History of The Dallas Cowboys - 1960s

1960s

The Dallas Cowboys were the NFL's first modern-era expansion team. The NFL was late in awarding a franchise to Dallas; after Lamar Hunt was rebuffed in his efforts to acquire an NFL franchise for Dallas, he became part of a group of owners that formed the American Football League with Hunt's AFL franchise in Dallas known as the Texans (later to become the Kansas City Chiefs). In an effort not to cede the South to the AFL, the NFL awarded Dallas a franchise, but not until after the 1960 college draft had been held. As a result, the NFL's first ever expansion team played its inaugural season without the benefit of a college draft.

Originally, the formation of an NFL expansion team in Texas was met with strong opposition by Washington Redskins owner, George Preston Marshall. This was no surprise, because despite being located in the nation's capital, Marshall's Redskins had enjoyed a monopoly as the only NFL team to represent the American South for several decades. This came as little surprise to would-be team owners, Clint Murchison, Jr. and Bedford Wynne, so to ensure the birth of their expansion team, the men bought the rights to the Redskins fight song, "Hail to the Redskins" and threatened to refuse to allow Marshall to play the song at games. Needing the song, which had become a staple for his "professional football team of Dixie", Marshall changed his mind, and the city of Dallas, Texas, was granted an NFL franchise on January 28, 1960. This early confrontation between the two franchises helped to trigger what would become one of the more heated National Football League rivalries, which continues to this day.

The team was first known as the Dallas Steers, then the Dallas Rangers. On March 19, 1960, the organization announced that it would be called the Cowboys to avoid confusion with the American Association Dallas Rangers baseball team. The founding investors of the Dallas Cowboys were Clint Murchison, Jr. (45%), John D. Murchison (45%), along with minority shareholders, Toddie Lee and Bedford Wynne (Director and Secretary) (5%) and William R. Hawn (5%). The new owners subsequently hired Tex Schramm as general manager, Gil Brandt as player personnel director, and Tom Landry as head coach. The Cowboys began play in 1960, and played their home games a few miles east of Downtown Dallas at the Cotton Bowl. The 1960 Cowboys finished their inaugural campaign 0-11-1 with a roster largely made up of sub-par players (many well past their prime), stocked via an expansion draft. The following year, the Cowboys made their first college draft selection, taking TCU Horned Frogs defensive tackle Bob Lilly with the 13th pick in the draft (although the Cowboys finished with the league's worst record in 1960, the first overall selection in the 1961 draft was given to the expansion Minnesota Vikings). The 1961 season also saw the Cowboys' first victory, a 27-24 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers on September 17. In 1962, Dallas improved slightly, going 5-8-1, but 1963 saw them fall back to 4-10, followed by another 5-8-1 campaign in 1964. During this period, the Cowboys had the misfortune of being associated with the city where President Kennedy was assassinated. The Cowboys success later in the decade, largely contributed to restoring civic pride in Dallas after the assassination.

During the early and mid 1960s, the Cowboys gradually built a contender. Quarterback Don Meredith was acquired in 1960, running back Don Perkins, linebacker Chuck Howley and Lilly were acquired in 1961, linebacker Lee Roy Jordan in 1963, cornerback Mel Renfro in 1964, and wide receiver Bob Hayes and running back Dan Reeves in 1965, where the Cowboys went 7-7, achieving a .500 record for the first time. In 1966, the Cowboys posted their first winning season, finishing atop the Eastern Conference with a 10-3-1 record. Dallas sent eight players to the Pro Bowl, including Hayes, Howley, Meredith, Perkins, and future Pro Football Hall of Fame members Lilly and Renfro. In their first-ever postseason appearance, the 1966 NFL Championship Game the Green Bay Packers defeated Dallas in a 34–27 thriller by stopping the Cowboys on a goal line stand with 28 seconds remaining. Despite this disappointment, 1966 marked the start of an NFL-record-setting eight consecutive postseason appearances for the Cowboys. (Dallas later broke its own record with nine consecutive trips to the playoffs between 1975–1983).

In 1967, the Cowboys finished with a 9–5 record and had their first playoff victory, a 52–14 rout of the Cleveland Browns. They went on to face the Packers in the 1967 NFL Championship game, with the winner advancing to Super Bowl II. The game, which happened on December 31, 1967 at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, turned out to be the coldest NFL game in history (about -13° F with a -40° wind chill). The Cowboys lost 21–17 on a one-yard quarterback sneak by Packers quarterback Bart Starr with 16 seconds remaining. The game would later become known as the "Ice Bowl."

Dallas remained one of the NFL's top teams for the remainder of the 1960s. The Cowboys easily won their division in 1968 (with a 12–2 record) and in 1969 (with an 11–2–1 mark). Each season, however, ended with a disappointing, decisive loss to the Cleveland Browns. Repeated failures to achieve their ultimate goal earned the Cowboys the nickname "Next Year's Champions" and a reputation for not being able to "win the big one." Peter Gent, a wide receiver with Dallas from 1964 to 1968, later wrote a book called North Dallas Forty based on his observations and experiences with the team. The book was later made into a movie of the same name in 1979. The book and movie depicted many of the team's players as carrousing, drug-abusing partiers callously used by the team and then tossed aside when they became too injured to continue playing productively.

In 1969, ground was broken on a new stadium for the Cowboys to replace the Cotton Bowl. Texas Stadium in Irving, a Dallas suburb, would be completed during the 1971 season.

At the end of the decade, the historians Robert A. Calvert, Donald E. Chipman, and Randolph Campbell wrote The Dallas Cowboys and the NFL, an inside study of the organization and financing of the team. A reviewer describes the Cowboys as a vital cog of "an industry that occupies an important segment of American time and attention . . . a sophisticated industry that has worked out complex statistics to select the best thrower of a forward pass. . . . has reformed television habits . . . "