60 Fun Facts About Dallas Cowboys

Which NFL team began in 1960 as the Dallas Texans, the Cowboys' crosstown AFL rivals?

The Kansas City Chiefs began as Lamar Hunt's Dallas Texans and won the 1962 AFL title there. Hunt still decided the city could not support two pro teams, and he moved his champions away in 1963.

Why did Dallas's new NFL team swap the name Rangers for Cowboys in March 1960?

A baseball club used it already, and the general manager feared the press would confuse the two. The owner agreed, though he had called Rangers 'a name for a football team if ever there was one'.

Which fight song did the Cowboys' founder buy, then trade back for the vote that created his team?

Hail to the Redskins belonged to its composer, not the team. Clint Murchison Jr. quietly bought the rights, and Washington's owner, who was blocking a Dallas franchise, gave his vote to get the song back.

Who was the Cowboys' first head coach, holding the job for 29 seasons?

Tom Landry went his whole first season without a win and finished below .500 in each of his first five years. The Cowboys stuck with him, and he repaid them with two Super Bowl titles.

Starting in the 1960s, the Cowboys set an NFL record with 20 consecutive what?

Winning seasons. The fall afterwards was steep: by 1988 Dallas had the worst record in the league, and within months the team had been sold.

Which item of clothing was the trademark of the Cowboys' first head coach on the sideline?

A fedora, worn with a jacket and tie, was so much the coach's signature that Homer Simpson buys the hat in an episode of The Simpsons, hoping it will make him a better leader.

Cowboys linebacker Chuck Howley was named Super Bowl MVP despite a 16-13 loss to which team?

The Baltimore Colts won Super Bowl V on Jim O'Brien's field goal with five seconds left. Howley, who intercepted two passes, is still the only MVP chosen from the losing side.

Which team did the Cowboys beat 24-3 in Super Bowl VI?

The Dolphins managed only a field goal against Dallas, then answered the defeat by winning every game of the following season, still the NFL's only perfect campaign.

Roger Staubach won the 1963 Heisman Trophy playing for which school?

Navy held Staubach to four years of active duty after graduation, including a tour in Vietnam, so he did not reach the Cowboys until 1969, as a 27-year-old rookie.

Staubach's game-winning 1975 playoff pass to Drew Pearson gave football which lasting phrase?

Hail Mary became football's name for a last-gasp long pass after the devout Catholic told reporters, 'I closed my eyes and said a Hail Mary.'

Roger Staubach's knack for winning games on late drives earned him which nickname?

Captain Comeback signed off in style: in his final regular-season game, in 1979, he threw two late touchdown passes to turn a 34-21 deficit into a 35-34 win.

Which organisation first called the Cowboys 'America's Team', after their 1978 season?

NFL Films made it the title of the team's 1978 highlight film after editor Bob Ryan noticed Cowboys jerseys and hats in the stands wherever Dallas played, even on the road.

Which former Cowboys quarterback later sang 'Turn out the lights, the party's over' in the Monday Night Football booth?

Don Meredith, known as 'Dandy Don', joined Howard Cosell on Monday Night Football and crooned the Willie Nelson line whenever a game was out of reach for the losing team.

Texas Stadium was located in which Dallas suburb?

Irving was the Cowboys' home for 38 seasons from 1971. When the stadium was imploded in 2010, the button was pushed by an 11-year-old boy who had won an essay contest.

The Cowboys' home in Arlington, opened in 2009, is widely nicknamed what?

Jerry World is named for owner Jerry Jones, the force behind it. In the Cowboys' first preseason game there, a punt hit the giant video board hanging over the field and the down had to be replayed.

In 1966 the Cowboys joined which team as an annual Thanksgiving Day host?

The Detroit Lions had hosted on the holiday since 1934. Dallas volunteered for a second game for the national television exposure, and has hosted almost every Thanksgiving since.

Which defensive tackle, known as 'Mr. Cowboy', was the first draft pick in franchise history?

Bob Lilly started out as a defensive end; only after a move inside to tackle in his third season did he become a first-team All-Pro, an honour he then won seven times.

Which nickname was given to the Cowboys units that smothered opposing offenses during the 1970s?

The Doomsday Defense was so dominant that even in defeat in Super Bowl V one of its linebackers was voted the game's MVP, something no player on a losing team has managed since.

Which two Cowboys defenders shared the MVP award of Super Bowl XII?

Randy White and Harvey Martin remain the only co-MVPs in Super Bowl history. White had spent his first two seasons as a backup linebacker and had only that year become a starting defensive tackle.

Which 1976 Heisman winner did the Cowboys draft second overall in 1977?

Tony Dorsett later ran 99 yards for a touchdown, a record that can be tied but never beaten, on a broken play that Dallas ran with only ten men on the field.

