Tom Landry never intended to spend his life as a coach.
The profession, in his words, was “too insecure.” He accepted the challenge with the Dallas Cowboys nearly four decades ago with the idea he would one day fall back on a degree in engineering to provide for his family.
Along the way, this blueprint was altered. Landry spent 29 years as the only coach the Cowboys had ever known. He finished with 13 division titles, five trips to the Super Bowl and a legacy that will endure beyond his death.
There was more to Tom Landry, who died Feb. 12 at 75, than his long and fruitful association with the Cowboys. There were his days at the University of Texas and the New York Giants. A devoted Christian, Landry was active in the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. He flew 30 missions during World War II as a B-17 pilot with the Eighth Air Force. He was a caring family man who invested time in the community.
All were part of what made Landry special. But it was his career with the Cowboys that defined his public persona, carved a national identity and established him as a Texas treasure.
It was Landry who took over an expansion team and helped build it into one of the most successful and visible franchises in sports. He was an innovator, devising the 4-3 defense that became the NFL standard, later evolving that into the Flex. He was ahead of his time in the use of multiple sets and motion on offense.
In an era in which preparation and specialization often demanded that a coach focus on one side of the ball, Landry continued to preside over offense and defense. The three Super Bowl defeats by less than a touchdown somehow made Landry seem more human. The two Super Bowl victories set him apart.
If success is measured by the number of Super Bowls won, the Landry era was not the most productive in club history. The Cowboys won three trophies in the seven years after his departure. But just as Landry’s faith served as the rock on which his success was built, his presence helped lay a foundation that would benefit his successors. Even in death, Landry and the Cowboys are inseparable.
Landry was in charge of the New York Giants defense in the late 1950s. Head coach Jim Lee Howell called his assistant “the greatest football coach in the game today.”
Bud Adams had his eye on Landry for the American Football League franchise he wanted to put in Houston. The offer was intriguing. Landry ran an insurance business in Dallas during the off-season, and this would be a way for him to move closer to home.
Before Landry could accept, a Dallas group headed by owner Clint Murchison Jr. and General Manager Tex Schramm emerged. The group was bidding on an NFL expansion franchise and wanted Landry to coach. Landry signed to a personal services contract on Dec. 27, 1959, more than a month before the franchise was awarded. The five-year deal paid him $34,000 a season.
The Cowboys started off with 36 players acquired in an expansion pool and no draft picks. Dallas failed to win a game in its inaugural season of 1960. Only a 31-31 tie with New York in the next-to-last week of the season averted the humiliation of losing every game.
The team didn’t pick up its first win until the start of the ’61 season. It would be five more years before the Cowboys enjoyed their first winning season.
There was tension. Landry conceded he was impatient early in his career, that he expected his players to perform at their best each time out although he knew that was unrealistic. Some of the players, meanwhile, cynically referred to their coach as Pope Landry I.
Schramm sensed what they were trying to build could be undermined. He suggested that Murchison do something to bolster Landry’s position. On Feb. 5, 1964, Murchison held a news conference to announce he had signed Landry to a 10-year contract. It was an unprecedented show of support for a coach with a 13-38-3 record.
“I re-evaluated what my life purpose was,” Landry said. “Being in God’s plan, I felt like it was a calling for me to coach.”
The Cowboys burst onto the winning scene with a 10-3-1 record in 1966. Landry was named the NFL’s Coach of the Year. It would be 20 years before the franchise would have to endure another losing season.
Still, this was a period characterized by struggle and frustration. Green Bay intercepted quarterback Don Meredith in the end zone in the final minute of the ’66 NFL Championship Game, sealing a 34-27 victory. The Packers went on to pound Kansas City in the first Super Bowl.
Enduring a game-time temperature of 13-below zero, the Cowboys and Packers met again in the ’67 NFL Championship Game at frozen Lambeau Field. In what came to be known as the Ice Bowl, Green Bay’s Bart Starr scored on a quarterback sneak in the final seconds for a 21-17 victory. The Packers then drilled Oakland for their second Super Bowl title.
Dallas advanced to the Super Bowl for the first time during the 1970 season. Still, the Cowboys couldn’t win the big one. But they shed their lovable losers label in the ’70s and established themselves as “America’s Team.”
The makeover began in Super Bowl VI. The Cowboys beat Don Shula and the Miami Dolphins 24-3. Landry, referred to as “Stoneface” by some for his unemotional demeanor, was seen smiling as players lifted him on their shoulder pads and carried him off the field.
“I don’t think I’m really conscious of my feelings yet,” Landry said during the celebration. “This is certainly my biggest thrill.”
The title validated Landry’s status and the Cowboys’ claim as one of the league’s elite teams. It forever altered the perception of the franchise. Landry would say winning that first Super Bowl relieved the criticism and pressure that had built up through the years. It also helped turn Landry and his players into celebrities.
Lilly. Roger Staubach. Tony Dorsett. Drew Pearson. Harvey Martin. Ed “Too Tall” Jones. Randy White. Lee Roy Jordan. Cliff Harris. Charlie Waters. Rayfield Wright. All saw their stars rise in the ’70s.
On and off the field, the Cowboys were pure entertainment. That era produced the Dirty Dozen, the 12 rookies who made the team in 1975; the 50-yard Hail Mary from Staubach to Pearson that climaxed a 17-14 playoff victory over Minnesota later that season; troubled running back Duane Thomas, who called Landry “a plastic man, no man at all”; and the brilliant performance and bizarre behavior of linebacker Thomas “Hollywood” Henderson, whom Landry tearfully released during the ’79 season.
Pittsburgh, which got the best of Dallas in Super Bowls X and XIII, went on to be known as the team of the decade. But the Cowboys picked up another title with their 27-10 victory over Denver in Super Bowl XII.
It wasn’t until ’86 that the Cowboys fell, to 7-9, their first losing season in 22 years.
A second three-year contract was extended in ’87, as Landry talked of how he relished the challenge of returning the Cowboys to their former glory. It proved to be the beginning of the end.
Landry became the first casualty of new owner Jerry Jones, who installed Jimmy Johnson as his coach. The date was Feb. 25, 1989.
When Landry met with his players two days later, to tell them how much he would miss them, he began to cry. The players responded with a standing ovation.
Eight minutes later, Landry walked out of the Cowboys locker room for the last time.
“Tom told us we will forget him in two weeks,” cornerback Everson Walls recalled. “But that won’t happen.”
%% Landry’s record, opponent by opponent
More Top Picks Extension Cords
Team W L T
Atlanta 9 3 0
Balt.-Ind. 6 3 0
Buffalo 3 1 0
BEARS 8 6 0
Cincinnati 2 2 0
Cleveland 9 16 0
Denver 3 2 0
Detroit 7 4 0
Green Bay 5 8 0
Houston 4 2 0
Kansas City 2 1 0
Miami 2 4 0
Minnesota 10 7 0
New England 6 0 0
New Orleans 11 2 0
NY Giants 35 16 2
NY Jets 4 0 0
Oakland 1 3 0
Philadelphia 36 21 0
Pittsburgh 11 13 0
Los Angeles 11 11 0
St.L-Ariz. 33 19 1
San Diego 3 1 0
San Fran. 8 8 1
Seattle 3 1 0
Tampa Bay 6 0 0
Washington 32 24 2
Totals 270 178 6
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