Dallas Football Through the Decades
by Paula Bosse
Tom Landry, Texas Stadium, 1971… (click for larger image)
by Paula Bosse
Here are a few football-centric Dallas images to enjoy on this football-centric day.
Above, Dallas Cowboys’ coach Tom Landry in 1971, surveying with wonderment the then-under-construction Texas Stadium (via UTA Special Collections).
1905: Early days of local football. In 1905 there were hopes of getting up a “heavyweight team.” Prospects were iffy. (All images are larger when clicked.)
Dallas Morning News, Sept. 3, 1905
This was at a time when football injuries — and DEATH — were not uncommon.
DMN, Oct. 13, 1905
1911: The Dallas High School team at Gaston Park (a popular sporting field which is now the site of the Dallas Music Hall at Fair Park). This photo was taken on December 16, 1911 — that day they defeated Fort Worth High, 15-5.
George W. Cook Collection, DeGolyer Library, SMU
1918: The Love Field eleven was made up of military personnel based at the airfield during World War I. They played other military teams in the area, venturing as far as at least Waco.
George W. Cook Collection, DeGolyer Library, SMU
1920s: The “State Fair of Texas” stadium predated the Cotton Bowl. This aerial photo shows what was probably the University of Texas vs. Vanderbilt game, which took place on Oct. 13, 1928 during the State Fair of Texas. (Vanderbilt won, 13-12.)
From “Dallas As a City In Which To Live” booklet, SMU
1920s: The SMU Mustangs took on the University of Missouri Tigers at Ownby Stadium.
From “Dallas As a City In Which To Live” booklet, SMU
1932: Speaking of the SMU Mustangs, then-local sports superstar (and Olympics medalist) Babe Didrikson — who was proficient in every single sport she tried — was given the opportunity by SMU coach Ray Morrison to give football the old college try: he coached her in passing and receiving and even allowed her to suit up in an official uniform. She tried out her football moves for the pubic during a scrimmage in Ownby Stadium on September 18, 1932.
One of the most interesting features of the program from a football fan’s standpoint was demonstration of several of the Ponies’ famous scoring plays, in fast and slow motion. Babe Didrikson, Dallas’ famous feminine athlete, took part in the slow motion exercises and proved herself somewhat of a polished gridder — adding more fame to her long list of athletic achievements. (DMN, Sept. 18, 1932)
Boston Globe, 9/23/32; Pottsville [PA] Republican, 9/28/32
1933: The stadium which would eventually be named the Cotton Bowl looks a little otherworldly in this Lloyd M. Long aerial photo.
Edwin J. Foscue Map Library, SMU
1940s: Dal-Hi Stadium (later P. C. Cobb Stadium) was the home field for six Dallas high schools.
In December, 1949, Dal-Hi served as the practice field for the University of North Carolina team while in Dallas for the January 2, 1950 Cotton Bowl match against Rice University (which Rice won, 27-13). I like this snapshot — downtown looms like a ghost in the background.
1950s: Dallas had a pro team before the Cowboys — the Dallas Texans. Here’s their ticket office, at 1721 McKinney Avenue. (From the article “Gone and Forgotten, The Dallas Texans of 1952” by Thomas H. Smith, from the Spring, 2005 issue of Legacies.)
via Legacies
1950s/1960s: Dallas high school football coaches who were all connected at one point (either as players or coaches) with Booker T. Washington High School: the legendary Raymond Hollie (head coach at both Booker T. and Roosevelt), Marion “Jap” Jones, and Sam Briscoe.
John Leslie Patton Papers, Dallas Historical Society
1960s: A quaint Dallas Cowboys locker room.
via Pinterest
1981: In the tradition of other comic-book heroes appearing in Dallas to save whatever needed saving (here and here), Spider-Man and the Hulk stopped by to help with some football-related issue. The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders appear to have been involved.
*
Copyright © 2019 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.
Flashback : Dallas 
Great look back,.. pics I had not seen before!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I am pretty sure the Fair Park aerial was taken at the October 20, 1923 Texas-Vanderbilt game. Here is an almost identical photo, see the cars in the lower right, in the October 21, 1923 issue of the DMN: https://goo.gl/9WUnUc
Here is a higher quality version of the aerial: https://i.imgur.com/TTkKILq.jpg
To show where the stadium was here is a 1930 aerial where you can see the new stadium that will become the Cotton Bowl and the field of the old stadium along Pennsylvania Avenue: http://i.imgur.com/LZVbFnk.jpg
LikeLiked by 1 person
Great to see something about the Dallas Texans since I was a member of the Dallas Texans Huddle Club.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Did you attend Obadiah Knight elementary, Thomas J. Rusk jr, and North Dallas High school?
LikeLike
Terrill School for Boys played games in the Fair Park Stadium and in the SMU stadium. From 1923 to 1928 almost every Terrill home game was played at one of the two stadiums. Terrill played what’s considered to be the first night game ever played in Dallas at the Fair Park Stadium: in 1925 Terrill played the Rice Freshmen team (known as the “Slimes” or the “Fish”), a game which Terrill won 16-0. That game was a benefit for something called the “All-College Circus.”
In the late ’20s and early ’30s, the SMU Freshmen (the “Colts”) vs. Terrill School game was often the season-ending game for both teams and was heavily covered in the newspapers before and after the game. They usually had crowds numbering in the thousands in attendance. Terrill frequently won the game.
Before the Fair Park Stadium, Terrill played its entire home schedule for almost three years at Gaston Park, which is mentioned in this story. It was torn down in 1914.
Texas Country Day School also played games at the SMU field when they hosted Kinkaid School from Houston. Kinkaid returned the favor by hosting Texas Country Day at Rice Stadium.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Terrill School played the Love Field team in 1919 at the Terrill campus on Swiss and Peak. Final Score: Terrill 47, Love Field 0, played October 10, 1919.
LikeLike
My earliest memory of the DALLAS TEXANS was meeting JACK SPIKES, who was the punter among other things. I was 7
LikeLiked by 1 person
1958/59 lincoln high played booker t washington with a very large crowd(thanksgiven)
LikeLike