Authentic Thing
Dallas Cowboys
Is America’s Team Texas’ Team?
There are so many important dates in Texas history. We have battles (Alamo and San Jacinto), transitions, birthdates, tragedies, assassinations, victories and defeats.
Start with March 2, 1836, and the adoption of the Texas Constitution, now known as Texas Independence Day. Or maybe November 22, 1963, and the assassination of President John Kennedy in Dallas. Finally, consider July 20, 1969, when Neal Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon and Houston is the first word heard from the moon.
But what about September 24, 1960? Some may argue that Texas history changed on that date in Dallas’s Cotton Bowl.
It is when the expansion Dallas Cowboys lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers 35-28 in their first regular season game. It started the history of an NFL franchise unlike any other. A team that became known as America’s Team. Here are a handful of other significant milestones in Cowboys history.
The following year, 1961, was very important. The Cowboys first college draft pick, made after their winless first season, was Bob Lilly of TCU. The defensive lineman anchored the defense of many of the early teams. Later that year the Cowboys claimed their first regular season win, 27-24, against the Pittsburgh Steelers on September 17.
As any Texas can attest, what’s a football, high school, college or professional, without cheerleaders. It’s not surprising that the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders trace their roots all the way back to franchise’s formation. But the squad really took off in the early 1970s when it transitioned to uniforms and choreography that are still recognizable today. Their 1977 poster, the first by an NFL cheer leading squad, was a crucial moment in their development and growing popularity and remains one of the best-selling posters of all time. They soon became known as America’s Sweethearts and remain important to the Dallas Cowboys franchise to this day.
The franchise’s first NFL championship was in Super Bowl VI in 1972, a 24-3 victory over the Miami Dolphins.
The team has played in three different stadiums, beginning life in the historic Cotton Bowl, moving to newer, larger, more impressive stadiums twice. In 1971, the team moved to Texas Stadium in Irving (remember, it had a hole in the roof). Then in 2009 the move was to AT&T Stadium in Arlington, with its massive video board hanging over the field. It remains the team’s home and may be the only professional sports stadium in the US with a world-class art collection.
The Cowboys have played in several iconic games in NFL history.
The Ice Bowl was played December 31, 1967, and featured the Dallas Cowboys against the Green Bay Packers on a frigid afternoon. Packers quarterback Bart Starr followed lineman on a sneak into the end with seconds to play, leaving the Cowboys on the short end of a 21-17 score and out of the Super Bowl. The temperature was –13 degrees.
The Catch describes a last-minute play in the 1982 NFC Championship game between the Dallas Cowboys and the San Francisco 49ers. In the game’s final minute Niner quarterback Joe Montana scrambled and found tight end Dwight Clark in the end zone. His pass was high, requiring a herculean effort by Clark. The final score was 28-27, putting the 49ers into the Super Bowl, not the Cowboys.
Finally, The Fumble describes the mishandling of a snap by Dallas quarterback Tony Romo on a field goal try that might have advanced the Cowboys one game closer to the Super Bowl in 2006. Instead, the Cowboys lost to the Seattle Seahawks, 21-20.
Despite the frustration, through the 2022 season, the Dallas Cowboys held the league’s highest regular season win–loss percentage (.574), with a 550–408–6 record. They have won five Super Bowls (1972, 1978, 1993, 1994 and 1996), the peak of success in professional football and second only to the New England Patriots and the Pittsburgh Steelers who have each won six Super Bowls. Dallas’ other Super Bowl wins are:
Super Bowl XII (1987)- 27-10 over the Denver Broncos.
Super Bowl XXVII (1993)- 52-17 over the Buffalo Bills.
Super Bowl XXVIII (1994)- 30-13 over the Buffalo Bills.
Super Bowl XXX (1996)- 27-17 over the Pittsburgh Steelers.
There are 32 Dallas Cowboys in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, another measure of franchise success, and they have inducted 22 players into their own Cowboys Ring of Honor.
