Former owner Bright dead at 84

Former Dallas Cowboys owner Harvey R. "Bum" Bright died Saturday after a prolonged illness. He was 84.

Bright was the second owner in Cowboys history – purchasing the team from original owner Clint Murchison, Jr., in 1984 and then selling it to current owner Jerry Jones in 1989.

"Bum Bright was a great Texan and an important member of the Dallas Cowboys family," Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said in a statement released Sunday. "He was a close friend and a business man that I respected and admired tremendously.”

“Our agreement on the purchase of the Dallas Cowboys was finalized with a few notes on a napkin and a handshake. With Bum, his word meant everything. He was one of the most honorable men that I have ever had the privilege of knowing and working with."

Bright led a group that paid $63 million for the Cowboys and $20 million for the Texas Stadium lease in March 1984.

Bright was also chairman of the Texas A&M Board of Regents in 1982 and was responsible for hiring Jackie Sherrill and making him the highest-paid college football coach in the country.

In 1997, Bright made an unrestricted endowment of $25 million to Texas A&M. At the time, it was the largest gift of its type the university had ever received. In 2002, he donated $5 million toward a campaign to improve facilities for Texas A&M's athletes.

"He bled and died maroon," former Cowboys director of player personnel Gil Brandt said. "The Cowboys were something he did for the community, but his first love was Texas A&M."

"When the Cowboys thing came up, he was so worried they were going elsewhere," said former Texas A&M football coach R.C. Slocum, a good friend of Bright's. "Buying the Cowboys was a business deal, but a big part of it was also keeping the Cowboys in Texas."