Team History: Cowboys have five titles, but “America’s Team” has struggled recently
Team History: Cowboys have five titles, but “America’s Team” has struggled recently
The early days of the National Football League were marked by instability. Teams would come and go, unable to find the right players to compete or keep fans in the stands. The league (called the American Pro Football Association at its inception in 1920) started with 11 teams in its first season, but only four finished.
Through the 1940s, nine teams that are in today’s modern NFL got their start. The Colts, 49ers, and Browns were added for the 1950 season after the All-American Football Conference folded. When expansion was proposed, Dallas was one of the cities the league was pursuing.
One person against a team in Dallas was Washington owner George Preston Marshall. He felt the Redskins best represented the American south, and the team was the only one below the Mason-Dixon Line, save for the Rams after their move to Los Angeles.
In order to combat Marshall, the owners of the would-be expansion team bought the rights to Washington’s fight song, “Hail to the Redskins,” and threatened to refuse Marshall the ability to play his own team’s song at games. Marshall relented and Dallas was granted a franchise on January 28, 1960.
Owners Clint Murchison Jr., John Murchison (sons of a Texas oil magnate) and Bedford Wynne first called the team the Steers and then the Rangers. In March, the name was changed to Cowboys to avoid confusion with an American Association baseball team called the Rangers.
The owners hired Tex Schramm as general manager. Schramm was an executive with the Rams and hired future commissioner Pete Rozelle as Los Angeles’ public relations director. Another of Schramm’s former hires with the Rams, Gil Brandt, was named head scout and Player Personnel Director. Tom Landry, a second lieutenant in the U. S. Army Air Force, as well as a former Giants player and defensive coordinator, was hired as the team’s first head coach.
Dallas began to play at the same time as the AFL, which included Lamar Hunt’s Dallas Texans. The teams shared the Cotton Bowl for three seasons before the Texans moved to Kansas City. On the field, the Cowboys were made up of a mix of unproven and aging players and floundered to an 0-11-1 record in their first season.
The Cowboys won the opening game in 1961 when Don Meredith led the team to 10 late points in relief of Eddie LeBaron. The 27-24 victory was the first in franchise history. While Dallas was not a contender during its first six years, the team began to accumulate some talented players, including fullback Don Perkins, receiver Frank Clarke, cornerback Cornell Green, linebacker Chuck Howley, and defensive tackle Bob Lilly.
Dallas finally broke through and reached the postseason in 1966. Meredith and former Olympic sprinter “Bullet” Bob Hayes led the league’s best offense to a 10-3-1 record and a showdown with the Packers in the NFL Championship Game. Bart Starr threw for 304 yards and four touchdowns in a 34-27 victory that propelled Green Bay into the first championship game between the AFL and NFL.
The following year, the Cowboys won their first playoff game, a 52-14 blowout of the Browns in the Division round before again falling to the Packers in a title game that would forever be known as the “Ice Bowl.” The temperature was -14 degrees with a wind chill of -48, but Starr fought through the cold and the Cowboys on a one-yard sneak in the closing seconds. Dallas didn’t get past the Division game the next two years, but a new decade would bring a new result.
In 1970, the first year after the AFL-NFL merger, Dallas went 10-4 and won the newly created NFC East. Defense dominated in a 5-0 Division round win over the Lions, then Duane Thomas ran for 143 yards and a touchdown in a 17-10 win in San Francisco in the NFC Championship Game.
The Cowboys and Colts played a sloppy game in Super Bowl V that featured 11 combined turnovers. Baltimore forced Craig Morton into three interceptions, and despite seven turnovers, the Colts won, 16-13, on rookie kicker Jim O’Brien’s 32-yard field goal with nine seconds left. Howley, who had two interceptions, was named MVP. He was the first non-quarterback to receive the honor, and the game is the only Super Bowl where the MVP was from the losing team.
After an 11-3 record the following year, Dallas won its first championship by a 24-3 margin over the Dolphins in Super Bowl VI. Roger Staubach threw two touchdown passes and was named MVP. The Cowboys lost in the NFC Championship Game the next two years. A potential rematch with the Dolphins was stopped with a loss to the Redskins in 1972, and Miami went on to have a perfect season. Dallas fell 27-10 to the Minnesota Vikings in ’73.
Dallas finished 8-6 in 1974 but missed the playoffs after eight straight trips. After that, the Cowboys went to the postseason in nine consecutive seasons, winning five division titles and reaching the Super Bowl three more times.
The Cowboys were a Wild Card team in 1975 but won two road games in the playoffs. They edged the Vikings on a late touchdown from Roger Staubach to Drew Pearson and then routed the Rams before losing to the Steelers, 21-17, in Super Bowl X. Lynn Swann had 161 yards receiving and a touchdown to earn MVP honors. Dallas was the first Wild Card team to reach the Super Bowl.
After a loss in the Division game in 1976, the Cowboys went 12-2 and knocked off the Bears and Vikings in the playoffs the following year. Dallas won 27-10 over the Broncos in Super Bowl XII. Two members of the “Doomsday Defense,” Harvey Martin (two sacks) and Randy White (one sack), shared the MVP award, the only time that has happened in the game’s history.
