The Story And Significance Of Tom Landry - 29 Straight Seasons As The Dallas Cowboys Head Coach

Thomas Wade Landry was an American professional football coach, player, and World War II veteran. Regarded as one of the greatest head coaches of all time, he was the first head coach of the Dallas Cowboys in the National Football League, a position he held for 29 seasons. During his coaching career, he created many new formations and methods, such as the now default defense the 4–3 defense that is used by a majority of teams in the NFL, and the "flex defense" system made famous by the "Doomsday Defense" squads he built during his tenure with the Cowboys. His 29 consecutive years from 1960 to 1988 as the coach of one team is an NFL record, along with his 20 consecutive winning seasons, which is considered to be his most impressive professional accomplishment.

In addition to his record 20 consecutive winning seasons from 1966 to 1985, Landry won two Super Bowl titles in Super Bowl VI and XII, five NFC titles, and 13 divisional titles. He compiled a 270–178–6 record, the fourth-most wins all-time for an NFL coach, and his 20 career playoff victories are the third-most of any coach in NFL history. Landry was also named the NFL Coach of the Year in 1966 and the NFC Coach of the Year in 1975.

From 1966 to 1982, a span of 17 years, Dallas played in 12 NFL or NFC Championship games. Furthermore, the Cowboys appeared in 10 NFC Championship games in the 13-year span from 1970 to 1982. Leading the Cowboys to three Super Bowl appearances in four years between 1975 and 1978, and five in nine years between 1970 and 1978, along with being on television more than any other NFL team, resulted in the Cowboys receiving the label of "America's Team", a title Landry did not appreciate because he felt it would bring on extra motivation from the rest of the league to compete with the Cowboys. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1990 as a head coach.

He interrupted his education after a semester to serve in the United States Army Air Corps during World War II. Landry was inspired to join the armed forces in honor of his brother Robert Landry, who had enlisted in the Army Air Corps after the attack on Pearl Harbor. While ferrying a B-17 over to England, Robert Landry's plane had gone down over the North Atlantic, close to Iceland. Several weeks passed before the Army was able to officially declare Robert Landry dead. Landry began his basic training at Sheppard Field near Wichita Falls, Texas (now Sheppard AFB), and his preflight training at Kelly Field (now Kelly Field), located near San Antonio, Texas. Landry's first experience as a bomber was a tough one. A few minutes after takeoff, Landry noticed that the pilot seemed to be working furiously, causing him to realize that the plane's engine had died. Despite this experience, Landry was committed to flying. At the age of 19, Landry was transferred to Sioux City, Iowa, where he trained as a copilot for flying a B-17. In 1944, Landry got his orders, and from Sioux City he went to Liverpool, England, where he was assigned to the Eighth Air Force, 493rd Squadron in Ipswich. Landry earned his wings and a commission as a Second Lieutenant at Lubbock Army Air Field, and was assigned to the 493d Bombardment Group at RAF Debach, England, as a B-17 Flying Fortress bomber copilot in the 860th Bombardment Squadron. From November 1944 to April 1945, he completed a combat tour of 30 missions, and survived a crash landing in Belgium after his bomber ran out of fuel.

He returned to his studies at the University of Texas in the fall of 1946. On the football team, he played fullback and defensive back on the Texas Longhorns' bowl game winners on New Year's Day of 1948 and 1949. At UT, he was a member of the Texas Cowboys and Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity (Omega Chi chapter). He received his bachelor's degree from UT in 1949. In 1952, he earned a master's degree in industrial engineering from the University of Houston.

Landry was selected in the 19th round (128th overall) of the 1948 AAFC Draft. He played one season in the All-America Football Conference for the New York Yankees, then moved in 1950 across town to the New York Giants.

Landry was also selected by the New York Giants in the 20th round (184th overall) of the 1947 NFL Draft.

After the 1949 season, the AAFC folded, and the Yankees were not among the teams absorbed by the NFL. The New York Giants exercised their territorial rights and selected Landry in a dispersal draft. Under the guidance of Giants head coach Steve Owen, Landry got his first taste of coaching. Instead of explaining the 6–1–4 defense to the players, Owen called Landry up to the front, and asked him to explain the defense to his teammates. Landry got up, and explained what the defense would do to counter the offense, and this became Landry's first coaching experience. The 1953 season would be a season to forget, with the lowest point coming in a 62–10 loss at the hands of the Cleveland Browns. This loss would ultimately cost Coach Owen his job, and would again have Landry pondering his future. In 1954, he was selected as an All-Pro. He played through the 1955 season, and acted as a player-assistant coach the last two years, 1954 through 1955, under the guidance of new Giants head coach Jim Lee Howell. Landry ended his playing career with 32 interceptions in only 80 games, which he returned for 404 yards and three touchdowns. He also recovered 10 fumbles (seven defensive), returning them for 67 yards and two touchdowns.

