Lewis played linebacker for Dallas his entire career from 1968 to 1981, winning two Super Bowls.

He is famous for his quote about Texas Stadium in Irving, the old home of the Cowboys. He said that Texas Stadium had “a hole in the roof so God can watch his favorite team play.”

Drafted by the Cowboys in 1968 from Mississippi State, Lewis is listed in the team’s top 10 sixth-round picks in Cowboys’ history. After a one-year military stint, he returned to the team in 1970 and in 1973, he took over for Ring of Honor member Chuck Howley as the starting right side linebacker.

D.D. Lewis, a cornerstone of the Doomsday Defense

“It took two or three years for it to click for me and understand what it’s all about,” Lewis once said during an interview for the Cowboys’ “Deep Blue” documentary series. “But especially when Chuck got hurt in the 1972 season, that’s when I got my chance to play.”

“The mainstay in the middle of the Cowboys’ Doomsday Defense,” the Cowboys said, played in 27 career playoff games and started in the last three Super Bowls of the 1970s.

During his final season of 1981, Lewis received the Cowboys’ Man of the Year Award, and in 1984, he was voted to the franchise’s Silver Anniversary Team.

Tom Landry once said Lewis was the team’s most underappreciated player in his 29 years with the Cowboys.

The “hole” in the stadium roof

HKS Architects, which designed the Cowboys’ current home, AT&T Stadium, said its research identified the historic hole in the roof from Texas Stadium as the “single most recognizable brand element that needed to be celebrated” in the new design.

When the retractable roof is open, HKS said, it pays tribute to the iconic hole in the roof at Texas Stadium “that football fans around the world identified with America’s Team.”