Since the Cowboys had enjoyed so much success throughout the 1970s, they received plenty of exposure on television, leading to the club being referred to as “America’s Team.” Dallas finished 12-4 in 1978 before defeating the Falcons and then shutting out the Rams in the NFC title game. Staubach threw three touchdowns, including two in the fourth quarter, but game MVP Terry Bradshaw led the Steelers to a 35-31 victory in Super Bowl XIII.
The Cowboys went to the NFC Championship Game three times in the next five years but were not able to get back to the Super Bowl. The most heartbreaking loss came in 1981, when Joe Montana led the 49ers on a 14-play drive that culminated with “The Catch,” a leaping grab by Dwight Clark in the back of the end zone with 51 seconds left.
From 1984-90, Dallas only made the playoffs once. Clint Murchison Jr., now suffering from nerve disease, sold the team to an investment group led by Dallas-area businessman Harvey “Bum” Bright in 1984. However, the team was not good on the field and was starting to lose money. Bright sold the team for $140 million in 1989.
The new owner was Jerry Jones. He was a player in college, having been a co-captain on the Arkansas 1964 National Championship team. He tried to buy the AFL’s Chargers away from hotel magnate Barron Hilton, but the deal fell through. After that, he started an oil exploration company in Oklahoma.
Shortly after the purchase, Jones fired Landry, who had been the only coach in the franchise’s 29-year history. The new coach was Jimmy Johnson, a former teammate of Jones at Arkansas and the head coach of the University of Miami’s 1987 National Championship.
The Cowboys went 1-15 in Johnson’s first season, which was also the first for 1989 first overall draft pick, quarterback Troy Aikman. However, the team began to stockpile talent, especially on offense. Leading the resurgence were running back Emmitt Smith, fullback Daryl “Moose” Johnston, receiver Michael Irvin, tight end Jay Novacek and one of the best offensive lines in the NFL.
Dallas returned to the playoffs in 1991 and lost in the Division round. However, the team would go to the Super Bowl three of the next four years, a feat only matched by the 2001-04 Patriots. The Cowboys went 13-3 in 1992 before beating the Eagles and 49ers in the playoffs. In Super Bowl XXVII, they took on the Bills, who were making their third straight trip to the “Big Game.”
Aikman, Smith, and Irvin (collectively called “The Triplets”) starred in the 52-17 win, but the most memorable play was not so positive. Defensive tackle Leon Lett scooped up a fumble and had a clear run to the end zone, but he slowed down at the end and Steve Tasker caught up and knocked the ball out of the end zone for a touchback. Had Lett scored, the Cowboys would have had the most points in Super Bowl history.
The teams met again the next year, and while this game was closer, Smith ran for 132 yards and two touchdowns and the Cowboys prevailed 30-13. After the season, friction between owner and coach caused Johnson to resign, and Jones replaced him with former Oklahoma coach Barry Switzer.
A chance at a three-peat in 1994 was snuffed out by Steve Young and the 49ers, but Dallas won again in ’95. They had an NFC-best 12-4 record and advanced to Super Bowl XXX, where they finally beat the Steelers, 27-17, for their fifth championship. Switzer and Johnson were now the only two coaches to win championships at both the college and professional levels.
Injuries and off-the-field issues led to mediocre play on the field, with a loss to the second-year Panthers in the 1996 Division round and a 6-10 record the following year. Switzer resigned and was replaced by offensive coordinator Chan Gailey.
Since 1997, the Cowboys have won six division titles and made the playoffs nine times in 22 years. Gailey and Bill Parcells could not get the team past the Wild Card round.
Defensive guru Wade Phillips led Dallas to a 13-3 record in 2007, but the season ended with a loss to the eventual champion Giants in the Division game. After a loss to the Vikings in the same round two years later and a 1-7 start in 2010, Phillips was fired in favor of Aikman’s former backup quarterback, Jason Garrett.
The Cowboys finished with an 8-8 record in Garrett’s first three full seasons before winning the NFC East at 12-4 in 2014. Tony Romo led Dallas to a comeback victory over the Lions in the Wild Card game, only the second postseason win since 1996, but the season ended with a loss to the Packers the following week.
Dallas went 13-3 in 2016 but lost to Green Bay again, despite an 18-point comeback attempt in the fourth quarter. Last season, the Cowboys won the East again, but after slipping past Seattle, they fell to the Rams in the Division round.
If the Cowboys want to continue their recent success, they need strong seasons from quarterback Dak Prescott, running back Ezekiel Elliott and two fairly new receivers. Amari Cooper was acquired in a trade last season with the Raiders and Randall Cobb signed as a free agent. Tight end Jason Witten is back after a year in the broadcast booth.
On defense, Dallas boasts a pair of Pro Bowl defensive ends in DeMarcus Lawrence and newcomer Robert Quinn. The starting linebackers (Sean Lee, Jaylon Smith, and Leighton Vander Esch) are stellar and the secondary is led by Pro Bowler Chidobe Awuzie.
-By: Kevin Rakas