Schramm, Tex

Tex Schramm

1920-

American football executive

It isn't easy to measure Tex Schramm's impact on professional football, for his mark is on so much of the game as we know it today. Schramm is perhaps best known for building a little-known expansion team in Dallas into one of football's most venerable franchises, so widely popular across the nation that it came to be known as "America's team." For nearly three decades he was the general manager of the Dallas Cowboys and in 1991 became the only football executive who never owned or coached a team to be elected to the Professional Football Hall of Fame. With Pete Rozelle , commissioner of the National Football League (NFL), and Lamar Hunt, founder of the American Football League (AFL), Schramm engineered the merger of the two rival leagues. He's also credited with building the NFL's first bona fide scouting system and is known as well as the father of the instant replay.

Born in Southern California

He was born Texas Edward Schramm in San Gabriel, California, just outside Los Angeles, on June 2, 1920. After graduating from Alhambra High School, Schramm, who had family ties in Texas, enrolled at the University of Texas to study journalism. As a freshman, he had a brief fling at collegiate football, playing fullback, but at only 147 pounds, he quickly decided that he'd be better off writing about football and not playing it. During his years in Austin, he covered sports for the student newspaper and also worked part-time for the Austin American-Statesman. After earning his bachelor's degree, Schramm served four years in the U.S. Air Force.

Returning to civilian life, Schramm was introduced to Los Angeles Rams owner Dan Reeves , who hired him to handle publicity for the team, which had only recently moved to Los Angeles from Cleveland. Five years later, in 1952, Reeves was promoted to assistant to the president of the Rams. Schramm became the team's general manager in 1956 but left the following year in the midst of a power struggle between Reeve and his fellow owners. Before leaving the Rams, however, Schramm recommended Pete Rozelle as his replacement.

From the Rams Schramm went to CBS-TV as assistant director of sports. Although he had no particular expertise on winter sports or the Olympic Games, Schramm had an idea. And, as he would soon begin to prove during his twenty-nine years at the helm of the Dallas Cowboys, a Schramm idea was not something to be taken lightly. Fortunately for television viewers, CBS executives liked Schramm's suggestion that the network televise competition at the 1960 Winter Olympic Games in Squaw Valley, California. And the rest is history.

Chronology

1920	Born in San Gabriel, California, on June 2
1947	Hired as public relations director for the Los Angeles Rams
1952	Named assistant to the president of the Rams organization
1956	Named general manager of the Rams
1957	Leaves Rams to join CBS Sports
1960	Oversees CBS television coverage of Winter Olympics at Squaw Valley, California
1960	Dallas Cowboys franchise awarded; Schramm named general manager
1966	Named president of Cowboys and chairman of NFL competition committee
1984	Launches Cowboys Center project
1989	Leaves Cowboys to become president and CEO of World League of American Football
1990	Replaced as head of World League of American Football

Scouts Locations at Squaw Valley

After getting the green light from his bosses at CBS, Schramm scouted locations at Squaw Valley during the summer of 1959, several months before the scheduled games. Logistics for the operation were far more difficult in those days when every piece of camera equipment had to be attached by cable. For Schramm, the first order of business was the burial of miles of cable leading from the network's on-site headquarters to each of the Olympic venues. And the headquarters for CBS was hardly the plush affair to which we've become accustomed in recent years. Instead, the network's delegation was housed in the basement of a building erected for IBM, which would keep track of statistics for the competition.

Although this first coverage of the Winter Olympics was primitive by today's standards, Schramm ensured a touch of class by insisting that the format for coverage feature a central anchor desk moderating coverage from reporters at the various venues. No less a personage than Walter Cronkite occupied the anchor's chair, with such distinguished reporters as Jim McKay, Dick Button , Chris Schenkel, Bob Beattie, and Bud Palmer.

The Squaw Valley experience also produced a dividend that would resurface some years later and become transformed into a football tradition. At one point during the games, Olympics officials appealed to CBS for a replay of some of its tape to help verify the outcome of a contested event. Schramm filed away the idea, which returned to him years later in the form of instant replay.

Looks to Return to Football

Even before the Winter Olympics aired, Schramm had begun to look for a way to get back into pro football. When he learned in late 1959 that the NFL might soon award an expansion franchise to Dallas, he let it be known among his network of friends in football that he'd be interested in running the new team. George Halas of the Chicago Bears introduced Schramm to Clint Murchison Jr., a wealthy Texas oilman who'd tried for years to bring an NFL team to Dallas. The two hit it off immediately, and Murchison hired Schramm as general manager for a team that did not yet exist. For Schramm it was a dream job. "I'd always wanted, as far back as I can remember, to take a team from scratch and build it. So this was an opportunity I couldn't pass up even though we didn't know for sure that Dallas would get a team." On January 28, 1960, the dream became a reality when the NFL formally awarded the franchise to Dallas. In anticipation of winning the franchise, Schramm had already hired two key people for the team—Tom Landry as coach and Gil Brandt as personnel director.