Dwight Clark's 'The Catch' ended the Cowboys' 1981 season with a 28-27 win for which team?

The San Francisco 49ers won on Clark's leaping fingertip catch of a Joe Montana pass in the final minute, then went on to win four Super Bowls in the 1980s.

Jerry Jones bought the Cowboys from Bum Bright in 1989 for roughly how much?

$140 million bought the team and its stadium rights, and Jones at once replaced the only head coach the Cowboys had ever had. Forbes valued the club at $13 billion in 2025.

Jerry Jones and Jimmy Johnson were teammates on which school's 1964 national championship football team?

Arkansas won that title with Jones a co-captain on the offensive line and Johnson on the defensive line. A quarter-century later Jones bought the Cowboys and at once hired his old teammate as coach.

Jimmy Johnson came to Dallas in 1989 from the head coaching job at which university?

Miami won college football's national title under Johnson in 1987, yet two years later his first Cowboys team lost 15 of its 16 games.

The Cowboys' 1989 trade of running back Herschel Walker sent him to which team?

The Minnesota Vikings paid with five players and a stack of draft picks. Dallas turned those picks into Emmitt Smith and Darren Woodson, cornerstones of three Super Bowl winners.

Which team did the 1-15 Cowboys of 1989 beat for their only win?

The Washington Redskins lost 13-3 at home that November, the lone bright spot of Jimmy Johnson's first season. Three years later the Cowboys went 13-3 and won the Super Bowl.

Troy Aikman was drafted first overall in 1989 out of which school?

UCLA was his second college: he started out at Oklahoma but left when the Sooners turned to the run-heavy wishbone offense, which had little use for his passing arm.

Aikman, Emmitt Smith and Michael Irvin were collectively known as what?

The Triplets were completed in the 1990 draft, when Dallas traded up from the 21st pick to the 17th and spent it on Smith.

Whose NFL career rushing record did Emmitt Smith break in 2002?

Walter Payton's 16,726 yards fell in Smith's thirteenth season in Dallas, yet the Cowboys released him a few months later. He finished with 18,355 after two years with Arizona.

Why did Emmitt Smith miss the first two games of his MVP season in 1993?

A contract holdout kept him out while Dallas lost both games. Once he signed, he won the rushing title, league MVP and Super Bowl MVP, and the Cowboys recovered to win the Super Bowl.

Which television competition did Emmitt Smith win in 2006?

Dancing with the Stars came down to the public: the judges scored Smith and actor Mario Lopez level in the final, and the viewers' votes gave Smith the title.

Michael Irvin's career ended with a 1999 neck injury against which team?

The Philadelphia Eagles were the opponent when a tackle drove Irvin head-first into the Veterans Stadium turf. Doctors then found he had been born with a narrow spinal canal and advised him to stop playing.

Which Cowboys lineman had a Super Bowl XXVII touchdown stripped by Don Beebe while celebrating early?

Leon Lett repeated the blunder ten months later: on a snowy Thanksgiving he slid into a blocked field goal, handing the other team a second kick that beat Dallas.

Which 12th-round draft choice became the first cornerback named Super Bowl MVP, intercepting two passes in Super Bowl XXX?

Larry Brown returned both interceptions deep into Pittsburgh territory, and each set up a short Emmitt Smith touchdown run as Dallas held off a Steelers rally to win 27-17.

Which coach replaced Jimmy Johnson in 1994 and won Super Bowl XXX two years later?

Barry Switzer had been out of coaching for five years since resigning at Oklahoma. He became the second man, after the coach he replaced, to win both a college national title and a Super Bowl.

Cowboys cornerback Deion Sanders is the only athlete to have played in both a Super Bowl and what?

A World Series came in 1992, with Atlanta. Three years earlier, in the space of a week, he had hit a home run for the Yankees and returned a punt for a touchdown in his first NFL game.

Which Hall of Fame coach did Jerry Jones lure out of retirement to coach the Cowboys from 2003 to 2006?

Bill Parcells, twice a Super Bowl winner with the Giants, took over a team that had gone 5-11 three years running and led it to the playoffs at 10-6 in his first season.

Dak Prescott was drafted in 2016 in which round?

Fourth-round pick Prescott was drafted as a backup, but when the starter was hurt in preseason the rookie took over, won 13 games and never gave the job back.

Rookie Ezekiel Elliott's 2016 touchdown celebration against Tampa Bay saw him jump into what?

A Salvation Army red kettle, set out for the charity's Christmas appeal, was his landing spot. The leap drew a penalty, but the league waived any fine and he pledged $21,000 to the charity.

Micah Parsons, the 2021 Defensive Rookie of the Year, was drafted 12th overall out of which school?

Penn State last saw him play in 2019: he sat out the 2020 season during the pandemic, yet Dallas still drafted him 12th and he was the league's best defensive rookie a year later.

