rayonsports.com

                                            Inaugural Dallas Thanksgiving Game vs. Browns in 1966.

Detroit has had the honor of hosting the NFL’s annual Thanksgiving Day game since 1934, but in 1966, the league added a second Turkey Day game, awarding the honor to the Dallas Cowboys. The Cowboys played the Cleveland Browns in their inaugural game that year, and the game was pivotal in the young franchise’s development. The Cowboys entered the game with a 7-2-1 record while the Browns, who were 7-3, had played in the 2 previous NFL Championship games and were a powerhouse at the time. Tom Landry’s club won the game, 26-14, and would go on to have an astounding 20 straight winning seasons. The NFL’s move to put an annual game in Dallas was a good decision by commissioner Pete Rozelle, as the team, since that first game in ’66, has been a marquee franchise ever since. My daughter, who is now in her 30s, has fond childhood memories of family get togethers – she recalls them being Sunday afternoons – where the family was gathered around the televison and the Cowboys were always playing a late afternoon game. She distinctly remembers Landry, with his trademark fedora hat and stoic look, standing on the sidelines, with the large silver stars lining the walls of the old Texas Stadium behind him. I think she may actually be remembering Thanksgiving Day celebrations rather than Sundays, since the Cowboys have been Turkey Day fixtures her whole life.

The most memorable Dallas Thanksgiving game has to be the “Clint Longley” game, played on November 28, 1974. It was a matchup of the Cowboys and their most bitter division rivals, coach George Allen’s Washington Redskins. These 2 teams regularly battled it out for NFC supremacy in the 1970s, and this year was no exception. Allen’s “Over The Hill Gang”, a collection of veterans and old misfits that the coach fielded due to his disdain for playing rookies, were challenging Landry’s always strong team for first place in the NFC East. The ‘Skins were dominating this game, and when veteran linebacker Dave Robinson hammered the Cowboys’ star QB, Roger Staubach, with a tackle so vicious that it knocked Staubach out of the game, it looked hopeless for the home town team. Staubach’s replacement was 22-year old unproven rookie Clint Longley, who had not played in a game up to that point. Longley had earned the nickname “The Mad Bomber” from his teammates for his habit of throwing errant passes and hitting Landry’s coaching tower in practice. He came into the game with his team trailing, 16-3, and wound up throwing 2 touchdown passes, including the game-winner to Drew Pearson, to lead the Cowboys to an improbable 24-23 win. Longley had no expectation of ever playing in the game and entered it totally unprepared, and afterward lineman Blaine Nye, his teammate, sarcastically called the win “a triumph of the uncluttered mind.” The game turned out to be Longley’s 15 minutes of fame, as less than 2 years later, he sucker punched Staubach from behind in the locker room during training camp, leaving Staubach requiring several stitches to repair his face. The team immediately traded Longley to San Diego, where his career faded. It was reported recently on the NFL Network that Longley wound up selling carpeting out of his car back in Texas.

                                                            Clint Longley in 1974.