Dallas Trivia
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58 free Dallas trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
48 free Dallas trivia questions with answers. Dallas gave the world the integrated circuit, the frozen margarita machine, 7-Eleven, Neiman Marcus and the question of who shot J.R. This quiz covers the city from John Neely Bryan's stake on the Trinity River in 1841 through the cotton boom, the Kennedy assassination and the 1980s skyline to today's Arts District, Klyde Warren Park and Calatrava bridges. There are questions on the State Fair and Big Tex, the Cotton Bowl, the Mavericks and Stars, Deep Ellum, SMU and the TV Ewings of Southfork, plus a few on the Cowboys — the team has its own quiz. The easy questions ask what 'the Ball' downtown is and which family ran Ewing Oil. The hard ones want the tower's height, the year the Sixth Floor Museum opened, why the convenience store chain changed its name and which Texas town built the original Big Tex as a Santa Claus. It suits newcomers, natives and anyone planning a State Fair visit. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the city and its landmarks, and each question carries the sentence that backs it up.
30 of 58 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Who founded Dallas in 1841, settling beside a Trinity River ford he had picked for a trading post?
John Neely Bryan
John Neely Bryan lived to stand on the platform when the first train reached his town in 1872, but he died five years later in the state lunatic asylum in Austin.
Q 02George M. Dallas, a candidate for the Texas city's namesake, was vice president under which US president?
James K. Polk
James K. Polk took office with him in 1845, but the town already carried the name Dallas by then, and no evidence shows that its founder ever knew the vice president.
Q 03Dallas is the third most populous city in Texas after which two?
Houston and San Antonio
Houston and San Antonio hold more people inside their city limits, but at the 2020 census the Dallas–Fort Worth metropolitan area was the most populous in Texas and the fourth-largest in the country.
Q 04Which celebrity chef ran Five Sixty, the revolving restaurant atop Reunion Tower?
Wolfgang Puck
Wolfgang Puck opened Five Sixty in 2009, named for its perch some 560 feet above the city, and closed it for good in 2020 when the pandemic shut the tower.
Q 05The Reunion district of Dallas takes its name from what?
A 19th-century French socialist commune
A 19th-century French socialist commune, La Réunion, broke up within a few years, and its brewers, tailors and musicians moved into Dallas with skills the frontier town lacked.
Q 06The tallest building in Dallas, outlined in green light at night, is which skyscraper?
Bank of America Plaza
Bank of America Plaza rises 921 feet over 72 storeys, and it stands alone because the matching twin tower planned beside it was never built.
Q 07President Kennedy was shot in 1963 as his motorcade passed along Elm Street through which downtown space?
Dealey Plaza
Dealey Plaza was almost the end of the route: the motorcade was minutes from the Dallas Trade Mart, where Kennedy was due to speak at a luncheon.
Q 08From which building did the Warren Commission conclude Lee Harvey Oswald fired?
Texas School Book Depository
The Texas School Book Depository stood empty while a local campaign pushed to tear it down, until Dallas County bought it in 1977 and its sixth floor became a museum.
Q 09Where was Lyndon Johnson sworn in as president two hours after Kennedy was shot?
Aboard Air Force One at Love Field
Aboard Air Force One at Love Field, Johnson waited for federal judge Sarah T. Hughes to hurry to the plane, which made her the first woman to swear in a US president.
Q 10Who shot Lee Harvey Oswald in the basement of Dallas police headquarters two days after Kennedy's assassination?
Jack Ruby
Jack Ruby, a Dallas nightclub owner, was sentenced to death, but an appeals court overturned the verdict and he died in 1967 before he could be retried.
Q 11Which Dallas dress manufacturer filmed the 26-second home movie that captured the Kennedy assassination?
Abraham Zapruder
Abraham Zapruder sold the film to Life magazine for $150,000 and gave $25,000 of it to the widow of the Dallas policeman shot dead the same afternoon.
Q 12Which future Shark Tank investor bought the Dallas Mavericks in January 2000?
Mark Cuban
Mark Cuban was a Mavericks season-ticket holder who bought the team with the fortune he made selling his streaming company Broadcast.com to Yahoo.
Q 13Which State Fair of Texas snack has the Fletcher family sold for generations?
