Gil Brandt, who helped build Cowboys into 'America's Team,' dies
Pro Football Hall of Famer Gil Brandt, one of the architects who helped turn the Dallas Cowboys from an expansion franchise into "America's Team," died Thursday. He was 91. He was the Cowboys' vice president of player personnel for 28 years, from 1960 when the team entered the NFL as an expansion franchise until May 1989, when he was fired by new owner and general manager Jerry Jones. Under the leadership of Brandt, coach Tom Landry and general manager Tex Schramm, the Cowboys posted 20 consecutive winning seasons from 1966 until 1985 and made five Super Bowl appearances, with two championships. The Cowboys won those titles by defeating the Miami Dolphins 24-3 in Super Bowl VI and the Denver Broncos 27-10 in Super Bowl XII.
The stories, there sure were a slew of them. Good ones, too. So many years, needing a multiplier to reach those working for the Dallas Cowboys and the NFL. Great, innovative ones, too. All of this came flooding home on Thursday, the day Gil Brandt passed away at the age of 91, those in the organization close enough to him and the family knowing this was coming upon departing for training camp July 24. Doesn't make it any easier to accept, no matter the years he lived, and certainly he did so long enough to make many of us old enough to wish for a similar existence on this earth. For me, Gil has been my Cowboys historical source, the guy you called, and by gosh he would always answer or call you back, to fill in some blanks. Like how did the whole deal go down for the Cowboys to acquire Chuck Howley? Or what was the behind-the-scenes story on how the Cowboys ended up with Ralph Neeley when initially seemed heading to the AFL? Or just why the Cowboys decided to draft Randy White with the No. 2 pick on the 1975 NFL draft instead of Walter Payton?
Gil Brandt’s respect for Black prospects helped change the NFL
Coincidently, Doug Williams was in Canton, Ohio, last weekend at the Black College Football Hall of Fame Classic when the news came: Gil Brandt, hailed as the progenitor of modern NFL scouting for his architectural derring-do in helping Tex Schramm and Tom Landry build and maintain the Dallas Cowboys over their first three decades, died Brandt was 91. Or maybe it is more accurate to say it was appropriate that Williams was at the Black College Football Hall of Fame Classic when Brandt, a White guy from Milwaukee who never played football beyond high school, died. “That’s why we selected him to be one of the persons picking players who go into the Hall of Fame,” Williams pointed out to me this week, “because of who Gil was and what he’s done over the years. But Brandt may have had a greater impact than anyone on equity for Black NFL players, who now make up more than half of the league’s rosters.
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