In 1963, after three tough years at the ticket office for both of the city's professional football teams, the Dallas Texans of the AFL relocated to Kansas City. When asked of this development at the time, Cowboys owner Clint Murchison Jr. joked, "We flipped a coin, and I lost."
The line was meant in jest, but Murchison's meaning wasn't without merit. Both he and Texans owner Lamar Hunt had lost millions in those first three campaigns and while each wealthy son of legendary Texas oilmen had the dough, it simply wasn't good business.
Looking back, on paper at least, the fact that Dallas landed both NFL and AFL franchises mere months apart after being left out of the professional football landscape for so long, minus an ever-so brief foray in 1952, may seem bizarre. And in retrospect, the decision certainly lacked common business sense, but by no means was it coincidental.
Both Hunt and Murchison had been trying to bring professional football to Dallas, while another son of a millionaire oilman, Bud Adams, was doing the same in Houston. All three men attempted to relocate the struggling Chicago Cardinals franchise in 1958 to no avail.
Having been told by then-Chicago Bears owner George Halas, without question the most powerful man in the sport, that there were no immediate plans for expansion in the NFL, Hunt decided he wasn't waiting around any longer and launched his own league, a rival for the 12-team NFL named the American Football League. Adams immediately jumped on board, and the league, at the time two franchises strong, was formally announced from Adams' office in Houston on Aug. 3, 1959.
"First, I went after Bud," Hunt told the Houston Chronicle in 2004. "I felt that it was very important to have a Dallas and Houston rivalry. They were probably the two ripest cities in America that didn't have teams."
Within two weeks, clubs in New York, Denver, Los Angeles and Minneapolis were announced. Boston and Buffalo were next.
Around this same time, the NFL decided expansion wasn't the worst idea and almost immediately added franchises in Minneapolis and Dallas. However, while the former then backed out of the new league, with Oakland taking its place, Hunt wasn't budging his Texans.
He dubbed the eight owners that spent $25,000 each for franchises, "The Foolish Club," and play began opposite the nearly four-decade old league in 1960, some 50 years ago.
Those first few campaigns were filled with lawsuits and vicious battles to sign players, with Halas himself once saying the situation was "a financial bloodbath for both leagues."
However, it should be mentioned that Murchison and Hunt, who passed away in 1987 and 2006, respectively, were not bitter enemies despite the competition between their franchises.
"Actually, I remember Dad and Lamar being pretty friendly with one another. I know they liked each other and often spoke," said Rob Murchison, Clint's youngest son.
The men almost ended up as co-owners, with Hunt once recalling, "We both wanted pro football in Dallas. I had been turned away by the NFL, and by the time Clint had approached me it was too late; I felt obligated to remain with the league I helped form."
Some of the stories about signing players are comical, although obviously not so at the time. The NFL literally assigned men to stay with free agents and players coming out of college 24 hours a day until they signed so that AFL representatives couldn't swoop in with contracts. There are tails of players climbing out of hotel windows to speak with teams. This, of course, was before player agents. Some, like 1960 Heisman Trophy winner Billy Cannon, signed with both leagues, forcing legal action.
In 1962, the Dallas Texans won the AFL championship while the Cowboys were still struggling in the NFL at 5-8-1. However, more importantly, neither team was making a profit with attendance at the Cotton Bowl, not to mention the shared advertising market.
Kansas City offered Municipal Stadium rent-free for two years if Hunt agreed to a seven-year lease, and would expand the venue by 11,150 seats to a capacity of 45,000-plus. Having never sold more than 5,000 season tickets in three years in Dallas, the Chiefs landed 13,000 for that inaugural season.
"There was no conceivable way for both the Texans and the Cowboys to continue to operate in Dallas and be successful," Hunt said in the superb 1970 book "Dallas Cowboys, Pro or Con?" by Sam Blair. "The Cowboys had a certain built-in advantage in that if they ever were successful on the field they would do better than we would because they were playing in the NFL. Also, I had certain tax considerations.
"There's a question as to how long you can lose money in a business and still make economic sense. We had just won the championship and I felt if we were going to move that was the time. I didn't think we would do a lot better if we stayed another year, and we might not do nearly as well on the field.
"After receiving the feeler from Kansas City, we met with the Cowboys in the latter part of the 1962 season. I didn't tell them that I had the Kansas City feeler, but I had concluded it was time to look elsewhere. Jack Steadman, the Texans general manager, and I initiated the meeting with Clint (Murchison) and Tex Schramm. The theme was, 'Look, we've both lost money for three years. Let's one of us leave town.'
"We came to the conclusion that the Cowboys were not really interested in leaving. We looked elsewhere, but the Kansas City thing looked best, so we decided to take it."
Of course, leaving his hometown of Dallas wasn't an easy decision, but Hunt was looking at the wider spectrum, the growth and survival of the league rather than his own franchise.
"He was more concerned about the league succeeding," Kansas City Chiefs and Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Len Dawson recently told the USA Today.
"All of us owe a great deal of gratitude to Lamar Hunt because of his dream to form a league and own a football team."
For the Cowboys, attendance immediately jumped, from 21,778 per game in 1962 to nearly 27,000 the next year, and more than 38,000 in 1964. In the four seasons following the Texans departure to Kansas City, attendance at the Cotton Bowl for Dallas increased 23.8, 42.3, 44.8 and 21.7 percent. And while winning football games certainly assisted those numbers, the lack of local competition was definitely a factor.
Dallas Cowboys President Tex Schramm said shortly after the Texans departed, "We think we've made big strides in the past three years in building a team that can uphold the football tradition of the Southwest. We're quite optimistic about the coming season. We think we're definitely in position to bid for a championship.
"We're also looking forward to offering a team worthy of the support of the entire community and we are looking forward to welcoming all pro football fans to our games. We certainly wish Lamar and the Texans the greatest of luck and success in Kansas City. The competition of the past three years, if not an artistic success for either team, certainly made the Dallas-Fort Worth area aware of pro football."
The AFL-NFL merger, which was finalized by Schramm and Hunt at Dallas Love Field Airport, came more than three years later in June of 1966.
"They had a great deal of tenacity those people who formed the AFL," longtime NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle told NFL Films. "And during the 1966 season I think I had some discussions with Tex Schramm and some other owners in the league. And I got the feeling a merger might be possible and that if it were to be accomplished it would be best through discussions with Tex, who lived in Dallas, and Lamar Hunt, fellow man of honor, who would be good to talk to and keep it confidential."
Initially, as many predicted, the NFL was the stronger league, with Green Bay routing Kansas City in Super Bowl I, 35-10. After the game, Packers coach Vince Lombardi said, "Kansas City is a good football team. But their team doesn't compare with the top National Football League teams. I think Dallas is a better team I'd have to say NFL football is tougher."
Two years later, following quarterback Joe Namath's famous guarantee, the New York Jets defeated the heavily-favored Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III. The AFL made it back-to-back titles when the Kansas City Chiefs defeated the Minnesota Vikings, 23-7, in Super Bowl IV.
The NFL is celebrating the AFL's 50th anniversary this season with numerous "Legacy Games," the fourth of which is the Cowboys trip to Kansas City this Sunday. Another takes place on Thanksgiving with the Oakland Raiders visiting Cowboys Stadium in Arlington.
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