Corn dogs
Corn dogs, sold as Fletcher's Corny Dogs, came decades before the fair made a name for deep-frying almost anything, from a peanut butter sandwich to Coke.
Q 21Who shot J.R. in the 1980 cliffhanger of the TV series Dallas?
Kristin Shepard
Kristin Shepard, J.R.'s sister-in-law and mistress, was unmasked eight months after the shots, and Mary Crosby, who played her, joked that it made her a trivia question.
Q 22The entire ninth season of Dallas was revealed to have been whose dream?
Pam Ewing's
Pam Ewing's dream wiped out a whole season so that Patrick Duffy, whose character Bobby had been killed off a year earlier, could step out of her shower alive.
Q 23Which real ranch north of the city played the family home in the TV series Dallas?
Southfork Ranch
Southfork Ranch, in the suburb of Parker, was built in 1970 as a private home called Duncan Acres; the show filmed its exteriors there, and it now sells tours to fans.
Q 14Fair Park's Art Deco buildings were mostly built for which 1936 event?
The Texas Centennial Exposition
The Texas Centennial Exposition went to Dallas, a city that did not exist during the 1836 revolution it celebrated, because Dallas offered the most cash and a ready-made fairground.
Q 15What greeting does Big Tex boom to State Fair of Texas visitors?
Howdy, folks!
"Howdy, folks!" came a year late: Big Tex stood silent at his 1952 debut and was given a voice, along with a straightened nose, before the next fair.
Q 16Which mythical creature, in red neon atop the Magnolia Building, became a symbol of Dallas?
Pegasus
Pegasus began as an advertisement: the flying horse was the trademark of Magnolia Petroleum, later Mobil, which raised it over its own building in 1934.
Q 17What destroyed the original Big Tex in October 2012?
An electrical fire
An electrical fire began at his base and climbed the frame on the last Friday of the 2012 fair, his 60th birthday year, yet a taller Big Tex reported for work in 2013.
Q 18The Red River Rivalry played at the Cotton Bowl each October pits Texas against which school?
Oklahoma
Oklahoma and Texas meet in Dallas because it lies about halfway between their campuses, and the stadium is split at the 50-yard line so each school's fans fill one half.
Q 19The Cowboys left the Cotton Bowl in 1971 for Texas Stadium, in which Dallas suburb?
Irving
Irving's Texas Stadium, known for the hole in its roof left by an abandoned retractable design, was the team's home through 2008 and was imploded in 2010.
Q 20Which actor played the scheming J.R. on the TV series Dallas?
Larry Hagman
Larry Hagman first made his name in comedy, as the astronaut of the sitcom I Dream of Jeannie, before J.R. made him a villain.
Q 24Which spin-off of Dallas premiered in 1979 and also ran 14 seasons?
Knots Landing
Knots Landing followed Gary, J.R.'s black-sheep brother, to a California cul-de-sac, and the spin-off outlived its parent show by two years, ending in 1993.
Q 25Which team did the Mavericks beat for their only NBA title?
Miami Heat
The Miami Heat had beaten Dallas in the 2006 Finals and started as favourites with LeBron James, but Dirk Nowitzki's Mavericks took the rematch in six games.
Q 26The Dallas Stars moved to Texas in 1993 from which US state?
Minnesota
Minnesota's North Stars kept half their name: the owner dropped 'North' for the move south, and 'Stars' happened to suit the Lone Star State.
Q 27Whose disputed goal won the Stars the 1999 Stanley Cup?
Brett Hull
Brett Hull scored in triple overtime with his skate in the crease; the league ruled the goal good because he had kept possession, but Buffalo fans call the game 'No Goal'.
Q 28Which arena do the Mavericks and Stars share?
American Airlines Center
American Airlines Center opened in 2001 after Dallas voters narrowly approved public money for it, and both teams left Reunion Arena to move in.
Q 29The Texas Rangers, based in Arlington, were originally which franchise?
Washington Senators
The Washington Senators were one out from winning their farewell home game in 1971 when fans stormed the field for souvenirs, one taking first base, and the game was forfeited.
Q 30Who coached the Cowboys for their first 29 seasons?
Tom Landry
Tom Landry took the Cowboys to five Super Bowls and won two, yet he was dismissed in 1989 as soon as Jerry Jones bought the team.