The Dallas Cowboys

The NFL's Dallas Cowboys have been characterized as America's team, thanks to their winning ways and their once squeaky clean image. Their immense popularity comes largely from their success, for the team has won five Super Bowls. The stability of the organization has also been unique. The team has had only three owners and four head coaches, Tom Landry, Jimmy Johnson, Barry Switzer, and Chan Gailey. The first three men led the Cowboys to Super Bowl wins. Landry established himself as one of the greatest coaches in the history of the National Football League. Star players also established the Cowboy's legacy. A brief list of some of the Cowboys reads like a Who's Who of the football world; Bob Lilly, Mel Renfro, Roger Staubach, Randy White, Tony Dorsett, Michael Irvin, Emmitt Smith, and Troy Aikman are just a few of the names associated with the success of the Dallas Cowboys. The Cowboys are also well known for the prominence of their cheerleading squad, named simply the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders. Emerging in the mid-1970s as beguiling half-time entertainment, the cheerleading squad has thousands of fans of its own, as evidenced by the sales of calendars and the turnout at promotional events.

Dallas was awarded a National Football League expansion franchise in 1960. The Cowboys lost their inaugural game 35-28 to Pittsburgh on September 24, 1960. The Cowboys got their first win in 1961 with a 27-24 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers in the Cotton Bowl in Dallas. In 1966, the Cowboys won their first Eastern Conference championship but lost the NFL Championship to the Green Bay Packers 34-27. Throughout the 1960s the Cowboys were prime competitors for the NFL championship. In 1967, the Cowboys fell to Green Bay 21-17 in the NFL Championship. The game, generally regarded as one of the greatest games in the history of professional football, has become known as the Ice Bowl because it was played in Green Bay in temperatures dropping as low as 13 degrees below zero. In 1969, Cowboy quarterback Don Meredith, who went on to further fame announcing Monday Night Football with Howard Cosell and Frank Gifford, retired. As an announcer Meredith was best known for singing the phrase, "Turn out the lights. The party's over," once the outcome of a game was no longer in doubt.

In 1970, the Cowboys once again won the Eastern Division championship, but lost in their first Super Bowl appearance to the Baltimore Colts, 16-13. In 1971, the Cowboys moved from the Cotton Bowl in Dallas to Texas Stadium in suburban Irving, a facility known for a large hole in the roof, left to preserve the atmosphere of an outdoor stadium, but providing fans with protection from the rain. That year the Cowboys marched through the playoffs and won their first NFL Championship by beating the Miami Dolphins 24-3 in Super Bowl VI in New Orleans. Dallas quarterback Roger Staubach passed for two touchdowns and was named the Most Valuable Player.

The Cowboys missed the playoffs for the first time in eight years when they stumbled to an 8-6 record in 1974. In 1975, the Cowboy's returned to the playoffs as a wild card team. In the opening round, they shocked Minnesota on a last second 50-yard touchdown completion from Roger Staubach to Drew Pearson. One of the most famous plays in NFL history, the pass became known as the Hail Mary. Despite contending for the championship for the next several years, the Cowboys would not win the title again until 1977, when Dallas defeated the Denver Broncos 27-10. Defensive linemen Harvey Martin and Randy White were named co-Most Valuable Players.

On March 31, 1980, legendary q2uarterback Roger Staubach retired, and on August 2, 1980, Bob Lilly became the first Cowboy to enter the Professional Football Hall of Fame. Behind new quarterback Danny White, the Cowboys made the playoffs as a wild card team and beat Los Angeles 34-13 and Atlanta 30-27 to advance to the NFC Championship, where they lost 20-7 to Philadelphia. In May of 1984 Clint Murchison sold the Cowboys to H.R. "Bum" Bright. The Cowboys then went on to post a 9-7 record and miss the playoffs for the first time in 10 years.

In 1986, the Cowboys streak of 20 consecutive winning seasons was broken when the club finished 7-9. Jerry Jones purchased the Cowboys from Bright in 1989 and shocked the city of Dallas, the state of Texas, and Cowboy fans everywhere when he unceremoniously replaced Tom Landry, the Cowboy's only coach for 29 seasons, with University of Miami head coach Jimmy Johnson. Landry was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame on August 4, 1990.

In 1991, for the first time since 1985, Dallas was back in the playoffs as a wild card. Dallas defeated the Chicago Bears 17-13 in the opening round of the playoffs but then lost 38-6 to the Detroit Lions. The Cowboys claimed the Eastern Division Championship in 1992. They then advanced to the NFC Championship, where they beat the San Francisco 49ers 30-20 and then defeated the Buffalo Bills 52-17 in Super Bowl XXVII in Pasadena. The Cowboys repeated as Super Bowl champions the following year, when they again defeated Buffalo by the score of 30-13.

Due to difficulties with owner Jerry Jones, Jimmy Johnson resigned as the Cowboys head coach, and Barry Switzer became the third head coach in team history on March 30, 1994. Tony Dorsett and Randy White were inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame on July 30, 1994. Later that year the Cowboys went on to capture the Eastern Division Championship. However, the Cowboys lost the NFC Championship game to San Francisco 38-28.

In 1995, the Cowboys were again Eastern Division Champions. Dallas beat Green Bay 38-27 to advance to Super Bowl XXX, where the Cowboys knocked off Pittsburgh 27-17. Mel Renfro was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1996; but the Cowboys did not continue to enjoy success under Switzer, and he was replaced by Chan Gailey after the 1997 season. In Gailey's first season as the Cowboys head coach, Dallas won the NFC Eastern Division, but lost in the first round of the playoffs to Arizona 20-7. Few teams in NFL history can claim the consistent record of success associated with the Dallas Cowboys. They remain one of the preeminent franchises in football history.

—Kerry Owens

Further Reading:

"Cowboys." http://www.dallascowboys.com. April 1999.

Donovan, Jim, Ken Sins, and Frank Coffey. The Dallas Cowboys Encyclopedia: The Ultimate Guide to America's Team. Revised edition. Secaucus, New Jersey, Carol Publishing Group, 1999.

Golenbock, Peter. Cowboys Have Always Been My Heroes: The Definitive Oral History of America's Team. New York, Warner Books, 1997.

Johnson, Jimmy, and Ed Hinton. Turning the Thing Around: Pulling America's Team Out of the Dumps. New York, Heperton Press, 1993.

Landry, Tom, and Greg Lewis. Tom Landry: An Autobiography. Grand Rapids, Michigan, Zondervan Publishing House, 1990.

St. John, Bob. Tex! The Man Who Built the Dallas Cowboys. Englewood Hills, New Jersey, Prentice Hall, 1988.

Stowers, Carlton. Dallas Cowboys: The First Twenty-Five Years. Dallas, Taylor Publishing, 1984.

Sugar, Bert Randolph. I Hate the Dallas Cowboys: And Who Elected Them America's Team Anyway? New York, St. Martin's Grif-fin, 1997.

Wolfe, Jane. The Murchisons: The Rise and Fall of a Texas Dynasty. New York, St. Martin's Press, 1989.