By Harry King
LITTLE ROCK — The double life of James Smith needs context. Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling might suffice, but she gave up her day job as a teacher, and web-slinging Peter Parker is a fictional character.
The ZZZZZZs during the day emanate from the Federal Reserve Bank in downtown Dallas where Smith is a senior financial analyst. On weekends, cameras in tow, “The Crusher,” — short for Bonecrusher — is all over the Dallas Cowboys. The Monticello native is also in tight with the Cotton Bowl.
The Cowboys’ primary photographer for almost 20 years, Smith’s photo of wide receiver Miles Austin, wearing No. 2 instead of his usual No. 19, was the cover of Sports Illustrated last week, the issue that focuses on NFL training camps. Austin occasionally wears No. 2 to honor his friend Derek Jeter.
A trusted insider, Smith is in the war room with Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and the head coach during the NFL draft and travels on the team plane to out-of-town games. Those are his photos on the Cowboys’ website and he is the man who documented the recent demolition of Texas Stadium.
More than a dozen times, he has coordinated time-lapse photography to illustrate installation of the football field at the Cowboys’ new home, the conversion to dirt for rodeo and motocross, and the transition from football into a basketball configuration.
He has worked three Super bowls with the Cowboys, plus XXXVIII between New England and Carolina, and shoots some for the NFL.
Pretty heady stuff for a guy who spends his days immersed in material that is more effective than Ambien for most of us.
Probably envious, his co-workers joke that his full-time job is photography and that his part-time job is banking.
Once a student-photographer assigned to track in the sports information office at Arkansas, he recorded John McDonnell’s first NCAA championship in 1984. He comes by his affinity for sports naturally. Dad Larry was the sports information director at Arkansas-Monticello for years and then held the same job at Arkansas Tech for another 20-plus years.
A 1984 graduate of Arkansas, James has a degree in banking and finance and a masters of business administration.
With that resume, Smith applied for a job at the Federal Reserve Bank and the woman handling the interview process called Bo Carter to verify Smith’s employment as media relations intern with the Southwest Conference.
“The Bonecrusher?” Carter said. “Yes, the ‘Bonecrusher’ works here” and then provided a rave review of the intern’s work ethic.
Fortunately for the Smith with the MBA, boxer James “Bonecrusher” Smith was going good in the WBA. In fact, he held the heavyweight belt for almost four months before losing to Mike Tyson in 1987, and the woman recognized the name.
Smith’s nickname is preserved in a recitation of media services available at the Cotton Bowl. There’s even a picture of Smith, long lens included, and a fat paragraph in which he is described as the “heart and soul” of the bowl’s media operation.
During bowl week, he attends team practices, news conferences, hospital visits and social events loaded down with camera equipment, it says. He’s also involved with the media. On game day, he is the official escort of the Big 12 team.
All in all, an enviable and deserved gig for a very competent, part-time photographer.
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Harry King is sports columnist for Stephens Media’s Arkansas News Bureau. His e-mail address is hking@arkansasnews.com.
