Genesis

[Hostile]

In the beginning God's football team was placed on this earth. It happened 52 years ago today. The events leading up to that birth are as interesting as the team itself; as storied as the legends who have worn our colors.

It almost didn't happen. Clint Murchison had tried since the original Dallas Texans of 1952 to own a professional football team in Dallas. He tried to buy the Chicago Cardinals. Imagine if he had been successful and we acquired that sorry legacy.

Even more galling to some, he almost acquired the Washington Redskins. That deal fell apart with Redskins owner George Preston Marshall demanding 10 years of autonomy as he ran the team. Can you imagine the Grand Wizard in charge of our team? Worse yet, they might have still been the Redskins with those awful colors.

In 1959, Murchison hired Tex Schramm to be his General Manager. Murchison's partner was a prominent Texas attorney named Bedford Wynn, a proud Texas Longhorn alum. He originally chose the name Steers for the team. Tex Schramm immediately saw the error of that idea. Can't you just picture rival fans imitating Sergeant Foley?

Tex changed the name to Rangers. Right before the 1960 college draft in late 1959 Tex signed Don Meredith and Don Perkins to "futures" contracts. Their contracts were with the Dallas Rangers. The problem was the team didn't even exist yet. Not as the Cowboys and not as the Rangers. Meredith was drafted by the Bears in the 3rd. Perkins drafted by the Colts in the 9th. So in the 1961 Draft Dallas owed those picks to those teams.

On December 28, 1959 Tex Schramm hired New York Giants Defensive Coordinator Tom Landry to be the Head Coach. They still didn't officially have a team.

So Clint Murchison got underhanded to acquire the necessary votes. First he had a cohort bribe an Arizona Senator on the Kennedy Administration anti-monopoly commission to look into whether The Washington Redskins held a monopoly in the south by virtue of their own television network.

As we all know (or at least we all should) he then purchased the Redskins fight song, "Hail to the Redskins," from Marshall's estranged wifeCorinne Griffith, and Barnee Breeskin. She wrote the words, he wrote the music. Murchison held the song hostage to secure Marshall's yes vote, and 52 years ago today they got the votes needed and awarded Dallas a team that was called the Cowboys.

The Draft had come and gone, they were to begin play in 1961 along with the Minnesota Vikings, but a fellow Dallas oil heir, Lamar Hunt, launched the AFL and put his team in Dallas, and called them the Texans, just like the original in 1952.

Murchison argued that he could not spot the AFL a year and compete, so the Cowboys became the only team in NFL history to get their launch without the benefit of a Draft. On March 13, 1960 the other 12 NFL teams froze 25 players and opened the rest up for Dallas to take. No more than 3 from any team. That is how a rag tag group got their start in the NFL in 1960.

Walt Garrison is noted for joking that the 1960 Cowboys season film is also the 1960 Bloopers film, they just change the labels. Unlucky number 13.

448 wins, 33 post season wins, 5 Super Bowls, and 21 Division Championships all have their Genesis on this date 52 years ago.

[JoeCorrado]

Originally Posted by Hostile

448 wins, 33 post season wins, 5 Super Bowls, and 21 Division Championships all have their Genesis on this date 52 years ago.

And we're not done yet. Not by a long shot!

[THUMPER]

Awesome stuff Hos! It never gets old hearing about our early years and how far behind the 8-ball we were to start off.

[SkinsandTerps]

Technically- 8 Super Bowl appearances, winning 5 of those visits. Cool write up though.

[Avenger]

Nice.

[JakeCamp12]

Funny you posted this today...I just bought a Cliff Harris and Jethro Pugh autographed cards on Ebay the other day. My Cowboys senses must have picked up on this date.

[Hostile]

Also on this date, 16 years ago, we added a 5th gold football to the trophy case as we whipped the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XXX right here in good old Arizona. A kid I knew snuck into the game. He filled a trumpet case with booze and showed up at one of the ticket gates. He said he was with the Arizona Wildcats marching band but had missed the bus due to his sister being in a car accident. He said they had his uniform in the locker room and asked how to find his way. They let him in. He spent the entire game, going from empty seat to empty seat until he was in row 1. Only cost him his gas money from Tucson.

[SkinsandTerps]

Hos, the Lombardi Trophy is made of sterling silver. Not gold.

[Hostile]

Originally Posted by SkinsandTerps

Hos, the Lombardi Trophy is made of sterling silver. Not gold.

I know, but it looks gold to me. Always has.

