In the winter of 1964, the Dallas Cowboys were at a critical junction in their franchise’s short history. In their first five seasons of existence in Dallas, things had not gone well to say the least. In 1960, Clint Murchison Jr, an owner of an oil tycoon in Texas was instrumental in professional football arriving in Dallas. After negotiating the licencing, Murchison Jr was officially the owner of the Dallas Cowboys. The city of Dallas was ecstatic about the arrival of the Cowboys. The first order of business for Murchison was to hire his staff. He hired Tex Schramm to be the general manager. Schramm had great experience working for the Los Angeles Rams and understood the inner workings of the league, he would go on to be a legendary general manager in the league. Together Murchison and Schramm agreed to hire a first-time head coach to lead the first Dallas Cowboys football team.
Their selection was a defensive guru who was one of the bright young minds in the league. Tom Landry had excelled as a player for the New York Giants. A punter by trade, he led the league in yards on multiple occasions and was honored to be a pro-bowl player multiple times. As a young assistant coach for the New York Giants he coached the defense opposite another up-and-coming coach on the offensive side as Vince Lombardi led the offense. Landry led the Giants defense to the top of the league from 1956-1959 and was the originator of the “4-3” defensive formation that revolutionized the game. As a young up-and-coming coach with tremendous connections, Tom Landry was a great pick to be the first head coach of the Dallas Cowboys. Even though he was a first time head coach, Landry had a great deal of potential.
Potential can be a double-edged sword. Potential is a foundation to do something special. But the downside of potential is that it often means you haven’t really done anything yet.
Landry began his tenure leading the Cowboys with great potential. Unfortunately, the potential had yet to be realized as he led the Cowboys to a winless season in his first crack at being a head coach. A city excited to welcome football to the town watched as their beloved Cowboys went 0-11-1 under Landry in year one.
1961 and 1962 showed a little improvement, but the team was still struggling under the rookie coach. The man could punt well, and lead a defensive well, but many in Dallas were wondering if he could lead a team well. Landry led the team to a 4-9-1 record in 1961 and a 5-8-1 record in 1962. Three years down and zero trips to the postseason for the Cowboys.
The newness began to wear off. The energy of ribbon cuttings on new buildings has a way of fading after three losing seasons. Not as many smiles and “go get em’s” after three losing seasons. Many in Dallas began to rumble that the coach with the Fedora wasn’t a rookie anymore and maybe should have stuck to defensive schemes in New York. In 1964 Landry was on the “hot seat.” There weren’t daily television talk shows to rant about how he should be fired like today, but a hot seat can get hot even without talk show radio programs.
Despite the slow start, Landry felt the team was on the right track. He was laying the foundation for something special. Systems and culture were being established daily. The right people were beginning to gather. The question became, would he have the opportunity to see potential turn into real results?
In the 1964 season, things continued the same way unfortunately. Landry led the team to a 5-8-1 record. Dallas fans were well beyond impatient. So too was General Manager Tex Schramm. Schramm approached the team owner, Murchison Jr and told him it was time for a change. Schramm stated that Coach Landry would be fired. Murchison told Schramm he would call him after the weekend was over.
On Monday Murchison called Schramm and informed him Tom Landry was going nowhere. In fact, he told Schramm he had just extended Landry with a 10-year contract. Landry was going to stay in Dallas a little longer. Murchison’s words to a perplexed and frustrated Schramm were:
“We have the right man. Good things are going to happen. But it takes time.”
Murchison was right. The next season the Cowboys finished 7-7. Their first non-losing season of their short history. For the next 20 years the Dallas Cowboys would win more games than they lost in every season. Two straight decades of winning seasons. After the 5-8-1 season in 1964, no Cowboy team led by Landry would have a losing season until 1986.
Over the 20-year span of success, the Cowboys, and their faithful Dallas fans would experience playoff football in 18 seasons. The same Dallas faithful who wanted Landry gone, would enjoy Super Bowl parties as they watched their beloved Cowboys in five super bowls over Landry’s tenure. I’m sure there was more than one Cowboy fan who between bites of appetizers leaned over to the host and said “You know I knew all along Landry had this thing going in the right direction.” As the old proverb says - “Success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan.”
Landry would win two Super Bowls and would finish his career with a 270-178-6 overall record. After starting his head coaching career 18-35-3, Landry would go on to twice be named the NFL Coach of the Year (1966, 1975). He was inducted into the NFL hall of fame in 1990.
The young coach who was once on the hot-seat for a slow start and a lack of wins is the Dallas Cowboys record holder for career wins as a head coach.
The rise of the Dallas Cowboys and their success over a twenty-year period was an amazing concoction of Tom Landry’s coaching success, Tex Scrhamm’s administrative prowess and the ability of Clint Murchison’s ability to get out of the way of his hired men. Other than the ten-year contract extension, Murchison rarely if ever inserted himself in the dealings of the franchise. Murchison was known to have two invaluable possessions. The first was money, thanks to his oil dealings. The second possession was even more valuable than money - patience.
Why is patience so valuable?
Patience understands every endeavor starts small. You can’t skip steps, you can’t shortcut the process. Whether a diet to lose ten pounds, or a retirement fund, the process takes what it takes.
Patience recognizes you may go to bed some nights and realize you have nothing to show for your progress. Patience forces us all to wait for some distant date in the future in which we MAY cash in our reward for labor we hope was not in vain.
Patience knows most progress occurs beneath the surface. Patience forces us to work in the dark. Distant from attention, notoriety, and often external satisfaction.
Patience carves in us character traits we would forfeit if we did get instant gratification. Instant results leave us with just results. Patience can develop things in us far more valuable than the reward we are chasing.
Only a fool would discredit the value of patience in life.
Stay The Course,
JB
Book of the week: Leadership Strategy & Tactics - Jocko Willink
Podcast episode of the week: Mark Bader on Early Flo Days - Flowrestling Radio Live
Article of the week: It Pays To Be Patient - Daily Hope Rick Warren
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