The team had been part of the American Football Conference, before landing in Dallas. The Colts won the 1958 NFL Championship Game five years later!
Clint Murchison, Sr. was estimated with a fortune of around $300 M. He was friends with J. Edgar Hoover, FBI. His second son, Clint, was a 130 pound halfback with MIT.
H.L. Hunt was another oilman and wealthy. Lamar Hunt was his son. Both Lamar Hunt and Clint Murchison both wanted intensely to participate in professional football.
George Halas, the owner and coach of the Chicago Bears was the most powerful man in the NFL. He was the chairman of the Expansion Committee and had no plans on expanding to a 13th and 14th team.
Lamar Hunt decided that he wasn’t going to wait and in 1959 founded the American Football League with it’s opening season in 1960. That forced Halas to reconsider and to offer Clint Murchison a franchise in Dallas with the rights to the Washington Fight Song as blackmail against a non-vote. Then the price tag was $6,000,000.
Murchison hired Tex Schramm as his General Manager. He was only a sports writer in Austin at the time. Schramm then hired Gil Brandt, who was at that time a professional photographer. Brandt and never before played or coached football before that … but he had done some scouting.
‘When in 1965 Joe Robbie bought the Miami Dolphins, Jerry Jones tried to purchase a minority ownership. He was no able to accomplish that.
A year later there was a legitimate chance for Jerry Jones to purchase the San Diego Chargers for $5.8 M, but he couldn’t quite handle the loan requirements then.
Jerry was lucky as a wildcatter and built his own monies up from there.
In 1987, Bill Walsh offered to Jerry to fully explain finances, workings, and how to run an NFL organization from top to bottom. Jerry spent a lot of time learning the franchise necessary perspectives and caught up completely with the NFL at that time. This included scouting, player management, and evaluations determined by Head Coach directions in changes.
Jerry stretched everything, especially finances that carried a cost of $160 M and took him to task trying to stay ahead of Turk who was head of collections for the Dallas Cowboys even then.
It was Jerry who provided the opportunity to both Jimmy Johnson and players alike.
Information taken from ‘American’s Team’ by Jeff Sullivan.
