The 7 most memorable Thanksgiving Day games in Dallas Cowboys history

The NFL tradition of playing football on Thanksgiving Day started with the Detroit Lions in 1934.

But the popularity of the now time-honored cultural post dinner phenomenon took off when the Dallas Cowboys were added to slate.

As lore would tell it, in 1966 the NFL wanted to added a second game to Thanksgiving Day schedule but had trouble getting another team to host it.

Viewership and attendance were not guaranteed because the game would likely be played during dinner time for families. No wanted to take the risk.

That’s why legendary Cowboys general manager Tex Schramm stepped up to plate and volunteered his team.

It was a chance to boost the natural interest in a struggling Cowboys that was still in its infancy

The NFL didn’t know how the Cowboys would do and didn’t trust they could make it a hit so they guaranteed a portion of the ticket sales.

As the NFL would come to find out, never bet against Schramm and his instincts.

The Cowboys broke their franchise attendance record with 80,259 fans showing up for 26-14 victory over the Browns at the Cotton Bowl.

The NFL came through and honored Schramm’s request and the Cowboys have hosted on Thanksgiving every year since accept 1977 and 1975 when the league alternated years with the St. Louis Cardinals to help grow that franchise.

After two years of disappointment on Thanksgiving Day in St. Louis, the tradition returned to Dallas with a handshake deal with the NFL that it would never be taken away again.

And it has been a Cowboys event ever since and it played in a role of the popularity of the franchise and helped them earn the name of “America’s Team.”

Here are the 7 most memorable Cowboys games on Thanksgiving Day:

The inaugural game in 1966

The Cowboys played a Cleveland team minus Hall of Fame running back Jim Brown, who shockingly retired a year earlier.

Still the Browns were a dangerous team. They had beaten the Cowboys earlier in the season and were up 14-13 at halftime when the first of many of Thanksgiving Day comebacks in club history transpired. Don Perkins rushed for 111 yards. Dan Reeves scored a touchdown and the Cowboys got four field goals Danny Villanueva.

The biggest highlight was the sellout crowd in what was the first of 32 wins on Thanksgiving Day and the beginning of a holiday tradition.

The victory also proved to be a coming out party of the Cowboys, who used the win against the then-powerhouse Browns, to spark a 10-3-1 record in 1966. It was the first winning season in franchise history and their first Eastern Conference title.

Clint Longley, the mad bomber comes through

The 1974 game will be forever be remembered because it had the unlikeliest of stars in unknown rookie backup quarter Clint Longley, who was forced into action in the second half against Washington after Hall of Famer Roger Staubach was knocked out of the game with a concussion.

Down 16-3, no one gave the Cowboys a chance with Longley, 22, at the helm taking his first career snaps against an 8-3 Washington team.

Longley didn’t blink, rallying to the Cowboys to two touchdowns, including a 35-yard score to tight end Billie Joe DuPree. Down 23-17 with 28 seconds left in the game, Longley, nicknamed the Mad Bomber because of the accuracy on his deep ball, found Hall of Famer Drew Pearson behind the defense with a 50-yard heave.

It was the Hail Mary before Staubach made that phrase popular in the playoffs once season later.

Cowboys offensive lineman Blaine Nye infamously called Longley’s performance “the triumph of the uncluttered mind.”

Longley was the hero of the day but he was gone from Dallas two years later after sucker punching Staubach in training camp in 1976.

Longley was traded to the then-San Diego Chargers while Staubach was in the hospital getting nine stitches. He played just three games for the Chargers and never returned to the NFL.

Jason Garrett comes to the rescue

Before Jason Garrett became the coach on the Dallas Cowboys, his biggest claim to fame among Cowboys fans was being a Thanksgiving Day hero in 1994.

The then-two time-time Super Bowl champion Cowboys faced the Green Bay Packers and Brett Favre on Thanksgiving without starting quarterback Troy Aikman and backup Rodney Peete, forcing the little-known and little-used Garrett into action.

His first pass was intercepted and the Cowboys trailed 17-6 at halftime.

Garrett would go from Clark Kent to Superman in the second half, using the advice of his wife Brill, who told him to “just throw it up high to Alvin”.

Garrett connected with Alvin Harper three times in the second half for 91 yards, including a 45-yard touchdowns en route to passing for 311 yards and leading the Cowboys to a club-record 36 second-half points.

The Cowboys scored on all five possession in the second half in a 42-31 victory.

Lett it alone Leon

It is remembered affectionately these days as “the snow game”. And even Leon Lett can laugh about it now.

