Texans Memories: Pre-Season Game No. 5

The Dallas Texans trip around America continued in the fifth weekend of pre-season games in the first year of the American Football League.

After playing in Oakland, Tulsa, Boston and Abilene, the Texans landed in Little Rock, Arkansas. They practiced there for a week and then on Saturday evening, August 27, 1960, they beat the Denver Broncos 48-0 in front of an announced crowd of 5,500 at War Memorial Stadium (below.)

The Texans rolled up 501 yards in offense, compared to 301 yards for the Broncos and Dallas led 20-0 at half-time. That allowed Hank Stram to clear his bench and give everybody plenty of playing time.

“We were able to look at some boys who haven’t played much and some of them really impressed us,” Stram said after the game, speaking specifically of David Webster, Clem Daniels, Hunter Enis and Bo Dickinson.

“When we opened training we knew we could count on players like Johnny Robinson, Jim Swink, Jack Spikes, Abner Haynes and Cotton Davidson, but we weren’t sure what to expect from a lot of others. Some of these fellows really have been pleasant surprises.”

Webster was a quarterback at Prairie View who was moved to safety. Daniel, also from Prairie View, was a fullback moved to the secondary. Both would go on to play several years in the AFL.

The Texans had five interceptions, coming from Johnny Bookman, Smokey Stover, Webster, Daniels and Charle Brackins. The first four set up Texan touchdowns and Brackin’s INT came in final minute and killed Denver’s best chance to score at the Dallas eight-yard line.

Enis, who missed the first three exhibitions with a shoulder injury, threw a pair of touchdown passes, one to RB Abner Haynes for 45 yards and 37 yards to FB Bo Dickinson.

Dickinson had TD runs of 11 and 37 yards and combined with Enis for a TD catch.

“I needed this,” Dickinson told the Dallas Morning News after the game. “Time’s ’bout run out to make this team. I’ve been through this before. I ran me a punt back against Pittsburgh for 86 yards. All that got me was cut.”

He ran eight times for 74 yards against Denver. Going into the game, he had run only six times for 34 yards in the previous four games.

RB Jack Spikes led the Texans with 92 yards on 11 carries. QB Cotton Davidson hit 14 of 30 throws for 196 yards.

Now with 5-0 on the pre-season, the Texans had outscored their opponents 157-51.