Jason Witten retired with the second-most catches by a tight end in NFL history, behind whom?

Tony Gonzalez finished with 1,325 catches to Witten's 1,228, but Witten took one record from him: his 110 catches in 2012 broke Gonzalez's single-season mark for a tight end.

Which Hall of Fame receiver wore the Cowboys' No. 22 before Emmitt Smith?

Bob Hayes won the Olympic 100 metres in 1964 as the 'World's Fastest Human'. His speed is often credited with pushing NFL defenses to develop zone coverage to contain him.

Which quarterback, who also handled punting duties, succeeded Staubach as the starter in 1980?

Danny White took Dallas to the NFC title game in each of his first three seasons as the starter and lost all three, one win short of the Super Bowl every time.

Drew Pearson, who caught Staubach's famous 1975 playoff pass, arrived in Dallas how?

As an undrafted free agent out of Tulsa he made the 1973 roster on the strength of his special-teams play, and he finished his career in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Which Cowboys pass rusher became the first player to win five Super Bowl rings, the first two with the 49ers?

Charles Haley came from San Francisco in a trade, switched from linebacker to defensive end, and won three more rings in his first four seasons with Dallas.

Whose quarterback sneak in the final seconds beat the Cowboys in the 1967 NFL title game known as the Ice Bowl?

Bart Starr called a handoff in the huddle, then kept the ball himself without telling his teammates, fearing that a running back would slip on the icy field.

Which former Cowboys backup quarterback was the team's head coach from 2010 to 2019?

Jason Garrett was promoted from offensive coordinator when Dallas started 2010 at 1-7, won five of the last eight games and kept the job for nine more seasons without once reaching the NFC title game.

Which stadium was the Cowboys' home before they moved to Texas Stadium in 1971?

The Cotton Bowl was shared for three seasons with a rival league's team, which gave up on the city and moved away.

Which Cowboys general manager of 29 years helped broker the AFL-NFL merger and led the push for instant replay?

Tex Schramm started out as a sportswriter and team publicist. As chairman of the NFL's competition committee for 23 years he also introduced wild-card playoff places.

Which team did the Cowboys beat in overtime to win the 1993 NFC East title?

The New York Giants lost 16-13 as Emmitt Smith separated a shoulder, kept playing and still gained 229 yards running and receiving.

Which offensive coordinator was promoted to Cowboys head coach in January 2025, after Mike McCarthy departed?

Brian Schottenheimer got the job ahead of Kellen Moore, the coordinator he had succeeded two years earlier. His father, Marty, won 200 regular-season games as an NFL head coach.

Which coach was the first in Cowboys history to leave without reaching a Super Bowl?

Chan Gailey reached the playoffs in both of his seasons, 1998 and 1999, but lost in the first round each time and was dismissed after only two years in charge.

Whose leaping catch near the goal line was overturned on replay late in the Cowboys' 2014 playoff loss?

Dez Bryant was ruled not to have completed the catch as he lunged for the end zone, and Dallas lost the ball on downs. The NFL later rewrote its rule on catches made while going to the ground.

Which Cowboys quarterback, acting as holder, fumbled the snap on a short go-ahead field goal in a 2006 season playoff loss?

Tony Romo dropped the snap for a 19-yard kick with just over a minute left in Seattle, picked the ball up, ran and was tackled at the 2-yard line, and Dallas lost 21-20.

What happened to the Cowboys' practice facility on May 2, 2009?

It collapsed in a wind storm with rookies and staff inside. Federal investigators found the gusts, at 55 to 65 mph, were well below the 90 mph the structure was meant to withstand.

Which receiver had 250 yards and two touchdowns in his first NFL start, a 2009 overtime win over Kansas City?

Miles Austin was only starting because Roy Williams was hurt. His 250 yards set a franchise record, and the last 60 of them were the touchdown that won the game in overtime.

Which No. 7 seed beat the 12-win Cowboys 48-32 in the wild-card round after the 2023 season?

The Green Bay Packers led 27-0 before Dallas scored, in a stadium where the Cowboys had won their previous 16 games.

In 2025 the Cowboys traded Micah Parsons to Green Bay for two first-round picks and which defensive tackle?

Kenny Clark said he was shocked to be sent to Dallas. Green Bay then gave Parsons a four-year, $188 million contract, at the time the richest ever for a player who was not a quarterback.

Where did the Cowboys hold training camp for 27 straight summers from 1963 to 1989?

Thousand Oaks, California, was home to tiny California Lutheran College, where the town welcomed the team back every summer with a 'Welcome Cowboys' dinner.

The 1975 Cowboys rookies who helped the team reach Super Bowl X share a nickname with which film?

The Dirty Dozen fitted because twelve rookies made the roster, and the class went straight to the Super Bowl in its first season.