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The Dallas Cowboys are an , and are currently members of the Eastern Division of the National Football Conference (NFC). The team is sometimes referred to colloquially as '' America's Team '' due to its having a large fan base that lives outside its immediate local area. (The term itself is derived from the title of the team's 1978 NFL Films Highlight Film .) The team's national following might best be represented by its NFL record of consecutive games in front of sold out stadiums. The streak of 160 sold-out regular and post-season games began in 1990, and included 79 straight sellouts at Texas Stadium and 81 straight sell-outs on the road. According to an Associated Press article on ESPN.com , Forbes Magazine lists the Cowboys as one of the most valuable sports teams in North America, with an estimated value of approximately $1.173 billion, behind the Washington Redskins ($1.423 billion) and the New England Patriots ($1.176 billion). They are also one of the wealthiest teams in the NFL, generating almost $250 million in annual revenue. {Link without Title} The Cowboys are one of the most successful teams of the modern era (1960 and beyond.) They hold league records for most consecutive winning seasons (20, from 1966 to 1985) and most seasons with at least 10 wins (24). The team has earned the most postseason appearances (28, which includes another league record of 54 postseason games, winning 32 of them), the most appearances in the NFC Championship Game (14), and the most Super Bowl appearances (9), two more than any other NFL team. The Cowboys also played in 2 NFL championship games before the NFL's 1970 Merger With The American Football League . The Cowboys became the first team in NFL history to win 3 Super Bowls in just 4 years (a feat that has been matched only once since, by the New England Patriots). They are also tied with the San Francisco 49ers and the Pittsburgh Steelers for having the most Super Bowl wins (5). FRANCHISE HISTORY Originally, the formation of an NFL expansion team in Texas was met with strong opposition by Washington Redskins owner, George Preston Marshall . This was no surprise, because despite being located in the nation's capital, Marshall's Redskins had enjoyed a monopoly as the only NFL team to represent the Southern States Of The US for several decades. This came as little surprise to would-be team owners, Clint Murchison, Jr. and Bedford Wynne . To ensure the birth of their expansion team, the men bought the rights to the Redskins fight song, " Hail To The Redskins " and threatened to refuse to allow Marshall to play the song at games. Needing the song, which was a staple for his "professional football team of Dixie", Marshall changed his mind, and the city of Dallas, Texas , was granted an NFL franchise on January 28 1960 . This early confrontation between the two franchises no doubt triggered what would become one of the more Significant Rivalries In The NFL , which continues even to this day. The team was first known as the Dallas Steers, then the '''Dallas Rangers''' before settling on the nickname "Cowboys" for the 1960 season. The new Dallas owners, Murchison and Wynne, immediately hired with the 13th pick in the draft. During the 1960s, the Cowboys continued to build their team. Quarterback Don Meredith and Running Back Don Perkins joined the team and, by 1966, the Cowboys had their first winning season (10-3-1; which began a record-setting streak of 20 straight winning seasons, unmatched by any other NFL team) and their first playoff appearance. Although the playoff game was a 34-27 loss to the Green Bay Packers , it marked the start of a record-setting eight consecutive playoff appearances. (From 1975 until 1983, the Cowboys would later match and extend that record, raising the bar to an NFL record nine straight playoff appearances.) By the mid-60s, the Cowboys had become a powerful force in the NFL, appearing in the playoffs in four consecutive seasons. The team also sent eight players to the Pro Bowl , including Cowboy legends Bob Hayes , Chuck Howley , "Dandy" Don Meredith, Don Perkins, and future Pro Football Hall of Famers Bob Lilly and Mel Renfro . Similarly, the Cowboys were becoming a staple in the Dallas community. The Cowboys competed for the affections of the people of Dallas with Lamar Hunt 's Dallas Texans of the AFL . Although the Dallas Texans (in the AFL) had a far better record than the NFL's Dallas Cowboys, the popularity of the Cowboys drove the Texans out of Dallas to Kansas City in 1963, where they became the Kansas City Chiefs. By 1969, ground was being broken on a new stadium for the Cowboys to replace the Cotton Bowl. Texas Stadium in Irving, a Dallas County suburb, would be completed for the 1971 season. Although Meredith and Perkins retired in 1969, many new players joined the organization in the 1970s, such as Cliff Harris , Lee Roy Jordan , and Dan Reeves , plus Pro Football Hall of Fame players Rayfield Wright , Mike Ditka , Herb Adderley , and Roger Staubach . Led by quarterback Craig Morton , the Cowboys made it to their first Super Bowl, a mistake-filled Super Bowl V , where they lost 16-13 to the Baltimore Colts courtesy of a Field Goal by Colts' kicker Jim O'Brien with five seconds remaining in the contest. The Cowboys then moved from the Cotton Bowl to Texas Stadium in week six of the 1971 season, won their last seven regular season games, and advanced through the playoffs to defeat the upstart Miami Dolphins , 24-3, in Super Bowl VI. Behind an MVP performance from Staubach and 252 yards passing, that game Remains the only Super Bowl where a team has held their opponent without a touchdown. During the rest of the 1970s, the Cowboys were now beginning to grow in popularity not just in Dallas, but nationwide. Bob Ryan, an NFL films editor, dubbed the Cowboys "America's Team" in 1974, a nickname that has earned derision from non-Cowboys fans but has stuck through both good times and bad. The Cowboys drafted well too, adding new legends like future Hall of Famer Randy White and Thomas "Hollywood" Henderson . The fresh influx of talent helped the Cowboys to advance to win Super Bowl XII, and make appearances in Super Bowl X and Super Bowl XIII . Danny White became the Cowboys' starting quarterback in 1980 after Roger Staubach retired, and led the Cowboys to the playoffs five