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Back Forty with Sam Blair, March, 2010
Short Month Long On History
by Sam Blair
February always brings us Groundhog Day, Valentine's Day and Presidents' Day. This year it also brought us a surprising snowstorm. But for truly meaningful moments in the Cowboys' history, let's recall two February days in the early 1960s.
On Feb. 8, 1963, we learned that Dallas suddenly had only one pro football team. AFL founder and Texans owner Lamar Hunt said he was moving his league champion team to Kansas City.
On Feb. 5, 1964, we learned that Tom Landry would be coaching the Cowboys through at least 1974. Owner Clint Murchison Jr. said he had signed Landry to a new 10-year contract to take effect when his original five-year deal expired at the end of '64.
Hunt said he had made five secret trips to Kansas City during the past two months at the invitation of Mayor H. Roe Bartle, who wanted another tenant in his city's Municipal Stadium. A baseball team, the Athletics, was the only tenant and there was an uneasy relationship between the city fathers and owner Charles O. Finley, who frequently grumbled about moving his club to a town offering more attractive rental terms. To lure the Texans north, the city council voted to let them use Municipal Stadium rent-free for two years and expand the 34,000-seat structure to a capacity of 45,500 if Hunt signed a seven-year lease.
Kansas City eventually lost the A's to Oakland in '68 but by then Hunt's squad, renamed the Chiefs, was thriving there with a successful team and he told me '63 was the right time to leave Dallas.
"There was no conceivable way for both the Texans and the Cowboys to continue to operate in Dallas and be successful," he said. "The Cowboys had a certain built-in advantage in that if they ever were successful on the field they would do better than we would because they were playing in the NFL. Also, I had certain tax considerations. There's a question as to how long you can lose money in a business and it still make economic sense. We had just won the championship and I felt if we were going to move that was the time. I didn't think we would do a lot better if we stayed another year, and we might not do nearly as well on the field.
"After receiving the feeler from Kansas City, Jack Steadman (Texans general manager) and I initiated a meeting with Clint and Tex Schramm (Cowboys GM). The theme was, 'Look, we've both lost money for three years. Let's one of us leave town.'
"We came to the conclusion that the Cowboys were not really interested in leaving. We looked elsewhere, but the Kansas City thing looked best, so we decided to take it."
The Cowboys struggled through the '63 season, playing to mostly empty seats at the Cotton Bowl, but in February '64 Murchison removed any doubt about his coach's long-term future by giving him a 10-year contract to take effect in '65.
Thus Murchison assured everyone of his confidence in Landry, whose record for his first four seasons was 13-38-3. He couldn't have been more emphatic about it. At that time, no other coach in major league sports ever had been signed for a period as long as 11 years. And he offered Landry more than security. He sweetened the deal with an option to buy five percent of the club at its '60 price. The new franchise was valued at $600,000 in '60, but that price would soar if the Cowboys clicked in the years ahead.
Schramm had received an option to buy 20 percent of the future NFL franchise when Murchison signed him as the organization's first employee in November '59 and, like Landry, could exercise the option whenever he wished. Murchison wanted them deeply involved in the success of the club, believing if they produced as he was sure they could they deserved a substantial share of the profits.
In the years ahead, the value of the Cowboys, like their won-lost record, improved greatly. They achieved their first break-even season in '65 with a 7-7 mark, then posted 20 straight winning seasons during which they made the playoffs 18 times, played in five Super Bowls and won two.
Landry and Schramm spent 29 seasons with the Cowboys and the club's record was 250-162-6, a winning percentage of .605. Like the owner who hired them, they didn't discourage easily and ultimately won big.
Sam Blair, a writer and columnist for The Dallas Morning News for 41 years, was the paper's original pro football writer. For questions or comments, please email sblair@dallascowboys.net
Short Month Long On History
by Sam Blair
February always brings us Groundhog Day, Valentine's Day and Presidents' Day. This year it also brought us a surprising snowstorm. But for truly meaningful moments in the Cowboys' history, let's recall two February days in the early 1960s.
On Feb. 8, 1963, we learned that Dallas suddenly had only one pro football team. AFL founder and Texans owner Lamar Hunt said he was moving his league champion team to Kansas City.
On Feb. 5, 1964, we learned that Tom Landry would be coaching the Cowboys through at least 1974. Owner Clint Murchison Jr. said he had signed Landry to a new 10-year contract to take effect when his original five-year deal expired at the end of '64.
Hunt said he had made five secret trips to Kansas City during the past two months at the invitation of Mayor H. Roe Bartle, who wanted another tenant in his city's Municipal Stadium. A baseball team, the Athletics, was the only tenant and there was an uneasy relationship between the city fathers and owner Charles O. Finley, who frequently grumbled about moving his club to a town offering more attractive rental terms. To lure the Texans north, the city council voted to let them use Municipal Stadium rent-free for two years and expand the 34,000-seat structure to a capacity of 45,500 if Hunt signed a seven-year lease.
Kansas City eventually lost the A's to Oakland in '68 but by then Hunt's squad, renamed the Chiefs, was thriving there with a successful team and he told me '63 was the right time to leave Dallas.
"There was no conceivable way for both the Texans and the Cowboys to continue to operate in Dallas and be successful," he said. "The Cowboys had a certain built-in advantage in that if they ever were successful on the field they would do better than we would because they were playing in the NFL. Also, I had certain tax considerations. There's a question as to how long you can lose money in a business and it still make economic sense. We had just won the championship and I felt if we were going to move that was the time. I didn't think we would do a lot better if we stayed another year, and we might not do nearly as well on the field.
"After receiving the feeler from Kansas City, Jack Steadman (Texans general manager) and I initiated a meeting with Clint and Tex Schramm (Cowboys GM). The theme was, 'Look, we've both lost money for three years. Let's one of us leave town.'
"We came to the conclusion that the Cowboys were not really interested in leaving. We looked elsewhere, but the Kansas City thing looked best, so we decided to take it."
The Cowboys struggled through the '63 season, playing to mostly empty seats at the Cotton Bowl, but in February '64 Murchison removed any doubt about his coach's long-term future by giving him a 10-year contract to take effect in '65.
Thus Murchison assured everyone of his confidence in Landry, whose record for his first four seasons was 13-38-3. He couldn't have been more emphatic about it. At that time, no other coach in major league sports ever had been signed for a period as long as 11 years. And he offered Landry more than security. He sweetened the deal with an option to buy five percent of the club at its '60 price. The new franchise was valued at $600,000 in '60, but that price would soar if the Cowboys clicked in the years ahead.
Schramm had received an option to buy 20 percent of the future NFL franchise when Murchison signed him as the organization's first employee in November '59 and, like Landry, could exercise the option whenever he wished. Murchison wanted them deeply involved in the success of the club, believing if they produced as he was sure they could they deserved a substantial share of the profits.
In the years ahead, the value of the Cowboys, like their won-lost record, improved greatly. They achieved their first break-even season in '65 with a 7-7 mark, then posted 20 straight winning seasons during which they made the playoffs 18 times, played in five Super Bowls and won two.
Landry and Schramm spent 29 seasons with the Cowboys and the club's record was 250-162-6, a winning percentage of .605. Like the owner who hired them, they didn't discourage easily and ultimately won big.
Sam Blair, a writer and columnist for The Dallas Morning News for 41 years, was the paper's original pro football writer. For questions or comments, please email sblair@dallascowboys.net
