The Dallas Cowboys Uniform: Tracing Its Evolution Through Football Cards [reposted from a 1994 article] by Fred Goodwin ================

The Dallas Cowboys wore their "throw-back" uniform on Monday night, September 19, 1994 against the Detroit Lions (notice they wore their current helmet colors, not white and blue?). So I thought it would be interesting to trace the evolution of the uniform. Cowboy fans may be surprised to learn that the uniform and team colors were not always the current silver and blue which are now so familiar. Changes in team colors and uniform designs are easily traced through a review of historical football cards.

Topps' 1960 set is no help: it shows Cowboy players in the uniforms of their former teams. The place to start examining the Dallas uniform is the 1961 Topps and Fleer sets. Both show the Cowboys in their original uniforms: Fleer shows them in their white (road) jerseys with blue shoulders; Topps features the royal blue (home) jerseys with white shoulders. The shoulders included a star and number of contrasting color, the star being on top of the shoulder with the number on the sleeve. Note the long sleeves on both jerseys; the pants were white with twin blue stripes. The white helmet with blue star and stripes is pictured on only one card ('61 Topps #19), a team action photo of Eddie LeBaron handing off to L.G. Dupre. Pants and socks normally were not featured on older sets; an exception is '62 Post. It includes full-length action photos of players without their helmets, and gives good views of the white pants and socks. The blue hose retain the twin white stripes to this day.

Close-up helmet shots in '63 Topps (#78 Cvercko and #82 Lilly) show that the blue star was borderless, unlike today's bordered blue star. Cards #76 (Marsh) and #77 (Howton) show clearly the white shoulders with blue stars that resembled the College All-Star uniforms of the time.

The first major uniform change occurred in 1964 and is reflected in '65 Philadelphia. Most of the players are shown in their new uniforms: white jerseys and silver pants. The numbers are on top of the shoulders, with three blue stripes on the 3/4 sleeve. The white uniform has remained virtually unchanged to this day. However, the new uniforms did not impress coach Tom Landry, who supposedly liked the original one. He reportedly said, "New uniforms never won a football game". Of course, he was right -- the Cowboys struggled to a record of 5-8-1 in 1964.

Traditionally, visiting teams wore white, and the home team wore its colored jerseys. It was about 1964 with the introduction of the new uniforms that the Cowboys began to wear white at home; the rationale was that, if the Cowboys wore blue at home, and visiting teams wore white, that's all the fans would ever see: blue vs. white. However, if the Cowboys wore white, fans would be treated to SF in red, GB in green, NY in blue, etc.; i.e., home whites would bring variety to the fans. Dallas still wears white at home.

The (then) new royal blue jersey and silver helmet are first seen in '66 Philly. Like the white jersey, the new blue jersey features numbers on top of the shoulders and three white stripes on the sleeves. The silver helmet (#55 Clarke) includes a blue star with white trim. The helmet logo and trim have undergone only minor changes since that time.

The '69 Topps set shows the number of stripes on the sleeves reduced from three to two -- the current design. For the second year in a row, Topps did a poor job of photo selection, mixing stock images of the obsolete uniform with photos of the current uniform.

The next change was rather subtle, and probably resulted from the 1970 merger with the AFL. In trying to bring consistency to team uniforms across the league, I believe the league office mandated rules about the uniform and number placement; the numbers were placed on the outside of the shoulder, rather than on top. I think this was done to make the numbers more visible on TV. Only '71 Topps #65 (Thomas) and #190 (Hayes) show the new number placement; the others show the old placement on top of the shoulder. In addition, in 1970 player names were added to the back of the jersey for the first time in the NFL/NFC; the AFL had been showing names for some time. Of course, evidence of the names can only barely be seen on the cards; e.g., in 71T #190, Hayes' name can barely be seen as he leans forward in the photo.