Since 1960, the Dallas Cowboys have become one of the most well-known sports franchises around the world, perhaps in the same breath as the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball, Real Madrid of Spain’s La Liga and Manchester United of the United Kingdom’s Premier League and a handful of other franchises around the world. The current value of the franchise, estimated at $9 billion, is the highest in the world.
But there is a second date that looms large in Dallas Cowboys history- February 25, 1989. It is the date when businessman Jerry Jones purchased the Dallas Cowboys for $140 million. Depending on who you ask, and how you ask, that may have been the start of the most frustrating period in Dallas Cowboys history. Wins have continued and three of Jones’ early teams won Super Bowls, the last in 1996. But, despite the success the Cowboys have a string of playoff disappointments that leaves fans frustrated.
Yet, Dallas Cowboys fans are loyal, very loyal.
“Simply, sports drive Texans crazy,” Tai Kreidler with the Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library at Texas Tech University, says. For many Texans there are two sport seasons- football and spring football! The Cowboys may know that better, from their first General Manager Tex Schramm to current owner Jerry Jones, than any other sports organization.
It’s no coincidence that the Sun Belt’s emergence as an important force in the nation’s politics, economics and culture times with the development and success of the Dallas Cowboys, Kreidler says.
“It’s an intangible thing, from the iconic helmet star to Cowboy Blue to the cheerleaders, there is no doubt that most of Texas and much of America see the Dallas Cowboys as good guys.”
Joe Nick Patoski, author of Dallas Cowboys: The Outrageous History of the Biggest, Loudest, Most Hated, Best Loved Football Team in America, long-time writer for Texas Monthly and Texas Highways and observer of Texas trends, has strong opinions on the Cowboys.
“Sports reflect our culture. No team sport is as popular in Texas as football. No single team has so many television viewers and fans as the Cowboys,” Patoski says.
All a fan has to do is watch mainstream media, such as ESPN, or read online content, such as SI.com, to understand how important the Dallas Cowboys are to everyday content. Believe me, I did in my research.
Despite not winning a Super Bowl in nearly 30 years, no team is dissected and commented upon by pundits, fans and non-fans more than the Cowboys explains Michael Grauer, McCasland Chair of Cowboy Culture and Curator of Cowboy Collections & Western Art at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. He is a skilled observer of anything cowboy, from the Chisholm Trail to AT&T Stadium.
“Along with the University of Texas (sorry Aggies), the Dallas Cowboys are the most recognizable team of Texas sports and popular culture,” Grauer says.
His observation is supported by the facts that the Dallas Cowboys are with us from birth to death. According to the web site BabyCenter.com, the use of the name Troy spiked back in the 1960s but then saw a mini spike in the late 1990s, the same time quarterback Troy Aikman and the Dallas Cowboys were winning three Super Bowls in four years.
During our lifetime we can bank at the official banking sponsor of the Dallas Cowboys (Bank of America), drink the official soda of the Dallas Cowboys (Pepsi), enjoy the official beer of the Dallas Cowboys (Miller Lite), drive the official vehicle of the Dallas Cowboys (Ford), fly the official airline of the Dallas Cowboys (American), even explore the world of cryptocurrency with the Dallas Cowboys cryptocurrency partner, Blockchain.com.
Dallas Cowboy-themed funerals are very popular. In fact, you might say that the Dallas Cowboys and funerals go hand in hand, explains Brandon Blasingame, funeral director at Schooler Funeral Home in Amarillo.
There is something about “America’s Team” that leads families to mention their loved ones beloved Cowboys while planning for and during services. Either it’s “Dad was so excited watching the Cowboys land the number one seed in the NFC,” or it’s “Dad requested that the Cowboys be the pallbearers so they could let him down one last time.” And the same goes for women. This fan base is not gender specific, Blasingame explains.
Finally, consider the merch. Dallas Cowboys merchandise sales, the best in sports, reveal the real truth.
“They are still America’s Team,” says Nick Gerlich, professor of marketing at West Texas A&M University.
The Cowboys are significant to Texas history as the state’s most popular professional sports franchise ever. Just ask sports fans from the Rio Grande Valley up to the Texas Panhandle.
“It’s no contest,” Patoski concludes.
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