DALLAS — In 23 seconds, SMU football managed to create one of the coolest college football promos of the young season.
And they got that gold Trans Am in there, too.
Yes, that gold Trans Am.
Eric Dickerson, the SMU legend, starred in the short clip, posted to the SMU football Twitter page Friday morning. And Dickerson didn't have to say a word.
The video started with a gold Trans Am revving across the the Margaret Hunt Hill bridge with the downtown Dallas skyline ahead of it. The sports car's license plate read, "Pony Up," and in the driver's seat was Dickerson, who threw up a peace sign as he sped into the city.
Amid the sound of a roaring engine, the video featured audio of an announcer calling a Dickerson touchdown as the camera panned over the top of the bridge. When the shot returned to the road, the gold Trans Am was replaced by a blue Shelby Ford Mustang. The license plate this time? "PONY XPRES."
Dickerson hit the gas again, and off he went, into the night. Give it a watch here:
A few things here to appreciate: First, the detail is impressive - SMU got the downtown skyline on board, with the Bank of America plaza lit up in red, along with Reunion Tower and the Omni Hotel.
But the first thing the viewer sees is what diehard college football fans will probably appreciate the most: That gold Trans Am.
The legendary hot rod was the subject of recruiting rumors for decades. As legend had it, Texas A&M was pursuing Dickerson in 1979. Then one day, he showed up driving a gold Trans Am. Fans put two and two together, speculating that the Aggies gifted Dickerson the new car.
Well, Dickerson ended up at SMU, and the kept the Trans Am anyway.
Earlier this year, D Magazine published an excerpt from Dickerson's memoir, Watch My Smoke, in which he confirmed the Trans Am tale.
"Of course there were benefits to being the top recruit in the country," Dickerson wrote. "Like the Trans Am—the one I drove to school my senior year, a week before national signing day in 1979. I was 18 then and now I’m 61, and it’s still the thing people ask me about the most."
Dickerson said his grandma *technically* bought him the car, with a little help from a Texas A&M booster.
"Now, until the present day, I’ve always said publicly that my grandparents bought me that car," Dickerson wrote. "My grandfather made good money from his job as a crane operator at a steel mill, and my grandma’s name is on the paperwork, so that’s technically true. But behind the scenes, A&M had agreed to reimburse her. And that, my friends, is how the notorious Trans Am was paid for."
