Tom Landry - in Popular Culture

In Popular Culture

• In 1959, while defensive coach of the Giants, Landry pretended to be a Catholic missionary priest on the TV panel game To Tell The Truth (on an episode that included balloonist Commander Malcolm Roth).

• The coach in Peter Gent's novel North Dallas Forty is based on Tom Landry. G.D. Spradlin played the role in the film of the same name.

• In Fox's animated sitcom King of the Hill, the local middle school is named after Tom Landry, and Landry is a personal hero of the show's main character Hank Hill. He mentions being "mortified" because he went to work on the date of Landry's death after his cousin Dusty (guest star Dusty Hill of ZZ Top) had previously tricked him into thinking Tom Landry had died, and he thought it was a repeat of that prank. Hank also has a Tom Landry Ceramic plate that he sometimes consults in times of need, on one occasion saying "Where did I go wrong, Tom?" Landry also occasionally appears to Hank in dream sequences to counsel him in times of need, like during Hank's varnish induced hallucination on the episode "Hillennium".

• In an episode of The Simpsons ("You Only Move Twice"), Homer Simpson buys Tom Landry's trademark fedora in an effort to improve his leadership qualities, and is shown in several later episodes wearing the hat. Landry was also featured in Season 7 episode ("Marge Be Not Proud") as one of the Christmas carolers introduced by Krusty the Clown early in the episode.

• The series Friday Night Lights features a character named Landry hinted to be named after Tom Landry, given the town's obsession with football.

• In a Campbell's Chunky Soup commercial, the game takes place in mythical Reginald H. White Memorial Park, on the corner of Landry Road and Halas Drive.

• The fantasy football board game Blood Bowl features a necromantic team coach called Tomolandry the Undying.

• University of Oklahoma quarterback Landry Jones is named in honor of Coach Landry.