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About the series
Each week, staff writer Ray Buck takes a look at the history of the Cowboys - from a great game to a singular moment to a memorable player - in his online-exclusive offering, Old 'Boys Club.
Next Friday
"The catch" by "Bullet" Bob Hayes that turned Tom Landry’s head for the first time. Hint: The game was played in Oklahoma.
Each week, staff writer Ray Buck takes a look at the history of the Cowboys - from a great game to a singular moment to a memorable player - in his online-exclusive offering, Old 'Boys Club.
Next Friday
"The catch" by "Bullet" Bob Hayes that turned Tom Landry’s head for the first time. Hint: The game was played in Oklahoma.
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The 1960 Cowboys opened for business on a song and a prayer ... and 22 players taken in the expansion draft.
These acquisitions were older players, injured players, expendable players. They occupied the bottom nine spots on the rosters of the 12 existing NFL teams.But the fledgling Cowboys couldn’t be picky. The lifeblood of their first NFL season would have to come from these 108 names. (No wonder the ’60 Cowboys went 0-11-1.)“We got 24 hours to make our selections,” recalled Gil Brandt, the Cowboys’ longtime personnel man before Jerry Jones bought the team in 1989. “Remember, we got a team too late to get in on the college draft that first year.”There hasn’t been an NFL expansion team, before or since, to not have the benefit of a college draft. But the Cowboys were different. They were born out of necessity. Because the NFL desperately wanted a team in North Texas to compete for fan dollars with Lamar Hunt’s Dallas Texans of the upstart American Football League, the Cowboys were hastily thrown together, christened and shoved out the door.Twenty-two players obtained in the expansion draft made the team. Only two of them — middle linebacker Jerry Tubbs (from the 49ers) and wide receiver Frank Clarke (Browns) — lasted longer than a handful of seasons in Dallas.Among the other expansion picks, veteran receiver Jim Doran (Lions) and tight end Dick Bielski (Eagles) each made a Pro Bowl; running backs L.G. “Long Gone” Dupre (Colts) and Don McIlhenny (Packers) became impact players on bad teams, and offensive tackle Bob Fry (Rams) hung on for just five seasons.“Everybody else was either an old guy or an injured guy,” Brandt recalled.In order to get things turned around, the team’s triumvirate of Tom Landry, Tex Schramm and Brandt had to get creative (or continue to get clobbered). Since there were no “how-to” books or “NFL 101” classes to attend, Landry, Schramm and Brandt resorted to some old-fashioned ingenuity.Brandt, the lone survivor at age 74, recalls how these three men put their minds together to build the foundation of one of the most successful sports franchises — ever. Each had his own area of expertise. Brandt’s was to find players.“We did all kinds of stuff,” Brandt said. “We even involved the wives of college coaches to find free-agents to sign.” How did the Cowboys do that?Well ... not cheaply.They offered Hawaii trips as a “finder’s fee” to any coach and his wife who led Brandt to lesser-known players who ended up making the Cowboys, or else another NFL team from which the Cowboys received compensation.“In each case, we’d send a copy of this letter to the wife,” Brandt recalled.And what happened?“We got wives calling us and giving us players’ names.”One of the best “finds” of the early ’60s was a 6-foot-3 Utah State basketball player named Cornell Green, who never missed a game in 13 seasons with the Cowboys (1962-74). “Cornell was really amazing,” said Brandt, “because he never played a down of college football.”
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