Texans Go Unbeaten In Pre-Season

The lead paragraph of the Associated Press dispatch on what happened on Friday, September 2, 1960 captured the important facts of that evening:

“The Dallas Texans stamped themselves as National Football League contenders as well as the powerhouse of the American League Friday night. They beat Houston 24-3 to wind up their exhibition campaign with an unblemished 6-0 record, tops in the AFL.

“However, the Texans most important accomplishment was the drawing 51,000 fans into the Cotton Bowl to witness the charity game. The brand new Texans in a brand new league weren’t expected to pull in more than the 40,000 who turned out to see the Dallas Cowboys play the Baltimore Colts last month in their Dallas debut.”

It was the first chance the football fans of Dallas had to see the Texans. Lamar Hunt and Hank Stram took their team on quite a road show in that pre-season, playing games in Oakland, Tulsa, Boston, Abilene and Little Rock. Even down to the last week they were traveling as they pitched their camp in Fort Worth for the first part of the week.

Dallas welcomed them home on game day with a parade through downtown Dallas. The game against the Oilers was dubbed the Blood Research Bowl, with proceeds going to the Wadley Research Institute for its fight against blood diseases. A crowd of 40,000 was expected.

When far more than that showed, despite a thunderstorm that hit 15 minutes before kickoff and continued through the first quarter, it provided Hunt with a shot of encouragement.

“It was a wonderful crowd,” Hunt told the Dallas Morning News. “Even the rain couldn’t dampen their enthusiasm.”

While the Texans took care of Houston, the club’s promotional team put on what was called a glittering 45-minute halftime show and 200 balloons were released, with 25 of them containing two season tickets to the Texans home games.

Dallas turned the game on the Oilers first offensive play, when DT Ray Collins jumped on a fumble by Houston QB George Blanda at the Oilers 18-yard line. Eventually FB Jim Swink caught an 18-yard TD pass from QB Cotton Davidson for the first score.

The Texans second score came on a one-yard run by Davidson, and later RB Jack Spikes ran one-yard for a touchdown. Spikes kicked a FG and three PATs.

Blanda had the only Houston points with a 9-yard FG.

Here were the starting lineups on offense and defense for the Texans that night:

Offense: WR Chris Burford, TE Max Boydston, LT Jack Stone, RT Charley Diamond, LG Marvin Terrell, RG Bill Krisher, C Jim Barton, QB Davidson, LHB Swink, RHB Johnny Robinson and FB Spikes.

Defense: DE Paul Miller, DE Mel Branch, DT Collins, DT Walter Napier, LLB Walt Corey, MLB Sherrill Headrick, RLB Smokey Stover, LCB Don Flynn, RCB Carroll Zaruba, LS John Bookman and RS David Webster.

The final pre-season scoreboard read 181-54, and the Texans defense did not allow a TD in the last nine quarters of play.

Completion of the game and pre-season left the Texans eight days away from their first regular season game.