[THUMPER]

I love alternate history almost as much as I love real history. Anyway, I did a "what if" scenario where we were awarded our franchise in September of 1959 instead of January of 1960 and were able to participate in the NFL draft with the first pick in each round (like EVERY other expansion team!) as well as the "expansion draft". We were also able to sign FAs before the AFL got a hold of them.

Here is the team we "could have had":

QB: Jack Kemp, Don Meredith
HB: Abner Haynes, Paul Lowe, L.G. Dupre
FB: Dave Smith, Wray Carlton (Don Perkins on IR)
WR: Bill Groman, Art Powell, Charlie Hennigan, Gail Cogdill
TE: Lionel Taylor, Jim Doran, Frank Clarke
C: Jim Otto
OG: Mike Connelly, Grady Alderman, Jim Boeke
OT: Al Jamison, Ron Mix, Ernie Wright, Bob Fry

K/P RET: Willie Wood (also played S)
K: Gene Mingo
P: Dave Sherer

CB: Bobby Boyd, Don Bishop, Gino Cappelletti (also K & WR)
S: Goose Gonsoulin, Bobby Franklin, Larry Wilson
MLB: Archie Matsos, Sherrill Hedrick, Jerry Tubbs
OLB: Maxie Baughan, Larry Grantham, Tom Addison, (Chuck Howley IR)
DE: Nate Borden, John Gonzaga, Tom Day
DT: Roger Brown, Bud McFaddin, Jim Hunt

That's 43 players plus 2 on IR. 4 of those players are in the HoF. There's no guarantee we could have signed all of those players as some opted for the AFL instead (HoFer Ron Mix for instance didn't want to leave SoCal) and turned down playing for the defending Champions, the Colts to play for the then Los Angeles Chargers. Still, maybe Dallas wouldn't have been so bad for him.

I think we could have won at least 5 games with that team, possibly as many as 7 (in a 12-game season that's not bad). We also would not have had to trade away our valuable picks in future years and could have built our team a lot quicker and been a contender in a couple of years.

Jack Kemp was a FA and wouldn't have cost us anything to sign. We traded away our 1st round pick in 1961 for Eddie LeBaron. I loved him as a player but he wasn't worth that pick and Kemp was at least as good as Eddie. We had to trade our 1st in 1962 to move back into the 1st round in 1961 and take Bob Lilly as our first ever draft pick.

We also could have simply drafted Meredith & Perkins instead of trading future picks for their rights.

Ah what might have been!

[Hostile]

Some stuff that was going on in 1960.

• John F. Kennedy was elected President.
• Nikita Krushchev pounds his shoe on the table at the UN General Assembly.
• The US launches a trade embargo against Cuba.
• Ben Hur was the Movie of the Year at the Academy Awards.
• The Hollywood walk of fame got its first star. Anyone want to guess who it was?
• The Winter Olympics was held in Squaw Valley, California.
• The Summer Olympics was held in Rome, Italy. Cassius Clay, a.k.a. Muhammed Ali, wins the the heavyweight boxing gold medal.
• Elvis Presley's military duty in Germany ended.
• A Soviet Missile brings down a U2 spy plane and Gary Powers.
• "The Pill" gets approved as a means of birth control.
• The strongest earthquake in History rocks Chile. 9.5 on the Richter Scale.
• The first 50 star flag is introduced.
• A British rock group changed their name to The Beatles.

It all seems trivial in comparison to the birth of the Cowboys.

[JBond]

Thank you Hos. I am eagerly awaiting the day your book is a best seller. Can't wait much longer. Your participation on the many sites over the years could be easily compiled into the best written history of the Dallas Cowboys ever.

[CATCH17]

Originally Posted by JoeCorrado

And we're not done yet. Not by a long shot!

I love the Cowboys but its tough being a fan of this team right now. I just don't see the light at the end of the tunnels.

[Cowboys&LakersFan]

Originally Posted by CATCH17

I love the Cowboys but its tough being a fan of this team right now. I just don't see the light at the end of the tunnels.

It's not tough at all you either support them through thick and thin or you don't. Trust me I know. I've never experienced a Cowboys Super Bowl. I could've very easily stopped caring, but I didn't and I won't ever stop caring about this team. I do see light at the end of the tunnel. I do see a lot of solid young players in this team, I do see one of the best quarterbacks in the game, I do see two future HOF's. With the right offseason we can contend next season. Just gotta have a little faith.

[Dodger]

Love it.