By By Todd Thompson, Hartselle Enquirer
DECATUR - Jim Eidson indoctrination to pro football came just months after finishing up a stellar career at Mississippi State.
The Hartselle native spent much of his time leading up to the draft going head-to-head with future National Football League Hall of Famer Lee Roy Selmon, who was an All-American at Oklahoma.
The two squared off in the Blue-Gray game, the East-West Shrine game and the Senior Bowl, dishing out some brutal blows in their eagerness to impress NFL coaches.
Eidson, who played at Mississippi State and in the NFL with the Dallas Cowboys, figures his days in Hartselle prepared him for the challenge of going against Selmon and later during his injury-shortened career in the NFL.
Eidson was inducted into the Morgan County Hall of Fame Saturday night as part of the group’s 2009 induction class.
Hartselle residents Earl Warren and Bill Evans were also part of the newest group of inductees.
Eidson has spent little time in Morgan County since graduating. He currently lives in Texas, but did return earlier this year for a Morgan County High School class reunion.
Eidson grew up an Alabama fan, but never got a chance to play for his favorite team. His only scholarship offer came from Mississippi State.
He wound up, instead, at Mississippi State on the other side of the field from the Crimson Tide.
Eidson spent two years in the National Football League after being drafted by the Dallas Cowboys. His career ended when he sustained a serious back injury during a preseason game in 1976.
Today, Eidson resides in Texas, where he met his wife and together raised three children. He earned his MBA from Southern Methodist Univeristy and entered the world of commercial real estate, concentrating on hospitals and medical offices.
Eidson played football at Morgan County High School for Bucky Pitts before signing a scholarship with Mississippi State.
Dallas Cowboys head coach Tom Landry rebuilt the NFL team during the mid-’70s, using the draft as the team’s foundation.
Of the 43 players on Dallas’ 1976 roster that won the Super Bowl, 21 came from the drafts of 1975 and 1976.
Eidson played in nine games for the Cowboys as a rookie before retiring after the 1977 season, turning his sights on a career in real estate.