Ten-Gallon War: The NFL’s Cowboys, the AFL’s Texans, and the Feud for Dallas’s Pro Football Future

In the 1960s on the heels of the Greatest Game Ever Played professional football began to flourish across the countryexcept in Texas where college football was still the only game in town. But in an unlikely series of events two young oil tycoons started their own professional football franchises in Dallas the very same year: the NFLs Dallas Cowboys and as part of a new upstart league designed to thwart the NFLs hold on the game the Dallas Texans of the AFL. Almost overnight a bitter feud was born. The team owners Lamar Hunt and Clint Murchison became Mad Men of the gridiron locked in a battle for the hearts and minds of the Texas pigskin faithful. Their teams took each other to court fought over players undermined each others promotions and rooted like hell for the other guys to fail. A true visionary Hunt of the Texans focused on the fans putting together a team of local legends and hiring attractive women to drive around town in red convertibles selling tickets. Meanwhile Murchison and his Cowboys focused on the game hiring a young star Tom Landry in what would be his first-ever year as a head coach and concentrating on holding their own against the more established teams in the NFL. Ultimately both teams won the battle but only one got to stay in Dallas and go on to become one of sports most quintessential franchisesAmericas Team. In this highly entertaining narrative rich in colorful characters and unforgettable stunts Eisenberg recounts the story of the birth of pro football in Dallasback when the game began to be part of this countrys DNA.