She Runs the Hard Knock Cafe : Cowboys Camp Feasts on Home Cooking From Lily’s Kitchen

Call it the Lily Lopez cafeteria in Thousand Oaks. They come because of the food, the convenience, the price. Simply put, it’s a good deal, the type of eatery just about anybody can appreciate--especially the Dallas Cowboys.

For 22 years, Lopez, a 58-year-old grandmother of five from Simi Valley, has been Mother Hubbard to the Cowboys, but with a cupboard far from bare.

It started when she took the job of food-services director at Cal Lutheran in 1966 after owning and operating two restaurants with her husband, Clarence. The Cowboys, who had been training at the Thousand Oaks university since 1963, ate their meals in the cafeteria.

And because she ran the cafeteria year-round, Lopez became the food-services director for the Cowboys, although she is paid only by the school.

Her job is to supervise the preparation of the Cowboys’ three daily meals, making sure a seemingly infinite number of New York steaks, baked glazed Virginia hams, baked swordfish, barbecue pork ribs and the like make it to the mouths of 150 or so hungry hulks.

Lopez doesn’t cook but she supervises with aplomb--she has been catering to the eating styles of the hungry and famous for years.

Take the case of Roger Staubach, the Hall of Fame quarterback.

“Staubach used to like chocolate chip cookies,” Lopez said. “So once in a while we used to bake some and take them up to his room.”

Throwing for 153 touchdown passes and 22,700 yards had its perks for Staubach, and knowing Lopez didn’t hurt. Two current NFL coaches found out how important that could be during their Dallas playing days.

“Dan Reeves used to always want tuna-salad sandwiches,” Lopez said. “He’d run up to me and say, ‘Lily, get me a tuna sandwich,’ so I always used to run over and get him one.

“And then there was Mike Ditka. He always wanted Popsicles--like lime and orange and strawberry Popsicles. We’d get some and he’d take them to his freezer.”

Ditka and Reeves now whet their appetites as head coaches of the Chicago Bears and Denver Broncos, respectively.

Former tight end Billy Joe DuPree used to go directly to the source.

“I think Billy Joe DuPree was a favorite because he used to help himself,” Lopez said. “He thought he was at home all the time. He’d go back in the kitchen and make his own sandwiches.”

Lopez listed DuPree, former defensive lineman Bob Lilly and quarterback Don Meredith among her favorites. She remembers Meredith for his singing and Lilly for his appetite. “Bob Lilly was a big eater,” she said. “He liked prime rib . . . he always liked about 24 ounces of prime rib.”

As for Meredith’s attempts at vocal stardom, Lopez said, “Don was always real happy, singing Western songs as he came down the line. D.D. Lewis and Charlie Waters used to sing Western songs, too.”

Sadly, Lopez said, instances of good-natured fun like cafeteria singing have all but disappeared. And from her vantage, that’s not the only transformation taking place in professional football.

“The players are more serious now,” said Lopez, who prepares for the team $7,000 worth of food per day. “I think years ago they used to play more for the sport . . . I think now they’re playing more for money.

“They’re not as friendly as they used to be and they don’t look as happy as they used to be. Years ago they used to sing and carry on. Now they seem to be in their own little worlds.”

Lopez has remained on an even keel throughout. Cowboy coaches, ever sticklers for consistent performance, have noticed.

“The people and times change but it doesn’t seem to faze Lily,” assistant Dick Nolan said. “I don’t think anyone ever had a time when they were dissatisfied with the food.”

Members of the team’s hierarchy agree.

Said Cowboys Vice President Gil Brandt: “They say an army travels on its stomach. Well, Lily makes this football team travel on its stomach.”

Cowboys President-General Manager Tex Schramm paid another compliment. “She’s a real tremendous person and a part of our family and has made a great contribution to our success.”

That success includes two Super Bowl victories in five tries. The only head coach the Cowboys have had in those Super Bowls and in their 28-year existence, Tom Landry, knows something about what it takes to be successful--even in the kitchen.

“Lil is a great organizer,” Landry said.

In the off-season, the team’s medical organization determined that players were not performing at peak efficiency in afternoon practices. Improper nutritional habits, including too much red meats for lunch, were cited and the Cowboys decided to change their training-camp menu for the first time--but only with direction from Lopez.

“We told her of the change we wanted to make,” assistant trainer Ken Locker said, “and we just let her plan the menus from there. Working with her is very important because we’re her guests here, and it’s her house.”

As a reward for a job well done, Lopez was given free tickets to Super Bowl XIII in Miami.

“They sent me and my husband there, all expenses paid, for one week,” said Lopez, who majored in business at Highlands University in Las Vegas, N.M., from 1946-48. “We stayed in the same hotel as the players. It was the year Jackie Smith dropped the ball in the end zone.”

Dallas lost that Super Bowl, 35-31, to Pittsburgh, a bitter blow for all concerned on the Cowboy side. Fortunately for Lopez, she had another sport to fall back on.

“My favorite sport is basketball,” said Lopez, who has two sons and a daughter. “I haven’t told anyone on the Cowboys this, but it’s probably because my son has played basketball all his life.”

That son, Larry Lopez, is the men’s basketball coach at Cal Lutheran.

He likes the food at the cafeteria, too.