By Steve Liskey
TheCowboysGuide.com
June 24, 2009       

Pocket schedules have been used by all major sports for a very long time.  A take-anywhere type of reference guide for the sports fan.  Since the inaugural season of the Dallas Cowboys in 1960, there has been pocket schedules listing opponents to be played, kick-off time, and even a seating chart of the home stadium along with information on how to obtain tickets to see what was to become one of the greatest sports franchises in the world.
                              
A popular choice of many team collectors is to include pocket schedules in their collections.  The similarities to football cards is obvious, and most can fit in pocket pages and binders to go right along with what is already common practice in collecting cards.

It wasn’t long before photos of players could be found on these wallet sized cards.  After all, they were another marketing tool used to promote ticket sales.  The first individual player to be pictured on a Cowboys pocket schedule was Billy Howton in 1962.  A drawing of Eddie LeBaron dropping back to pass was used the following year.  Starting in 1968, a format was used that featured a single star player in a monochrome- style game action photo.  This style was continued through the 1982 season and is the closest in design to the football card.  Although the player’s name was never printed on the schedule, the player chosen for the honor was a recognizable star of the team.

Pocket schedules soon found their way into local convenience stores, liquor stores, and fast food restaurants.  You could just grab one for free on the counter on your way out.  As a result of this infiltration into our daily routines, company sponsors began to use them as a handy marketing tool, placing their brand name and logos on the schedules.  As the popularity of the Cowboys grew, demand for these handy little schedules also grew, and as a result, many sponsor variations can be found.  Some are identical on the front, while advertising for the many different companies are found on the back.  In 1980, sponsor variations reached its peak with as many as 20 different companies jumping in with their names and logo in the 1” space on the bottom reverse.  The most often found sponsors were beer companies, airlines and radio stations.  The Cowboys also used this small space below the list of games to advertise the Dallas Cowboys Weekly and provide ticket information.  You may find that some of the sponsor variations demand a premium.  This is simply due to the fact that a larger company could afford to produce more.  The sponsor with the longest run with the Cowboys was Braniff, the airline of choice for the team’s away games.  The Braniff name started appearing on schedules for the Cowboys in 1963 and didn’t stop until 1982 when Delta took over.  The AM radio station KRLD became the next front runner to sponsor schedules, beginning their run in 1974.

Along with the common style of card-like schedules, there were many other designs.  There are types that have single or double folds giving the sponsor much more room to advertise.  The holy grail of Dallas Cowboys schedules is the 1960 Falstaff Beer.  It uses a four panel design with a third fold and is the only schedule to have featured a full team photo listing all the players.  You could expect to pay a hefty premium for this extremely hard to find schedule.  Another popular design used was the sticker design which was used primarily by Dallas area banks from 1977 to 1985. 

One of the toughest team schedule items to find is the broadside.  Broadsides are large scale versions of the pocket schedule, printed on medium gauge cardboard.  These large scale versions of the monochrome design were used as display billboards in ticket outlets.  At the time, tickets were only sold at the team offices, the stadium, and a few other approved locations such as Sears department stores.  Thus, very low productions of these were made.  Broadsides were manufactured in two sizes.  The larger version measures approximately 13.5” x 20” and the smaller broadside measures approximately 9 x 13 and has a fold-out stand that allowed it to be self-supported like a picture frame.  These were made between 1968 and 75 but so few were printed that you’ll be hard pressed to find them anywhere.  Only the home games were listed for the 1968-71 seasons, then starting in 1972, the entire season was printed on them.

In the winter of 2008, I had the pleasure of meeting Rick Haskins (Dallas, TX), an expert in the field of Cowboys pocket schedules. In the 1980’s, Rick spent hours on the telephone calling radio stations, department stores and Dallas area businesses, and logging many miles in search of Cowboys schedules.  His quest took him all over Dallas and the surrounding area going from place to place of businesses that were known to carry schedules, and always on the lookout for the yet to be discovered sponsor.  He amassed quite an impressive collection over the years and his knowledge on this topic is invaluable.  I currently credit Rick with the entire pocket schedule section of the Guide.  Before Rick, I had less than 40 entries of schedules from 1960 – 1990.  I now have over 450 within the same time span.  Rick is also an expert and dealer in Dallas Cowboys pennants.  I am currently working with him to update that section of the Guide, as well.  Both expanded sections will be available in Volume 5.

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