link fences. The Smith home burned down years ago. The lone house left is boarded up, with a ''Keep Out!'' sign on the door.
For a while last week, only one sign along the highway noted the local hero. By the weekend, though, things had picked up. Messages such as ''Lovie -- You Rock!'' and ''Next Superbowl Champs, the Bears'' were painted on the windows at city hall. Then Mayor Parsons climbed into the basket of a cherry picker and personally changed the letters on the official marquee to ''Big Sandy Loves Lovie Smith -- Go Bears.''
About 20 of Smith's relatives are planning to travel to Miami for the Super Bowl. His four siblings will meet at their mom's house in Tyler, then drive over Friday morning. Smith's mother, Mae, doesn't fly, so they always drive to games.
The last game Mae went to was against the Dolphins in early November, and the Bears lost for the first time all season. Before that, she attended the playoff game the Bears lost last season.
See a pattern? She did, so she asked her son, ''Are you sure you want us to be at the Super Bowl?''
''He said, 'Yeah, Momma, there wasn't nothing to that,''' she said. ''He's not superstitious.''
The folks in Big Sandy are having a pep rally downtown on Super Bowl Sunday. The high school band and cheerleaders are going to perform, and they've borrowed a Bears mascot costume from a nearby high school.
A game-watching party will follow at Church of God, which has a big projector screen and room for up to 1,000 people. They'll be serving free chili, both beef and venison.
Win or lose, Smith always will be a big deal in Big Sandy. Some key figures already are thinking about ways to harness the momentum.
Parsons, the mayor, hopes to build a youth center, something the town never has had.
Childress, the teacher and a former mayor, wants to put Smith's picture on a sign, with ''plenty of room for his future accomplishments -- because there will be more.''
And pep-rally organizer Susan Hubbard, a member of the Big Sandy Chamber of Commerce, is aiming for a permanent reminder on the city-limits sign, proclaiming this the hometown of Super Bowl coach Lovie Smith.
''Hopefully,'' she said, ''Super Bowl CHAMPION coach.''
AP