FRISCO, Texas — David Overstreet II has faint memories of his father, but he was told stories about the type of man he was.
The Cowboys’ cornerbacks coach was just 13 months old when David Overstreet I died in 1984 in a car crash in Winona, Texas.
His father was a standout high school football player from Big Sandy, Texas, who played at Oklahoma and was a first-round pick by the Miami Dolphins.
He was more than an athlete. He was a husband and father — a man with a bright smile and calming influence whose children still adore him despite losing him at a young age.
“I grew up on stories,” David Overstreet II said. “That’s just how it was, especially having the same last name and growing up in Texas and always having to go back home to my grandmother’s house, out in Big Sandy. The most consistent thing that I get from the stories was how funny he was, how great of a person, how people liked being around him and how he made people feel better, and how he was always trying to look out for people.”
As the Cowboys play the Washington Commanders on Christmas Day, the Overstreet family is grateful for the spirit left behind by their father and that his namesake is back in Texas after playing and coaching in other places.
“I feel like he came back where he needed to be,” said Dayetta Overstreet, David II’s sister.
High school star
In the mid 1970s, Overstreet was a high school football star from Big Sandy. As a running back, he led the school to two state titles and in four years set the Class B (now Class 1A) record with 7,652 yards and 620 points. In 1975, he was named Texas’ High School Football Player of the Year.
He was recruited by every major college and chose to play at Oklahoma behind Billy Sims. He blocked for Sims as he won the Heisman Trophy for the 1978 season.
Overstreet waited his time and became a standout player himself, developing a bond with his quarterback, Thomas Lott Jr., who became the first Black starting quarterback at Oklahoma.
“We were family, man,” Lott said. “David is one of those guys that came in a couple years later and being with the [recruiting] group I came in with, we were really, really close. I had 13 of us got drafted, another four [went to the NFL] as free agents. A big group of us that came from Texas, that caused a lot of problems with some of the coaches in Texas with Coach [Barry] Switzer because he came and scooped us all up.”
In four seasons, Overstreet averaged 5.8 yards per carry. His talent led him to the NFL, where he was the 13th overall pick by the Miami Dolphins in 1981. But Overstreet couldn’t come to terms on a contract, so he played for the Montreal franchise in the Canadian Football League.
Overstreet rushed for 952 yards and caught 48 passes for 356 yards with eight touchdowns. Another contract dispute led him to leave Montreal.
The next year, he signed with the Dolphins.
In the 1983 season, Overstreet rushed for 392 yards with one touchdown in 14 games. Things looked bright heading into the 1984 season.
Just before training camp, Overstreet was visiting Lott in Dallas. The two men were godfathers to each other’s children. David had two children, Dayetta and David II. Lott’s son, Thomas III, is the godson of David I.
Overstreet was headed to Big Sandy to visit his in-laws before going back to the Miami area to begin his second season with the Dolphins.
According to news reports, on June 24, 1984, Overstreet fell asleep at the wheel of his car, and it crashed into a gas station, killing him instantly.
“It was one of the most devastating things that happened to me in my life,” Lott said. “He was leaving our place, he had left us. We were together that weekend and for me to get that phone call, when I first got the phone call it was kinda speculation. They weren’t sure yet and we just kinda, I just kept telling myself, ‘It can’t be him. It cannot be him.’ When I got that second call, it just broke my heart.”
Overstreet was 25. He left a wife, Johnnie, and two children, Dayetta, 4, and David, 13 months.
Happy family life
Johnnie and David were best friends, having met in the fifth grade in Big Sandy. Johnnie married David when he was a sophomore at Oklahoma in 1978. When he played football, she worked at a bank in Oklahoma City. When his contract didn’t work out with the Dolphins, she went with him to Montreal.
And after Overstreet was able to finalize a deal with the Dolphins, they moved to Florida.
“As long as I was with him, I was OK,” Johnnie Overstreet said. “It really did surprise me when he decided to go to [Canada] but the negotiations weren’t right so he had a better offer. By us being together, I felt safe as long as I was with him.”
Brother and sister have different recollections of their father.
Dayetta Overstreet remembers Christmas time when her dad showed up dressed as Santa Claus. He couldn’t fool her.
“He tried to pretend like he wasn’t [Santa] but every time, I’m like I know those eyes, those are my eyes,” she said. “That’s my dad, it’s a fond memory. I remember always jumping up and down and nobody knew it was him but me, ‘That’s not Santa, that’s my dad.’ “
Johnnie told her son he never went to his dad as a baby unless he was holding a green football. That green football was placed in his crib by his father when he was born. David said he has few pictures of him with his dad. But there is a special one.
The family was trying to get a professional portrait and David was crying during the shoot because he wouldn’t sit on his father’s lap. When the photographer gave him that green football, David stopped crying and sat for the photo.
All of these memories were told to David, and he cherishes them.
Growing up, David I had a room with all of his trophies and game balls. It was also the place where the son’s toy chest resided.
That’s something he doesn’t forget.
“I’d go in that room and play all the time,” he said. “So I always saw all those things, so I knew from the trophies and all the different things, memorabilia of how good he was, but the first time that I really got to watch him play was my senior year in college at Missouri.”
David followed in the family business and played high school football at Dallas Samuell High School and eventually at Missouri. During his senior season, the school provided a highlight tape of his father. Switzer, the former Oklahoma coach, sent David DVDs of his father’s games.
There was even a DVD of an interview with his dad. It was the first time David heard his father speak. While he doesn’t have the memories of his father, who has a street named after him in Big Sandy, the accolades of one of the best high school football players in Texas and the talent to reach the NFL, he’ll never forget him.
In fact, the Overstreets are spitting images of their dad. Bright eyes. Wide smiles, with plenty of teeth showing.
“I have my mom’s eyes, but I have my dad’s smile for sure,” David said. “When I smile, you see all of his teeth.”
“For me, I’m staring at my dad every time I look in the mirror,” Dayetta said. “So it’s like one of those things you cannot forget this man. You can’t get past this man. So I look at myself every day and I look just like my father even as I get older, it’s a constant memory.”
David Overstreet II has a summer football camp in Texas dedicated to his father that’s designed to help kids before they go back to school. It’s conducted near Samuell High School.
For a majority of his coaching career, David II played and coached away from Texas. His mom and sister wanted him to come back home to Texas. To be close to them and to continue honoring their father.
When David was hired by the Cowboys in the offseason, it was met with joy and confirmation of where the son is supposed to be.
“I believe like his life came full circle,” Johnnie said. “He’s done everything, he done went to different teams so he’s back at home. I feel like it’s a complete circle. It’s real exciting to me to see his persistence, his confidence and his determination and I didn’t know he would be with the Cowboys, but he had to be with somebody.”
David said he never felt like he needed to live up to his father’s famous name. If anything, he just wanted to make sure he honored him in everything he did, whether on the football field or off it.
He said the memories continue from family members and even those who played against or with his father. Former NFL coach Lovie Smith, who played with David at Big Sandy, called to say, “You sound just like him.”
“I never expected to be back home coaching,” Overstreet said. “I definitely didn’t. But the Lord doesn’t make mistakes, and he knew I needed to be here.”