Tom Landry who was the head coach for the first 29 years the Dallas Cowboys had a team- was born this day in 1924. Landry had been a player and assistant coach for the New York Giants before taking over as head coach of the expansion Dallas Cowboys in 1960.
He would be the head coach of the Cowboys from 1960 until 1988. His Cowboys appeared in 5ive Super Bowls and won two with Landry as head coach. His overall record was 270-178-6 which is the third most wins of any head coach in NFL history. His 20 playoff wins is the record. His Cowboys had a streak of 20 seasons with a winning record which is a record for most winning seasons in a row.
Tom Landry on the sidelines was always pretty calm and collected. You never saw him lose his temper. He was a religious man. As a coach he was very innovative. He invented the 4-3 defense and the flex defense. He was using the shot-gun formation that is used by everyone today back when no one else was.
One of the keys to the Cowboys success was stability. For several decades they had the same owner-the same general manager, the same personnel director and the same head coach.
The last few years of his coaching career it was clear that the Cowboys were not headed in the right direction. A lot of great coaches kind of lose the magic in the end. When Jerry Jones bought the Cowboys he fired ‘the only coach the Cowboys have ever had” and got Jimmy Johnson to coach. A lot of people were angry over this-including me. I hate the Cowboys. With Landry they weren’t going anywhere anymore. When they hired Jimmy Johnson I knew it was only a matter of time before they were back on top. Sadly, Tom Landry didn’t know when it was time to leave. A sad ending for one of the great coaches in NFL history.
Tom Landry died of leukemia at the age of 75 in 2000.
slicethelife 
i dont think anyone was as calm as he was on the sidelines. maybe being a bomber pilot in wwii gave him some other perspective.
probably the last coach to not wear a headset on the sidelines as well.
i think the only time i saw a reaction out of landry was when (name escapes me) tight end dropped the td pass in the super bowl.
Bud Grant.. I never saw any emotion out of him…but they played outdoors in Minnesota then.. maybe he was frozen.. I like when the coaches dressed up on the sidelines. I thought it was wrong when Mike Nolan wanted to dress up to honor his father who had coached the 9ers…and the NFL wouldn’t let him.