A Byrd's Eye View
10/5/2006 12:00:00 AM | Athletics
A Byrd's Eye View
By Jack DeGange
Tyrone Byrd was intrigued, and nervous, as he boarded the flight from San Antonio to New York on a September day in 1969.
He'd never been to the East Coast, much less Hanover, New Hampshire. In fact, he'd never been on an airplane.
"I didn't know much about the East or Dartmouth,” said the man who has come to be known to friends and business associates as “T-Byrd.” “But I knew that I wanted a good education.”
His anxiety elevated after he reached JFK in New York and took a cab to LaGuardia Airport. Byrd learned that his second-ever flight, the commuter hop to Lebanon had been cancelled due to a hurricane threat.
“I spent the night sleeping with my luggage at LaGuardia,” he recalled. “The next day I flew to Lebanon, found a taxi and got dropped off at the Hanover Inn corner. I asked the driver, 'Where's downtown?'”
“You just passed it,” said the cabbie. Welcome to town, T-Byrd. He got the key to his new home on the top floor of French Hall in the River Cluster and quickly realized he had better learn to plan his days and avoid long walks — his dorm was at the farthest corner of campus.
An outstanding student and all-district football player at San Antonio's Jefferson High, Byrd hadn't been heavily recruited by Coach Bob Blackman (or anyone else). In fact, he wasn't much more than a cipher on a freshman team that numbered about 100 young men with comparable academic and athletic credentials.
For Byrd, as for nearly 100 black students who arrived as members of Dartmouth's Class of 1973, it was akin to standing blindfolded on the rim of the Grand Canyon and being told, “OK, relax and take one step forward into the rest of your life.”
“It was challenging and a transition,” said Byrd, now a successful business executive in Houston. “I was from a large, metro area in Texas. Dartmouth was rural, male and white. I'd never been exposed to long winters and cold weather.”
Neither had a number of black classmates who became his teammates and lifelong friends — Wesley Pugh (Maryland), Charlie Box (Illinois), Weymoth Crowell (Alabama), Josh Holloway (Virginia) and Ben Wilson (Tennessee). “We were all motivated to work hard and leaned on each other for moral support.”
He would become a history major and football became his outlet. “I was a no-name tight end on the freshman team (he caught one pass for 10 yards as the talented Green 73s won seven games without a loss).
“In 1969, Coach (Bob) Blackman used a tight end offense,” he remembered. “I thought about switching to safety in 1970. There were a lot of sophomores trying to win places — on a team that would finish 10-0-0, win the Ivy League title and the Lambert Trophy and be regarded as perhaps the best in Dartmouth history.
“The coaches wanted to see what I could do in the pro-style offense they planned to use in 1970,” Byrd continued. In a preseason scrimmage at Bowdoin, Byrd caught seven passes for 135 yards. The no-name tight end became the backup at split end to senior Bob Brown, catching five passes for 101 yards.
Murry Bowden was the inspirational co-captain of the 1970 team but “Bob Brown was my 'Murry,'” said Byrd. “I learned from Bob and (quarterback) Jim Chasey…he could really throw the ball.”
At the end of the 1970 season, Blackman left Dartmouth to become head coach at Illinois. At the team banquet, before he departed, Blackman cornered Byrd.
“I'll never forget that moment,” said Byrd. “He said, 'T-Byrd, I expect you to catch 75 passes next year.' Until then, I didn't realize what he thought of me.”
Byrd didn't catch 75 passes in 1971. In fact, in Coach Jake Crouthamel's ground-oriented offense over the next two seasons, the Green had team totals of 81 and 78 completions. Byrd was the leading receiver both years, catching 22 passes for 310 yards and three touchdowns in 1971 and adding 19 for 339 yards and three more scores in 1972.
Byrd made several critical catches in those seasons as Dartmouth followed the perfect season in 1970 with records of 8-1-0 and 7-1-1 and two more Ivy League crowns.