For the 1954 football season, Landry became the defensive coordinator for the Giants, opposite Vince Lombardi, who was the offensive coordinator. Landry stayed on as a full-time defensive coordinator after his retirement, and led one of the best defensive units in the league from 1956 to 1959. The two coaches created a fanatical loyalty on a team that they coached to three appearances in the NFL championship game in four years. The Giants beat the Paddy Driscoll-led Chicago Bears 47–7 in 1956, but lost to the Baltimore Colts in 1958 and 1959.

In 1960, he became the first head coach of the Dallas Cowboys, a position he held for 29 seasons (1960–88). The Cowboys started with difficulties, recording an 0–11–1 record during their first season, with five or fewer wins in each of their next four. Despite this early futility, in 1964, Landry was given a 10-year extension by owner Clint Murchison Jr. It would prove to be a wise move, as Landry's hard work and determination paid off, and the Cowboys improved to a 7–7 record in 1965. In 1966, they surprised the NFL by posting 10 wins and making it all the way to the NFL Championship game. Dallas lost the game to Lombardi's Green Bay Packers, but this season was but a modest display of what lay ahead.

Landry developed the now-popular "4–3 defense" while serving as Giants defensive coordinator. It was called "4–3" because it featured four down lineman (two ends and two defensive tackles on either side of the offensive center) and three linebackers – middle, left, and right. The innovation was the middle linebacker. Previously, a lineman was placed over the center. But Landry had this person stand up and move back two yards. The Giants' middle linebacker was the legendary Sam Huff.

"Landry built the 4–3 defense around me. It revolutionized defense and opened the door for all the variations of zones and man-to-man coverage, which are used in conjunction with it today" which Sam Huff said.

When he came to Dallas, Landry refined the 4–3 even further, specifically to counter Lombardi's "run to daylight" strategy. Lombardi's offense was built around sending the running back through any open space, rather than a specific assigned hole. Landry reasoned that the best counter was a defense that blotted out the daylight. The result was the "Flex Defense," which assigned the defenders specific areas of the field to cover. When Landry first implemented it in 1964, fans were initially mystified when they saw the Cowboys defense not swarming to the ball. However, the skeptics were won over when ball carriers invariably ran right into the arms of one of Landry's defenders. The Flex Defense worked so well that Landry had to create an offense to score on it, one which disguised an otherwise simple play with multiple formations.

Landry did not always search inside the traditional college football pipeline for talent. For example, he recruited several soccer players from Latin America, such as Efren Herrera and Rafael Septién, to compete for the job of placekicker for the Cowboys. Landry looked to the world of track and field for speedy skill-position players. For example, Bob Hayes, once considered the fastest man in the world, was drafted by and played wide receiver for the Cowboys under Landry.

Landry produced a very large coaching tree. In 1986, five NFL head coaches were former Landry assistants: Mike Ditka, Dan Reeves, John Mackovic, Gene Stallings, and Raymond Berry.

While Tom Landry's Cowboys are known for their two Super Bowls against Chuck Noll and the Pittsburgh Steelers, Landry also led Dallas to three other Super Bowls, and they were a Bart Starr quarterback sneak away from representing the NFL in the second Super Bowl. Tom Landry was 2–3 in Super Bowls, winning both in New Orleans and losing all three at the Miami Orange Bowl.

Landry coached the Cowboys to their first Super Bowl win, defeating the Miami Dolphins 24–3, holding the Dolphins to a single field goal. The Cowboys won their first Super Bowl a year after losing to the Baltimore Colts. The Cowboys lost the first battle with the Steelers, in a game that is heralded as a classic. The rematch would be just as good, with the Cowboys being a Jackie Smith catch away from tying the Steelers and keeping pace early in the third quarter; instead, Pittsburgh scored twice in succession and put the game away. Before the Super Bowl XIII rematch, Cowboys linebacker Thomas "Hollywood" Henderson famously stated, "Terry Bradshaw couldn't spell c-a-t if you spotted him the C and the T." Landry recalled in his autobiography how he cringed when he heard that, because he did not feel that Bradshaw needed additional motivation in a big game like the Super Bowl.

During the 1980s, the Cowboys won two division championships, made five playoff appearances, and reached the NFC Championship Game in three consecutive seasons (1980–1982). However, they failed to reach the Super Bowl during the decade. The team's 1982 NFC Championship Game loss was Landry's final conference championship game appearance; the preceding week's win was his final playoff victory.

In 1984, Dallas businessman Bum Bright bought the team from Murchison. As the Cowboys suffered through progressively poorer seasons (their record falling from 10–6 in 1985 to 7–9 in 1986, 7–8 in 1987, and 3–13 in 1988), Bright became disenchanted with the team. Landry's game strategies and single-mindedness during these seasons left him open to public criticism.