Schramm firmly believed that the key to building a strong team was through the annual college draft and the signing of free agents. However, under the terms of the franchise agreement, Dallas was forced to acquire thirty-six veterans, three from each of the twelve teams in the expansion draft. With eleven losses and one tie, the Cowboys' debut season was an unmitigated disaster. Schramm stuck to his guns, building the team with young players wherever possible. A number of losing seasons followed. Impatient fans called for Landry's head, but Schramm was not to be moved, signing the coach to an unprecedented ten-year contract extension in 1964. It was slow work, but by 1966 the Cowboys had finally managed to finish the season over the .500 mark. The Cowboys won their first NFL Western Conference titles in 1966 and 1967 but lost to Green Bay in the NFL championship game both years. This marked the beginning of the team's ascendancy to a football powerhouse. For the next twenty seasons, Dallas won more games than they lost, making it to the playoffs eighteen times. Over the next two decades, the Cowboys won thirteen divisional championships, five NFC titles, and Super Bowls VI and XII. The team also played in Super Bowls V, IX, and XIII but lost to their AFC opponents.

"Once our popularity got started, we wanted to keep it going," Schramm later observed. "I think we were probably more image-conscious than most other teams. We tried to do everything first class, from top to bottom." Although Schramm didn't invent the "America's team" label for the Cowboys, he was quick to exploit it in his promotion of the team. At one point, he sent out 100,000 souvenir calendars bearing the "America's team" moniker. Despite all that he did to build Dallas into one of football's most outstanding franchises, Schramm was not universally liked. Some were put off by his outspoken nature. But even those who found Schramm somewhat abrasive were forced to acknowledge his impressive accomplishments while at the helm of the Cowboys. In 1977, he was named NFL Executive of the Year by Sporting News ; the following year he received the Bert Bell Award for outstanding executive leadership in the NFL.

Awards and Accomplishments

1960	Hired Tom Landry as coach and Gil Brandt as personnel director for new NFL team in Dallas
1966	Engineered merger of AFL into NFL with AFL founder Lamar Hunt
1970	Negotiated four-year contract with NFL Players Association
1977	Named NFL Executive of the Year by Sporting News
1978	Bert Bell Award for outstanding executive leadership in the NFL
1987	Father of the Year by Dallas Father of the Year Committee and the New York-based Father's Day Council Inc.
1991	Inducted into Pro Football Hall of Fame

Murchison, who had owned the team since its inception in 1960, sold the Cowboys to Bum Bright in 1984. In the latter half of the 1980s, the fortunes of the Cowboys took a marked turn for the worse. Their twenty-year winning streak ended in 1986, and two years later the team finished the season with a dismal 3-13 record. In 1988 Bright sold the team to Arkansas oil man Jerry Jones, who made it clear from the outset that he would personally manage every aspect of the Cowboys operation. The time had finally come for Schramm to move on, which he did in early 1989, leaving to become president and CEO of the new World League of American Football. Less than two years later, he stepped down from that post when he clashed with NFL officials over the future of the new league. Although he's now retired, Schramm remains active and as outspoken as ever. He's also developed a reputation as an accomplished sports fisherman, noted in particular for his competitive tag and release search for deep-sea marlin.

Schramm's role in building the Dallas Cowboys into one of professional football's most legendary teams is undeniable. And whether they love him or hate him, almost everybody in football is forced to acknowledge his contributions to the game as a whole. For his part, Schramm always hoped that he could make of the Cowboys a gridiron version of the New York Yankees in their heyday. "They were tops, first class. That's the way we want to be," Schramm once said. "Football is such a great and emotional business, and I want to look and say I was a part of greatness." Most observers would conclude that Schramm succeeded beyond his wildest dreams.

FURTHER INFORMATION

Books

St. John, Bob. Tex: The Man Who Built the Dallas Cowboys. New York: Prentice Hall Trade, 1988.

"Tex (as Edward) Schramm." Almanac of Famous People, 6th ed. Detroit: Gale Group, 1998.

Periodicals

Horn, Barry. "Schramm Was Ready to Give Game the Old College Try." Dallas Morning News (November 24, 1998): 4B.

Luksa, Frank. "Schramm Left His Mark with First Televised Games." Dallas Morning News (February 13, 1998): 18B.

Moore, David. "Unable to Lead, Schramm Left Behind." Dallas Morning News (February 25, 1999): 12B.

Other

"Cowboy Management." Tim's Cowboy History Page. http://users.conwaycorp.net/tstone/management.htm (October 18, 2002).

"Outstand Alumnus 1999-2000: Tex Schramm." College of Communication. http://communication.utexas.edu/alumni/outstanding.html (October 19, 2002).

"Tex Schramm." Professional Football Researchers Association. http://www.footballresearch.com/articles/frpage.cfm?topic=schramm (October 18, 2002).

"Tex Schramm: Biography." Pro Football Hall of Fame. http://www.profootballhof.com/players/enshrinees/tschramm.cfm (October 18, 2002).

Sketch by Don Amerman