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Thursday, November 28, 1996

Cowboys Fans Blessed With Tradition of Turkey Day Thrillers

By T.R. SULLIVAN / Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Nov. 28, 1996)

FORT WORTH, Texas - The Cleveland Browns were the defending Eastern Conference champions and one year removed from an NFL Championship.

The Dallas Cowboys, in 1966, were still trying to shed the label of expansion team. Only a couple of years earlier, owner Clint Murchison had squashed rumors of coach Tom Landry's imminent dismissal by giving him an unprecedented 10-year contract.

The Cotton Bowl capacity was listed at 75,504 in 1966, but 80,259 showed up on Thanksgiving night to see what was clearly going to be a crucial Eastern Conference showdown between the 7-2-1 Cowboys and the 7-3 Browns. The winner would lead the conference with only three games remaining.

Don Perkins rushed for 111 yards. Quarterback Don Meredith called "one of his best games," according to Landry. Kicker Danny Villaneuva, who had blown a game against St. Louis by missing a 33-yard field-goal attempt late in the game, kicked four field goals and verbally jousted with reporters in the locker room afterward.

"Wasn't a bad night for a washed-up kicker, was it?" Villaneuva said. "Some of you had me buried."

When it was over, the Cowboys had rallied from being down 14-13 at halftime for a 26-14 victory. It was a watershed game in Cowboys history. The game marked their emergence as a true NFL powerhouse, a distinction they would hold for much of the next three decades.

The game also marked their first appearance on Thanksgiving, establishing one of the NFL's most enduring traditions. The Cowboys host the Washington Redskins at Texas Stadium tomorrow for what will be their 29th Thanksgiving Day appearance in the past 31 years.

While other NFL executives saw Thanksgiving Day as a disruption of the normal routine, Cowboys general manager Tex Schramm foresaw millions of people stuffing themselves with turkey and dressing, then sitting down to watch professional football with their pumpkin pie.

Schramm proved prophetic, and the annual Thanksgiving appearance became another successful gambit, along with cheerleaders, luxury suites and silver star helmets, in his overall strategy to turn the Cowboys into "America's Team."

The Detroit Lions also have a long Thanksgiving Day tradition, but they've almost been reduced to a warmup act. The Cowboys rule the day because, like tomorrow's affair, so many of their games have a significant impact on the playoff picture.

That was especially true in the years from 1966-79, when the Cowboys' Thanksgiving bashes produced some of the most memorable games in NFL history.

You start with Clint Longley, George Allen and the 1974 game against the Washington Redskins. The story has been told and retold, but no Thanksgiving nostalgia trip can be taken without revisiting that game.

Roger Staubach was in his prime as the Cowboys quarterback. His backup was Longley, a rookie out of Abilene Christian who had yet to play in a regular-season game.

Allen, Redskins coach and Cowboys baiter, said before the team's first meeting, "Clint Longley? Who's he? Is he with the Yankees or the Dodgers?"

Redskins defensive end Diron Talbert took it one step further before the Thanksgiving game: "If you knock (Staubach) out, you've got that rookie facing you. That's one of our goals in the game. If we do that, it's great. That's all they have."

The Redskins did knock out Staubach in the third quarter while leading 16-3. But Longley led the Cowboys on two scoring drives that gave them a 17-16 lead. The Redskins went ahead 23-17 in the fourth quarter, but then came the miracle.

Longley, with 28 seconds left, fired one deep from midfield and hit Drew Pearson with a 50-yard bomb behind the Redskins' secondary, a touchdown that gave the Cowboys a stunning 24-23 victory.

"I wasn't nervous, but I was sure excited," Longley said after the game. "I really didn't have time to be nervous. I was writing down plays and they told me to grab my helmet and get in there. I had to find my helmet first."

There was much grousing in the Redskins' locker room.

"I don't have much to say," Allen said. "That was probably the toughest loss we've ever had."

Defensive end Deacon Jones said of Longley, "We still don't know anything about him. We didn't get him and we should have. No rookie is supposed to beat us."

Talbert said: "It's a shame to lose like that. You've got to be man enough and team enough to take something like that."

The Redskins never liked losing to the Cowboys, especially on Thanksgiving. The Cowboys beat the Redskins, 29-20, in 1968 and Washington coach Otto Graham was not in a festive mood afterward.

"I've never seen the officiating this bad," Graham said. "I don't mind getting beat, and I appreciate that the officials have judgment calls to make, but I think it's about time we got officials who have some judgment."

Graham was mad, but nothing like the St. Louis Cardinals after a 1976 classic against the Cowboys. The Cardinals were a playoff team in 1974-75, so this one also had major playoff implications.

The Cowboys led 19-14, but Cardinals quarterback Jim Hart drove his team to a first down at the Dallas' 13-yard line with 48 seconds remaining.

"My knees were knocking and my mind was a total blank," defensive back Benny Barnes said. "The pressure was intense."

On first down, Hart tried to hit tight end J.V. Cain, but safety Charlie Waters knocked the pass away at the last instant. A second-down pass to Terry Metcalf gained 5 yards. On third down, Hart had Cain open in the end zone, but this time safety Cliff Harris knocked down the pass at the last second. On fourth down, Hart was rushed hard by Harvey Martin and his pass wasn't close to anyone.

In the locker room afterward, Cain was screaming abut pass interference on both plays, and St. Louis coach Don Coryell said, "We had the game taken away from us. I can't amplify on that ... I'm not rich like some coaches are."

Cardinals executive Joe Sullivan wasn't worried about being fined by commissioner Pete Rozelle, saying, "I'll pay the same fine George Allen had to pay."

The Cardinals had suffered two consecutive losses to the Redskins and Cowboys, and Sullivan said: "I read all that ... in the papers from Dallas and all the ... in the papers from Washington, when all they do is complain about the officiating and get away with it. Tex Schramm and that No. 55, what's his name? Yeah, Lee Roy Jordan. They spout off their mouths all the time, and they never get in trouble for it. Then we come into two crucial games and get robbed in both of them. You bet I'm mad."

Not all the games were so controversial, but many were significant. The Cowboys beat the Green Bay Packers, 16-3, in 1970. That snapped a seven-game losing streak to the Packers that included two NFL Championship games in 1966-67.

"I would have liked to have had it back a couple of times earlier," Landry said afterward.

There was 1967, when Meredith threw for 300 yards and Bob Hayes returned a punt 69 yards for a touchdown in a victory against St. Louis. A 24-24 tie with San Francisco in 1969 ended when Dallas kicker Mike Clark had a 37-yard field goal blocked with seven seconds left.

In 1971, the Cowboys beat the Western Division-leading Los Angeles Rams, 28-21, a victory that was a blow to the Redskins' chances of catching Dallas.

Afterward, Landry said, "Nobody is happy in Washington, that's for sure. I hated to go against the president (Richard Nixon) because he's my man."

The Redskins have never beaten the Cowboys on Thanksgiving. They lost 37-10 in 1978, and afterward Thomas "Hollywood" Henderson rubbed it in.

"Yes, I still think they are turkeys," Henderson said. "Didn't you see those feathers flying all over the place out there? And I could hear this gobbling noise. It sounded like it was a turkey that was choking."

Something that could only happen with the Cowboys on Thanksgiving Day.

Distributed By The Associated Press