The first evidence of the two-stripe blue jersey is '72 Topps #253 (Pro Action), a shot of Duane Thomas in SB V. All shots of blue jerseys up to that time showed three stripes (e.g. '70 Topps #4, Neely), or (worse yet), the old "All-Star" type jersey (e.g. '69 Topps #75, Meredith and #97, Howley). The last helmet change to bring it to its current design was the addition of a blue outline to the star. I believe the change occurred in '67, and should have appeared in the '68 Topps set. That set (as well as the '69 set -- #210, Edwards) shows the white-bordered blue star, but because of Topps' irritating use of out-of-date stock photos, the lack of blue trim on the star cannot be considered conclusive.

The '70 and '71 sets show no helmets at all. The '72 Topps set was the beginning of the "airbrush" era, in which helmet logos were painted out. Airbrushing continued for ten maddening years until the '82 Topps set (one glaring exception is '79 Topps #167, NFC Championship, which clearly shows the Rams' horns even though the Cowboys' star is gone!). Thus, Topps does not show the current helmet logo until 1982. Fleer Team Action '76 shows the current star design, as does '79 Stop-N-Go 3-D.

At some point, the Cowboys decided to put the numbers back on top of the shoulders. Several players are shown that way in '75 Topps: e.g., #175 Lilly and #59 Waters. Other players are shown with numbers on the outside of the shoulders. The current design has numbers on top of the shoulders. An almost imperceptible helmet variation can be seen in '77 Topps: one stripe was made red, to provide a red, white, and blue effect for the Bicentennial year of 1976. I think the Cowboys modified their helmets in this way only for SB X in January, 1976. Card #102 Herrera, #516 Johnson and #45 Staubach show this red stripe.

The last, and most recent major uniform change is reflected in '82 Topps: the Cowboys redesigned their road jerseys from royal blue to navy blue. Numbers and stripes were in very light blue, outlined in white. That combination was very difficult to see, and later, blue trim was added to the numbers. Also, silver pants were designed to be worn with the navy blue jerseys, rather than the metallic silver-blue pants worn with the home whites. It is said that the Cowboys felt jinxed when forced to wear their royal blue jerseys; the Cardinals routinely made the Cowboys wear them when they visited St. Louis, as is still the case today in Phoenix. Tex Schramm was apparently so paranoid about the royal blue uniform, that he personally redesigned it in navy blue, some say, hoping to break the jinx. However, he did not change the design of the home white uniform.

(Aside: as the home team, Green Bay wore green against KC in SB I; every odd-numbered SB since has traditionally featured the NFC team hosting in its colored jerseys, except Dallas! Under current NFL rules, the home team decides whether it will wear colored or white jerseys -- that's why the Cowboys wore blue in SB V but white in SB XIII. The rule was changed for SB XIII at their insistence!)

The last few changes have been relatively minor. Two of them were temporary: adding the letter "C" on captains' jerseys, and adding numbers to the pants, and can be seen in the '84 Topps set. The third change was also temporary: the Silver Anniversary logo was added to player jerseys for the '84 season, which can be seen in '85 Topps (the Cowboys, like all other NFL clubs, also wore a 50-year NFL anniversary patch in 1969; however, '70 Topps does not show it since Topps did not use game-action photos that year; also, the Bicentennial patch worn in SB X is not seen in '76 Topps). Fourth: the blue numbers used on the white home jerseys were increased in width, as can be seen in '87 Topps (I believe the pant stripes were also widened at that time). Fifth: the numbers were removed from the pants, as can be seen in '90 Score. I'm not sure how long the captains' "C" lasted, but it is not found on the current uniform.

Teamset collectors (like me) will find it interesting to trace the evolution of their favorite team's uniform through a review of football cards; older teams like the Giants and Packers have a long history in the league, and (unlike the Cowboys) should appear on older sets like '35 National Chicle and '48 Leaf and Bowman. In fact, helmet logos did not appear until 1948; thus, even fans of older teams (except, of course, the Browns) should find some evidence of helmet logo evolution in their cards. I think it's great that the NFL resurrected the old uniforms, even if only for a few games. If any season warrants research into old uniforms, the '94 season is the one -- happy hunting!

(This article originally appeared in the July/August 1994 issue of Bob Swick's Football Times, a football memorabilia collector's newsletter. Unfortunately, the newsletter is no longer available) © Fred Goodwin, January 30, 2007