times and won two Division Championships. However, despite playing in the NFC championship game three consecutive years from 1980-1982, they did not reach the Super Bowl during that decade. In 1984, , 1989 . Jones promptly fired Tom Landry, the only coach the Cowboys had ever known, and replaced him with University Of Miami head coach, Jimmy Johnson . With the first pick in the draft, the Cowboys selected UCLA quarterback Troy Aikman (yet another future Hall of Fame inductee) and Traded Away veteran running back Herschel Walker to the Minnesota Vikings for five veteran players and eight draft choices. Although the Cowboys finished the 1989 season with a 1-15 record, the worst record since the team's inception, they were able to draft a number of impact players, including running back Emmitt Smith , to rebuild the team. In 1992, three years after their 1-15 season, the Cowboys finished with a 13-3 record (second best in the league) and went on to crush the , Thomas Everett , Daryl Johnston , Russell Maryland , Nate Newton , Ken Norton Jr , Jay Novacek , Mark Stepnoski , and Erik Williams . Johnson and owner Jerry Jones had a falling-out, so Johnson left the organization prior to the 1994 season. Jones hired former University Of Oklahoma head coach Barry Switzer to be the team's new head coach. The Cowboys would finish 12-4, but failed to win a third consecutive Super Bowl in a loss to the 49ers in the NFC Championship Game, 38-28. In 1995, Jones lured All-Pro cornerback Deion Sanders away from San Francisco and Dallas once again posted a 12-4 regular season record. The Cowboys eventually defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers, 27-17 at Sun Devil Stadium , in Super Bowl XXX, getting revenge against the Steelers for the two four-point losses in Super Bowl X and Super Bowl XIII. Coach Switzer became the second, and only other coach, to claim a National Championship in college football and a Super Bowl victory in professional football. However, the glory days of the Cowboys were again beginning to dim as free agency, age, and injuries began taking their toll. The Cowboys went 6-10 in 1997, with discipline and off-field problems becoming major distractions. As a result, Switzer resigned as head coach in January 1998 and former Steelers offensive coordinator Chan Gailey was hired to take his place. Gailey led the team to a 10-6 record in 1998, but was let go after an 8-8 playoff season in 1999, becoming the first Cowboys coach who did not win a Super Bowl. Defensive coordinator Dave Campo was promoted to head coach, but he could only post three consecutive 5-11 seasons. Many fans and media were beginning to blame Jerry Jones for the team's ills, noting that he refused to hire a strong coach, preferring to hire coaches who did not want to be involved with personnel duties so that Jones himself could manage them. Jones then lured Bill Parcells out of retirement to coach the Cowboys. The Cowboys became the surprise team of the 2003 season, posting a 10-6 record and a playoff berth by having the best overall defense in the NFL. However, during the next two seasons, the Parcells-led Cowboys missed the playoffs. The Cowboys then finished an up-and-down 2006 season with a 9-7 record and a playoff appearance, but after a last second loss in the Wild Card Game against the Seattle Seahawks , Parcells retired and was succeeded by Wade Phillips . LOGO AND UNIFORMS The Dallas Cowboys white ''home'' jerseys have royal blue (PMS 661) solid socks, numbers, lettering, and two stripes on the sleeves outlined in black. The ''home'' pants, according to the Dallas Cowboys official media guide, are a unique metallic silver-green color (PMS 8280) that help bring out the blue in the uniform. The navy (PMS 282) ''away'' jerseys (nicknamed the "''Stars and Stripes''" jersey) have white lettering and numbers with navy pinstripes. A white/gray/white stripe are on each sleeve as well as the collared V-neck and Cowboys star logo was placed upon the stripes. The ''away'' pants are a pearlish metallic-silver color (PMS 8240) and like the ''home'' pants, enhance the navy in the uniforms. The Cowboys use a serifed font for the lettered player surnames on the jersey nameplates.
Uniform history When the Dallas Cowboys franchise debuted in 1960, the team's logo was a simple blue star adorned atop white helmets. The team wore blue jerseys with white sleeves and a small blue star on each shoulder for home games and the negative opposite for away games. Their socks also had two horizontal white stripes overlapping the blue. In 1964, the logo would later be modified to include a white border outlining the blue star and in 1967 the team changed the star once more by making the white a pinstripe. This would be the team's present logo to this day. In 1965, the Cowboys opted for more of a simple look and changed their jerseys/socks to one solid color with three horizontal blue stripes on the sleeves. A year later in 1966, the team narrowed the stripes to two per sleeve/sock and this version of the uniform has seen little change to the present day. The only notable changes in the last 40 years to the jerseys were:
In 1994, the NFL celebrated their 75th Anniversary and the Dallas Cowboys celebrated their back-to-back Super Bowl titles by unveiling the white "''Double-Star''" jersey on Thanksgiving Day. This special jersey was used on Monday Night Football and throughout the season's playoffs. During the 1995 season, the team wore the navy "''Double-Star''" jerseys for games at Washington and Philadelphia . These jerseys were not seen again until the NFL's ''Classic Throwback Weekend'' on Thanksgiving Day 2001-2003 In 2004, the Cowboys went further back into their illustrious history and donned the 1962 era dark jerseys including white helmets and pants. This would be the team's present alternate or 3rd jersey. The Dallas Cowboys were the first NFL team to primarily wear their white jerseys at home, as it was an unofficial rule that teams wear their colored jerseys at home. This tradition started in the 1960s by then-general manager Tex Schramm, who wanted fans to see a variety of opponents' colors at home games. {Link without Title} Since then, a number of other teams have worn their white uniforms at home such as the Washington Redskins and Miami Dolphins. SEASON-BY-SEASON RECORDS
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