The photo, from the summer of 1983, was taken at a Best Western in Stillwater.

A 16-year-old Troy Aikman, having just been named camper of the week, stands tall in the middle of the photo. To Aikman’s left is then-Oklahoma State coach Jimmy Johnson, who hosted the youth camp at OSU. And to Aikman’s right? Another camper of the week. A 10-year-old named Jason Paul.

Paul’s eyes are drifting away from the camera, but in his defense, the young boy would have no idea how widely the photo would spread, and the relevance it would have some 40 years later. Like last weekend, when the photo popped up during Johnson’s induction ceremony, attended by Aikman, into the Dallas Cowboys Ring of Honor.

Aikman and Johnson won two Super Bowls together and remain forever tied, but what about Paul, the anonymous third face in the photo?

Today he’s a social studies teacher and quarterbacks coach at Moore High School. He’s a football coach who’s the son of a football coach, and like Johnson and Aikman, Jason Paul is still involved in the game he loves.

“I am so blessed and thankful for what I get to do every day,” Paul, 51, told The Oklahoman.

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Jason’s dad, Eddie, coached all over Oklahoma for more than four decades. At the time of the photo, the Paul family lived in Woodward, where Eddie coached. In the summer of 1983, Eddie was invited to coach in Johnson’s football camp at OSU, and Jason tagged along as a camper.

As Jason remembers, it was a week-long camp. The campers, from a wide age range, were bussed back and forth from the Best Western to Lewis Field.

“I was gung-ho for football, and when (Dad) told me he was gonna take me to that camp, I was fired up,” Jason Paul said. “I did not know who Troy Aikman was. To be honest, I didn’t know who Jimmy Johnson was. I was a little kid just happy I got to go play football.”

To this day, that camp is the only time Jason Paul has ever met Johnson or Aikman.

Jason played high school football at Lindsay, but that was the extent of his playing career. Meanwhile, Johnson twice courted (and twice failed) Aikman to come play for him in college — first at OSU, and then at Miami.

Aikman, the pride of Henryetta, signed with OU instead of OSU. And when he transferred, it was to UCLA, not Miami. But the stars aligned in 1989 when Jerry Jones hired Johnson to coach the Cowboys, which drafted Aikman with the No. 1 pick.

Like in the picture from a decade earlier, Johnson and Aikman were side-by-side once again.

Eddie Paul posted the picture to Facebook a few years back, and it gets recirculated whenever Johnson and Aikman are in the news together — like during the recent Ring of Honor ceremony.

“I get famous about once a year,” Jason Paul said. “Because it pops up randomly from time to time, and I’ll get texts and calls from my coaching buddies around Oklahoma, so it’s pretty fun.”

Aikman has also had fun with it.

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“I feel a thank you is in order for the camper next to me for loaning me a pair of his shorts,” Aikman posted on Instagram several years ago.

Aikman’s shorts were classic 80s, short enough to have fit Paul, who barely came up to Aikman’s right bicep.

“It’s a neat picture,” said Paul, who’s been a high school coach since he was barely out of high school.

Jason Paul coached at Stillwater, under Bill Defee, when Paul was a student at OSU. A couple of guys with the last name Holliday quarterbacked the Pioneers in those days. Paul has coached at Hominy and Norman North, and in his hometown of Woodward with his best friend, the late Scott Myers.

Paul isn’t a pro football hall of famer or a Dallas Cowboys legend, but for one week he shared camper of the week honors with a legendary quarterback under an iconic coach.

It’s only fitting that Paul is coaching quarterbacks these days.

“I wouldn’t trade my life for those guys for any amount of money,” he said.

Joe Mussatto is a sports columnist for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Joe? Email him at jmussatto@oklahoman.com. Support Joe's work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com.

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This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Who is the kid with Troy Aikman and Jimmy Johnson? Meet Jason Paul