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Only in Texas: What if Southwest had Started Someplace Else? Unthinkable!

tmcclure
Explorer C
Southwest Airlines is a Texas phenomenon—like the weather, Willie Nelson, and the elusive giant armadillo. Texas, you see, isn’t just a state of mine, it’s a state of mind.  It’s also a state of heart, a state of soul.  

Texas is a place that honors the truth yet harbors a fondness for the tallest of tales.  Texas is a people who value courage and hard work, yet still know how to have a good time.  Texas is a spirit that embraces dreams on the grandest of scales.  Southwest Airlines is one of those grand dreams.

Great airlines have planted their roots in other places, and several of Southwest’s early Leaders weren’t Texan by birth—case in point, Herb Kelleher, a Jersey boy who moved to San Antonio before founding Southwest with Rollin King.  As Herb is fond of saying, “I wasn’t born in Texas, but I got here as quickly as I could.”

This state attracts the kind of person who thinks big.  You know how management consultants tell you to think outside the box?  Texas is outside the box.  Or as we Texans like to say, “It’s Like A Whole Other Country.”  And if you’re going to create the nation’s most successful airline, there’s no better place to start than right here in the Lone Star State.

The very size of the state inspired the airline’s first business model.  In the early days, Southwest made Texas one big city, linking major and emerging metros with flights of rarely more than an hour.  Many Texans, including me, built our companies around Southwest’s low fares and frequent flights.  When Southwest expanded beyond Texas, they took our businesses along for the ride, eventually connecting us to destinations coast-to-coast.  Along the way, this feisty Texas phenomenon became living proof of the American Dream and a bona fide Symbol of Freedom.

I’m lucky to have shared in that symbolism.  In 1987, my ad agency pitched the idea of painting a Southwest Boeing 737 like Sea World’s famous Shamu the Killer Whale. Today, GSD&M is still creating advertising that rings, um, dings, true.  Who can forget “DING!  You are now free to move about the country”?  Who hasn’t chuckled at those uproarious “Must Be Football Season” commercials or cheered those “Good Cop, Bag Cop” Southwest Employees who police other airlines that charge Customers for checked baggage?

I’m hoping to earn my 30-year pin from Southwest, something usually reserved for longtime Southwest veterans.  I’ve waged the airline wars with Herb Kelleher, cheered the decision to name Colleen “Queen of Hearts” Barrett the first woman President of a major domestic airline, and saluted when Herb ultimately turned over the reins to his battle-hardened successor, Gary Kelly.  Through it all, I have marveled at the unique character of Southwest Employees, the true Spirit of Southwest. 

Back in 1990, I penned an anthem for Southwest, an homage to a company that has literally changed my life.  The occasion was the launch of Lone Star One, a Boeing 737 painted like the flag of the Great State of Texas.  The lyrics still echo in my memory:

I grew up in Texas, 
With blacktop roads and horny toads and starry, starry nights. 
I’ve made some friends in Texas,
Where promises are promises and a handshake makes it right.
Through good times and hard times,
Together through it all, we stand tall –
And the Lone Star is flying high,
Proud and undefeated, right where it belongs,
Shining in the Texas sky,
The Lone Star is flying high!

Happy 40th Anniversary, Southwest Airlines, you are a true Texas phenomenon.  You’ve given this Texan some of the proudest moments of his career and America the Freedom to Fly.