The Cowboys have a history of change-of-pace running backs

Dallas Cowboys running backs have had a longstanding pipeline to NFL stardom.

Tony Dorsett became a Hall of Famer. Emmitt Smith became the all-time NFL rusher.

Three of the 15 players inducted in the team’s exclusive Ring of Honor are ... you guessed it, running backs.

But trying to pinpoint the best running-back tandem in club history is not an easy task, but we’ll give it a try.

(Keep in mind that the NFL has changed: A two-back system today now usually consists of a primary rusher and a blocking fullback. Work two featured backs into the same lineup, and one often is put in motion or flanked out as a receiver.)

But there was a time when NFL coaches paired featured backs in the same backfield.

Best tandem in Cowboys history? Perhaps Walt Garrison-Calvin Hill. Both ended up going to the Pro Bowl after the 1972 season.

Hill-Duane Thomas? Hill was racked by injuries, which left mostly a one-man ground attack (except for a handful of games at the end of the ’71 season), plus Thomas lasted only two seasons in Dallas (’70-71).

Tony Dorsett-Herschel Walker? The Cowboys never made the playoffs with these two superstars in the same backfield (’86-87). Not enough touches to go around.

"Dorsett and Herschel had always been featured guys, so you had a sort of clash of egos," said Hill, who as a former player and now players’ consultant has closely followed the Cowboys for 40 years.

He knows tandems can be tricky.

The two players involved must be different ... but not indifferent.

Weighing a tandem

Hill casts a vote for Marion Barber III and Felix Jones as potentially the best tandem in club history.

Hill likes what he sees in: 1) their contracting styles, and 2) their low-maintenance egos.

"When you’re talking about running-back tandems, you really need to ask yourself: 'Do they complement one another?’ " Hill said. "And Marion and Felix do.

"In fact, I don’t know if I’ve seen a better complementary package."

High praise for such young players. Barber is 25, Jones 21.

But here’s where they are of like minds: Barber played at Minnesota, splitting carries with Laurence Maroney; Jones played at Arkansas, clearly in the shadow of Heisman finalist Darren McFadden.

"They were accustomed to playing in a two-back [system] in college, so it’s not a big issue for either one of them to be 'the man’ now," Hill explained. "They’re both unselfish in that regard."

Despite last week’s horror show at Texas Stadium against the Washington Redskins, Barber and Jones really do represent a two-headed monster for opposing defensive coordinators to try and stop.

Barber is a punishing runner who can grind out yardage and catch the ball out of the backfield; rookie Jones has a burst that can take him the distance on any play, but he can also run inside and catch the ball out of the backfield.

"I’m trying to think when I’ve seen a thunder-lightning combination like these two guys," Hill said. "The closest may be Lenny Moore and Alan Ameche with the Baltimore Colts."

1960s Cowboys

The upstart Cowboys didn’t win a game until their second season in the NFL.

By then, Don Perkins, who had sat out the inaugural season with a broken foot, quickly supplanted Don McElhenny and L.G. Dupre as the team’s featured back in ’61.

Perkins, a Ring of Honor member alongside Dorsett and Smith, rushed 200 times for 815 yards in his very first season, and earned respectability for the ’61 Cowboys (4-9-1).

Although the franchise didn’t have a 1,000-yard rusher until Calvin Hill in ’72, Perkins and Amos Marsh combined in ’62 for 1,747 rushing yards (945 and 802, respectively) in just 14 games.

In ’66 and ’67, Perkins and Dan Reeves produced back-to-back seasons of more than 1,400 combined yards rushing, en route to those hard-to-forget NFL championship game losses to Green Bay.

Perkins, who led the Cowboys in rushing seven times in the team’s first nine seasons, retired after the ’68 season (836 yards on 191 carries).

Walt Garrison, a fifth-round pick in ’66, moved up the depth chart to starting fullback. Hill, a Yale man and supposedly the "next Jim Brown," came aboard to give the Cowboys a solid 1-2 punch in ’69.