But in 1993, the Thanksgiving Day battle between the Cowboys and Miami Dolphins was arguably the weirdest of them it.

It began when an unprecedented sleet storm hit the day before the game, going through the hole in the roof at Texas Stadium and blanketing the field with snow. Temperatures continued to drop and the playing surface was ice at game time.

Slipping and sliding ensued all day and the teams combined for six turnovers and a couple of missed field goals.

But when the Cowboys on the verge of walking away with 14-13 victory with a blocked 41-yard field goal in the waning seconds of the fourth quarter, the bizarre happened.

While the team was celebrating on the sideline, back up defensive tackle Leon Lett saw the ball rolling towards the goal line and thought he needed to jump on it. If he leaves it alone, the game is over.

But he didn’t. The ball skittered away and Dolphins downed it at the 1.

Miami kicker Pete Stoyanovich got one last chance at a shorter a field goal and the Cowboys lost 16-14.

Lett cried in the locker room.

“I don’t know what happened,” Lett would later say. “It was a brain freeze.”

The Cowboys rallied around him and would not lose another game en route to their second consecutive Super Bowl title. It was Jimmy Johnson’s last loss as Cowboys coach. He was fired after the season.

Randy Moss gets his revenge on Turkey Day

To this day, the Cowboys biggest draft day mistake was passing on Randy Moss with the eighth pick in 1998. The dynasty may have never died. And there certainly wouldn’t have been a 28-year gap between Super Bowls.

But owner Jerry Jones cared about the bad boy negativity surrounding his franchise during the Cowboys run to three Super Bowl titles in 1992, 1993 and 1995. So he passed on Moss due to character concerns and took defensive end Greg Ellis in the first round.

But on Thanksgiving Day against the Cowboys, Moss remembered the promises Jones had made to him before the draft. He grew up a Cowboys fan and wanted to follow in the footsteps of Deion Sanders and Michael Irvin.

Moss had to wait until the 21st pick before he was rescued by the Minnesota Vikings and became a rookie sensation.

Moss vowed to make the teams who passed on him regret their decisions, especially the Cowboys.

He got his chance on Thanksgiving Day and had a game for the ages, catching three passes, all for touchdowns and all over 50 yards while embarrassing the Cowboys secondary in a 41-31 Vikings victory.

Three catches for touchdowns of 51, 56 and 56 yards.

It would not end there for Moss as he went 7-0 against the Cowboys during his Hall of Fame career.

Tony Romo’s coming out party

It was the game that birthed generation of Romo-sapiens and Romo-sexuals and gave the Cowboys Romo-metum in their return to relevancy.

Tony Romo, who signed with the Cowboys as an undrafted free agent in 2006, was elevated to the starting role over a disappointing Drew Bledsoe by coach Bill Parcells a month into the season.

It was in his fifth start on Thanksgiving Day against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers when Romo showed the world what the fuss was about.

He completed 22 of his 29 passes for 306 yards and five touchdowns without an interception in his team’s 38-10 victory. He threw two touchdowns to Terry Glenn, two to Marion Barber, and one to Terrell Owens.

The Cowboys had finally found their franchise quarterback after years in the abyss following the retirement of Troy Aikman.

Fans at Texas Stadium even hung a temporary sign of Romo being a member of the team’s hallowed Ring of Honor.

He would lead to the Cowboys to the playoffs that year and up as the team’s all-time leading passer. But he finished with just two playoff wins.

Houston claims the title of Texas’ team

It was the Cowboys second year back as hosts on Thanksgiving after the league’s failed experiment with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1975 and 1977.

And in 1979, the Cowboys, coming off a super Bowl loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers, were once again a contender and hosted the upstart Houston Oilers on Thanksgiving Day.

The Oilers were 9-3 and were riding high under coach Bum Phillips with Hall of Fame running back Earl Campbell leading the way.

Campbell, a native of Tyler who won the Heisman Trophy with the Texas Longhorns, took over the Lonestar State battle.

He rushed 33 times for 195 yards and two touchdowns, including a 61-yard jaunt.

Roger Staubach was unable to rally the Cowboys in the final moments.

And Phillips took this shot after the Oilers’ 30-24 victory.

“If they’re America’s Team, we must be Texas’s team,” Phillips said afterward. “I know I said before today that this was just another game, but I lied.”

It would be Staubach’s last Thanksgiving Day game as he retired after the season when the Los Angeles Rams knocked them out of the playoffs, denying the Cowboys a third straight trip to the Super Bowl.