Texana Thursday: Cowboys Football for the Price of a Song

Dallas Cowboys founding owner Clint Murchison, Jr. (Texas Sports Hall of Fame photo)

Forbes magazine values the Dallas Cowboys football club at approximately $4 billion, between the merchandise sales, sponsorships, AT&T Stadium, television deals, ticket sales, and so forth. It’s a long way from when the Cowboys were established for the price of a song in 1960..

With Lamar Hunt of Dallas and K.S. “Bud” Adams Jr. of Houston leading the creation of the new American Football League, some team owners in the rival National Football League recognized that they needed to establish some new franchises for their league.

The NFL decided to establish an expansion franchise for Dallas, in part to compete with Hunt, who was establishing his own AFL franchise there. The man hoping to own the Dallas NFL franchise was oilman Clint Murchison, Jr.

A majority of NFL owners had to vote to approve a franchise for Dallas. The vote fell short. Not everyone agreed that the NFL needed to expand. One of those owners was George Preston Marshall, owner of the Washington Redskins.

But Marshall had an issue that Murchison could leverage into support for a Dallas franchise. The Redskins had a fight song, “Hail to the Redskins,” that their marching band played at games. Marshall liked the band and song, but neither he nor the Redskins had the rights to the song.

Dallas sportswriter Bob St. John, in his book Never Just a Game: Tex Schramm (AWOC Publishing, 2007), describes what happened: “(Marshall) had a falling out with band director Barney Briskin, who had co-authored the song with Marshall’s wife, Connie Griffin. Briskin, angry with Marshall, got in touch with attorney Tom Webb and asked him if he were interested in rights to the song. Webb figured it was a joke on Marshall and said he was.”

Webb happened to be one of Murchison’s lawyers. Murchison talked Webb into giving him the rights to the song. Murchison met with Marshall and they cut a deal.

Marshall got his song, which continues to be played at Redskins games. You can watch a video of it, posted on NFL.com, here.

Murchison and his partners got Marshall’s vote for an expansion franchise in Dallas, which was to be called the Rangers. (The nickname Cowboys wouldn’t come along until later, but in time for the team’s debut season in 1960.) The Cowboys would make their mark on professional sports, and today both teams are preparing for another NFL season.

All for the price of a song.