On January 28, 1960, The Dallas Cowboys were born! The teams name at first was the "Steers", but then was changed to the Rangers. At the same time, a baseball team in Dallas was also named the Rangers, so to avoid confusion Mr. Murchison decided to change it to the Cowboys.
Clint Murchison was the teams majority owner and his first order of business was to hire Tex Schramm as the G.M., Tom Landry as the head coach and Gil Brandt as player personnel director.
These three men were destined for huge success in the pro football world, but their "winning ways" didnt come that easily. Eventhough their home field was the historic Cotton Bowl, the 1960 Cowboys had to settle for only 1 tie in 12 games. Their first regular season game was against the Pittsburgh Steelers losing 35-28 on 9-24-60. In fact, it took them almost 1 full year to win their first game 27-24 against those same Steelers!
In 1966, the Cowboys began 20 consecutive winning seasons that included 18 years in the playoffs, 13 divisional championships, 5 trips to the Super Bowl winning Super Bowls VI and XII.
In 1967, Mr. Murchison announced that the Cowboys would build their own stadium in Irving, Texas. A new Cowboys era began on October 24, 1971 when the debut of Texas Stadium opened with a little over 65,000 seats. The Dallas Cowboys from the 1970s into the early 1980s were known as "Americas Team," an organization that seemed to be one step ahead of the other teams when it came to "image". From the publication of The Dallas Cowboys Newsweekly with over 100,000 subscribers, to tops in the sales department with souvenirs and clothing apparel, to the world famous Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders.
H.R. "Bum" Bright, who had bought the Cowboys from Mr. Murchison in 1984, sold the team to Jerry Jones in 1989 who then named Jimmy Johnson the second coach in the history of the Dallas Cowboys.
Although his debut year of coaching in the NFL went 1-16, by the 4th year, Jimmy Johnson led the Dallas Cowboys to Super Bowl XXVII and the following year to Super Bowl XXVIII, beating the Buffalo Bills twice.
In March of 1994, Barry Switzer replaced Jimmy Johnson as the third coach of the Cowboys. He continued the success by winning Super Bowl XXX against the Pittsburgh Steelers, thus becoming "The Team of The Nineties."