Rookie Hill combined with the gritty Garrison for 1,760 rushing yards, even though Hill missed most of the final five games that season with a broken foot.

1970s Cowboys

At the time of his injury, Hill was leading the NFL in rushing yards.

Nevertheless, Tom Landry used the team’s 1970 first-round draft pick to take Duane Thomas from West Texas. It was the second year in a row that Landry selected a running back first.

"My foot injury probably had something to do with that pick," Hill recalled.

Thomas didn’t last long with a star on the side of his helmet.

He frazzled opposing defenses almost as much as he frazzled his own head coach. In his two seasons in Dallas (’71-72), Duane became a force on the field and a temperamental mess off it.

He sulked. He brooded. He hung the "Plastic Man" moniker on Landry.

But to Thomas’ credit ... he kept running and the ’71 Cowboys kept winning.

He scored 13 TDs in 14 games en route to a Super Bowl championship — the first in franchise history.

In New Orleans at SB VI, Thomas boycotted interviews. Headlines everywhere screamed, "Great Sphinx Won’t Talk."

(Note: This may have been the first non-story to get that kind of coverage at a Super Bowl. There have been plenty more since.)

But the fact remains: The Cowboys have won five Super Bowls with three different featured rushers: Thomas, Dorsett and Smith.

Only one — Thomas — was gone within a few months of the deed.

1980s Cowboys

Dorsett, as a 1977 rookie, led the Cowboys to their second Super Bowl. He left little doubt ... he was the difference-maker.

Robert Newhouse, a second-round pick in ’72, played fullback during back-to-back Super Bowl seasons (77 and ’78), although the Cowboys lost the latter 35-31 to Pittsburgh.

But it was the electric Dorsett who eclipsed 1,000 yards rushing each of his first eight non-strike seasons, including a career-high 1,646 yard in ’81.

Dorsett was still a 1,000-yard rusher in ’85. (He would finish his career with 12,379 yards and 77 TDs rushing.)

Every generation has a cutoff point. None was more seismic in nature than "The Great Experiment of 1986," in which Dorsett and Walker ended up in the same Cowboys backfield.

It was probably a failed experiment from the get-go, but it really went down the tubes when quarterback Danny White — the NFC’s top-rated passer at the time — suffered a season-ending broken wrist in Week 6 against the New York Giants.

Walker ended up leading the team with 76 catches and 14 TDs — including 12 rushing.

But it wasn’t the way Dorsett had hoped to finish up his brilliant career in Big D.

The 1990s Cowboys

Maybe you’ve heard of The Triplets.

Troy Aikman, Michael Irvin and Emmitt Smith led the Cowboys to three Super Bowl titles in four years.

A key to this success: Each "Triplet" was allowed to be the man — and stay the man — at his position throughout the decade. (For example, Emmitt didn’t have to share time or split carries with a newly acquired Barry Sanders, or anything like that.)

In Dallas, on the ground, the ’90s belonged to Smith, who racked up 11 straight 1,000-yard seasons, including a career-high 1,713 yards in ’92.

Emmitt became the NFL’s all-time leading rusher with 18,355 yards and a league-record 164 rushing TDs — 41 more than second-place Marcus Allen (123).

Epilogue

The NFL has changed, Hill reminded.

"When you look at the Cowboys over recent years," said Hill, "one running back has gotten almost all the carries."

He paused.

"To me, that’s what makes Felix Jones so intriguing."

Hill went on to explain: "The Cowboys really haven’t had anybody exactly like this kid in their history — except for Tony Dorsett."

And in today’s game, Barber and Jones are able to share the limelight a couple of ways: 1) Alternating series or even plays, and 2) serving as complementary pieces on the field at the same time.

Both players can run inside or outside.

Both players can catch the ball, even split out wide.

"Here’s the interesting thing," Hill concluded. "There’s nobody more humble than Marion Barber. He’s a throwback, and Felix seems to be the same kind of kid."

It’s certainly a tandem to watch.