Landry signed a three-year contract in the summer of 1987. However, general manager Tex Schramm brought in Paul Hackett as a new offensive coach in 1986, and in 1987, he hired offensive line coach Jim Erkenbeck and special-teams coach Mike Solari. Some suggested that Schramm's moves divided the coaching staff, a plan to first undermine and then dismiss Landry. Bright, who usually stayed behind the scenes, publicly criticized Landry after a home loss to the Atlanta Falcons in 1987, saying that he was "horrified" at the play-calling and complaining, "It doesn't seem like we've got anybody in charge who knows what he's doing, other than Tex." Bright's belief that former first-round draft picks Danny Noonan and Herschel Walker were not being used enough further put him at odds with the coaching staff. On the day after the Cowboys lost to the Detroit Lions, a team that had entered the game tied for the worst record in the NFL, Schramm said on his radio show, "There's an old saying, 'If the teacher doesn't teach, the student doesn't learn.'" Nonetheless, Bright maintained his hands-off approach on the team while Schramm retained his confidence in Landry.

Landry's Cowboys finished the 1988 season 3–13, the worst record in the league. His record as head coach fell to 270–178–6. It was the Cowboys' third consecutive losing season and the fourth time in five years that they had missed the playoffs. Nonetheless, Landry felt confident he could correct the mistakes he had been making in recent years. In February 1989, before the start of the 1989 season, as he dismissed or reassigned his assistants, he remained determined to coach into the 1990s "unless I get fired." Landry had one year left on his contract, which paid $1 million per season.

Meanwhile, Bright had suffered major losses in his banking, real estate, and oil businesses; during the savings and loan crisis, Bright's Savings and Loan was taken over by the FSLIC. With most of the rest of his fortune tied up in the Cowboys, Bright was forced to put the team up for sale. Bright ultimately sold the team to Jerry Jones, who fired Landry on February 25, 1989, one day after closing on the purchase. Jones hired Jimmy Johnson, his former teammate at the University of Arkansas, who had been serving as head coach at the University of Miami. Schramm was in tears at the press conference that announced the coaching change; he was forced out as general manager shortly afterwards. Schramm and Landry had been together for 29 years, each being the only person to serve in their respective position since the Cowboys' inception in 1960. When Landry met with his players two days later to tell them how much he would miss them, he began to cry, and the players responded with a standing ovation. He had spent 40 consecutive years at field level in the AAFC and NFL: five as a player (1949–53), two as a player-assistant coach (1954–55), four as an assistant coach (1956–59), and 29 as a head coach.

Jones received immediate backlash for his decision to fire Landry, while the former coach received an outpouring of public support. Despite Landry's recent poor performance, Cowboys fans felt disillusioned that the only coach in the team's history had been removed so unceremoniously. NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle compared the firing to the death of former Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi. President George H.W. Bush, who had previously represented Texas in the House of Representatives, called Landry "an inspiration to all who ever watched or played the game of football."

Jones stated he never considered retaining Landry and that he would not have purchased the team unless he could hire Johnson as coach. In 1990, Bright said that he regretted the backlash that Jones had faced for firing Landry. Bright recounted that he had been willing to fire Landry himself as early as 1987, but that Schramm had told him that there was no suitable replacement who was ready to assume the job. By 1993, relations between Jones and Landry had improved, and Landry was inducted into the Ring of Honor at Texas Stadium.

Landry's last work in professional football was as a limited partner of the San Antonio Riders of the World League of American Football in 1992.

Landry died on February 12, 2000, after battling leukemia. Landry's funeral service was held at Highland Park United Methodist Church, where he was an active and committed member for 43 years. He was interred in the Sparkman-Hillcrest Memorial Park Cemetery in Dallas. A cenotaph dedicated to Landry, complete with a depiction of his fedora, was placed in the official Texas State Cemetery in Austin at the family's request.

The Cowboys wore a patch on their uniforms during the 2000 season depicting Landry's trademark fedora. A bronze statue of Landry stood outside of Texas Stadium, and now stands in front of AT&T Stadium since the Cowboys relocated in 2009. The section of Interstate 30 between Dallas and Fort Worth was named the Tom Landry Highway by the Texas Legislature in 2001. The football stadium in Landry's hometown of Mission, Texas, was named Tom Landry Stadium to honor one of the city's most famous former residents. Similarly, Trinity Christian Academy's stadium in Addison, Texas, is named Tom Landry Stadium in honor of Landry's extensive involvement and support of the school. An elementary school in the Carrollton-Farmers Branch Independent School district, very near the Cowboys former training facility in Valley Ranch, is also named in honor of Landry. The Tom Landry Welcome Center at Dallas Baptist University, where he was a frequent chapel speaker and award recipient, was posthumously dedicated to him in 2002.

In 2013, a major new biography of Landry was published, entitled The Last Cowboy.