10 September 28–OctOber 4, 2023 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents THE MAN BEHIND BIG TEX Navigating the loss of both parents as a kid and captaining SMU’s football team after its death penalty, Mitchell Glieber has grown into the man who runs the State Fair of Texas. By Richie Whitt M aAll those trials, tribulations and triumphs have brought him to the pinnacle of his life: Having the biggest butt in Texas named after him. “We’re in Texas, and you’ve got to have a little caboose in your jeans, right?” says Glieber, president of the State Fair of Texas. “After Big Tex burned we rebuilt him, but his behind just didn’t look proportionate. He was flat. All I did was suggest we put some junk in his trunk.” And that’s how, among the fair’s inner circle, 55-foot Big Tex’s voluptuous ass became known simply as “Mitch.” “I still think it was a good idea,” Glieber says. “Not that I want that to be my legacy … ” H is life didn’t start out all giggles. When Glieber was in the first grade, his mother went on vacation alone to Jamaica, and never came home. She died under mysterious circumstances amid ru- mors of chronic back pain and potential addiction to pain medication. “It’s something,” Glieber says, his voice trailing off during a late-August interview in the fair’s administration offices, “that I try not to think about.” His father, Frank, was famous, but his fame was fleeting. He was the original radio voice of the Dallas Cowboys in 1960 and a seven-time Texas Sportscaster of the Year for his work announcing everything from Highland Park High School sports to the Texas Rangers to marquee national events such as The Masters. At CBS, he trained a newbie ana- lyst named John Madden. With the Cowboys in 1978 he was part of one of the strongest radio booths in the history of pro- fessional sports, alongside National Sportscaster Hall of Fame member Verne Lundquist and Brad Sham, a member of the Texas Radio Hall of Fame now in his 41st season as the voice of the Cowboys. There were perks to being Frank’s boy, such as having free rein at Cowboys’ summer training camps in Thousand Oaks, California, where Mitchell buzzed around the likes of heroes Roger Staubach, Drew Pearson and coach Tom Landry. “We rented a house, and for two weeks it was heaven,” Glieber says. “I got to eat with the players and run around the locker room. It was a kids’ wonderland.” Dad’s job, however, required lots of work and even more travel. “Frank was a sweet, funny and wonderful man,” says ex- wife Kathy White, who was married to him for 6.5 years. “But the truth is, he was gone all the time working.” As Mitchell was preparing for his graduation from Rich- ardson High School just before noon on May 1, 1985, a coun- selor approached his classroom and summoned him. Frank had collapsed while jogging on an outdoor track at the Coo- per Aerobics Center. The local members of Frank’s family — he had four mar- riages and five children — rushed to Medical City Dallas Hospital. Mitchell was the first to arrive, but it was too late. Frank had died of a massive heart attack at the age of 51. “He literally just dropped dead,” Glieber says. “It forced me to grow up quickly, starting that day.” Says White: “It was awful, and probably a lot harder for Mitchell than he let me know. He was just a teenager. That was a lot to deal with.” For reasons equal parts athletic and therapeutic, Glieber dove into playing football at SMU. He was a walk-on and immediately earned a scholarship as a skinny, crafty receiver. In 1986 he caught only two passes, and then the program was infamously shut down be- cause of a previous recruiting scandal. Ordered dormant for two seasons, the Mustangs were revived in 1989. All the star players had long left for other schools, but Glieber stayed. “I knew I wasn’t good enough to play in the NFL, and Dallas was my home,” he says. “SMU was good to me, and I felt a sense of loyalty to start things back up.” The Mustangs lured alum and Pro Football Hall of Fame member Forrest Gregg back to coach and persuaded Glieber — the team’s only scholarship player — to be a senior co-cap- tain of a ship destined to sink. The Ponies lost their first game by 29 points to lowly Rice, which snapped an 18-game losing streak. Later in the season they were mercilessly clobbered by Texas (by 32 points), Baylor (46 points) and Texas A&M (49 points). The night be- fore their game against No. 1-ranked Notre Dame, ▼ Culture Nathan Hunsinger >> p12 Mitchell Glieber is the president of the State Fair of Texas.
