‘Staubach Pass’ Honors Retired Dallas Quarterback

‘Roger the Dodger’ and family attend Katy Trail plaza dedication, ribbon cutting

Katy Trail has a new addition at the crossing of Harvard Avenue honoring the legacy of Dallas Cowboy Roger Staubach.

The new Staubach Pass plaza contains four stone pillars, each engraved with a word chosen by Staubach’s family to represent his character and impact on Dallas: service, faith, perseverance, and family.

The plaza is paved with blue-gray stones, with strips of light periodically guiding would-be night walkers. Additionally, the plaza features stone benches for anyone wishing to rest.

“Places like the Katy Trail make Dallas seem small and friendly,” Friends of the Katy Trail executive director Amy Bean said. “And while the trail is the beloved ribbon of green, the plazas of the trail are the cornerstones. The trail’s iconic plazas serve as spots for rest, relaxation, and community.”

Staubach, now 82, attended the plaza’s ribbon-cutting ceremony along with his family, with Staubach himself cutting the ribbon for the grand opening of his namesake plaza.

“In 1963, I never thought I’d be back for this.” Staubach remarked, “We lost to SMU on a Friday night, 32-28. We were 9-1, and we came back here to play Texas, and they beat us at the Cotton Bowl. And I said, ‘I never, ever, want to come back here,’ but it’s the best thing that could have happened to me. With my family, everything.”

Staubach Pass marks the first plaza addition to the Trail since 2018, when Cambrick Plaza was constructed as part of Katy Trail’s last capital campaign. Staubach Pass was designed by SWA Group, a local landscape architecture firm that has been responsible for many of the Trail’s enhancements.

The plaza was funded through an anonymous $1 million donation. According to Bean, the donors believed “it was important to civic life that there be a physical acknowledgment of Roger’s contribution to our community.”

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