The most memorable: In 1971, in the ABC-TV showdown with undefeated Cornell (led by All-America Ed Marinaro), Byrd's eight-yard catch from Steve Stetson clinched a 24-14 win. In 1972, he had TD catches of 19 and 37 yards that were keys in a 31-22 win at Cornell. A week later in Philadelphia, Stetson's 38-yard pitch to Byrd was the trigger that launched the comeback from a 14-0 deficit to a 31-17 victory.
“I was always under the radar as far as observers were concerned,” Byrd recalled. Perhaps, but he was also an essential cog as his three varsity seasons produced championships and an overall record of 24-2-1 for Dartmouth. As a senior, he earned All-Ivy and All-New England honorable mention.
“Football created balance in my life at Dartmouth,” said Byrd, who has remained in alumni activities over the years. “Winning was icing on the cake.”
If football was his outlet, studying history with professors that included Jim Wright (now Dartmouth's president), Leo Spitzer and Jere Daniell “gave me the opportunity to learn about people and world affairs. I thought about law school but I've always had a somewhat narrow view of lawyers. Plus, it's not in my disposition to be argumentative.”
His set two objectives after Dartmouth: the NFL or business school. Byrd deferred acceptance into the University of Chicago's MBA program to pursue football at the next level. He combined one season with the New England Colonials in the Atlantic Coast Football League and a training program with Liberty Mutual Insurance, before signing as a free agent with the Green Bay Packers in 1974. “They had drafted several wide receivers,” said Byrd. “They were an investment. I was cut after the second game.”
He returned to Boston and worked for Texaco until he entered the University of Chicago in 1975, receiving his MBA in 1977.
What has ensued is a Texas-based career in banking and the oil-gas industries. Byrd spent nine years with Texas Commerce Bank, rising to become a vice president with responsibility for national accounts that included some Fortune 500 companies and major businesses in Texas, on the West Coast and in the Midwest.
In 1986, CitiBank was looking for someone with experience in the Texas market. Byrd spent the next three years with Citibank. That's when Texaco, the company that he had worked with before and during business school, invited him to help set up a finance group for their U.S. operations.
Byrd remained with the company for 11 years, becoming treasurer of Texaco Worldwide Exploration & Production Company and assistant treasurer of Texaco Inc. When Texaco was acquired by Chevron in 2001, he came to a crossroads: Stay with the company and move to California or remain in Houston.
“Leaving Texas would mean disrupting our family,” said Byrd. He decided to stay put. He and his wife, Vickie, have two sons and a daughter. Their older son, Marcus Jackson, is a William & Mary and Howard Law School graduate. He is an investment banker in New York City. Tamra graduated from Howard University in 2005 and works in advertising-public relations in Atlanta. Terrence is now a senior (and a corner back) at Taylor High School in Katy, Texas.
Jeff Barndt, a sophomore fullback at Dartmouth in 1972 and an executive at Amoco in Houston, knew his former teammate was looking. He introduced Byrd to George Edwards, another long-time Amoco executive who had recently joined Osyka Corporation, an African-American wholly owned oil and gas exploration company in Houston.
Byrd then met Michael Harness, the founder and chief executive of Osyka. In 2002, he became executive vice president and chief financial officer of Osyka, created by Harness in 1990 to acquire and manage non-core oil and gas properties that don't fit the strategic objectives of larger companies. Osyka has more than 200 wells in 14 fields in Mississippi, Alabama and Texas. In 2005, Byrd played an important role as Osyka reached overseas to become the first black company to win the license for an oil block in Nigeria's Niger Delta.
The past 30 years have given Byrd a rewarding career that blended corporate and entrepreneurial experiences. “It's been enjoyable but it's time for something else.”
Like that step into the virtual unknown in 1969, the next 5-10 years for T-Byrd should be just as intriguing.
Jack DeGange is a freelance writer and former sports information director at Dartmouth.
