dallas_logo.gifA couple of weeks ago, I posted a story entitled “Rangers Hire Tom Landry,” noting that the Dallas franchise had originally borrowed the name of a minor league baseball team with the name “Dallas Rangers.” By March 1960, the new Dallas team had selected a new name, the Dallas Cowboys, even though the city of Dallas was known more for its banking and skyscrapers than for its cattle. The name, of course, stuck.

Bill Rives, then editor of the Dallas Morning News, applauded the name change. However, he apparently thought that “Dallas Cowboys” was too long of a name for those in the newspaper industry. Here is his post:

‘Ray for the New Name

by Bill Rives, Dallas Morning News Sports Editor, March 22, 1960

Thank goodness the National Football League team here has changed its name. There would have been constant confusion with two teams, in different sports, being called “Dallas Rangers.”

Although Dallas isn’t exactly the center of the livestock world, there’s a catchy name which has been chosen to replace “Rangers” — “Cowboys”

The Dallas Cowboys will get some mileage out of that, particularly in the East. There is still glamour and excitement in the Western connotations, and both the Dallas Cowboys and the Dallas Texans will be able to capitalize on them.

The Cowboys are likely to run into some problems from time to time with newspaper headline writers. Short names are always at a premium with those men who push pencils over copy paper. In order to get the news into the headline, it often is necessary to use contractions or similes of briefer length, or short nicknames, like Ike Eisenhower, Steers for Texas Longhorns, etc.

Sure as shootin’, a headline like this is going to show up in some paper this fall:

DALLAS BOYS PLAY GIANTS

. . .

I suppose this is the origin for referring to the team as the ‘Boys, but I am not sure I follow the problem here. “Rangers” has as many letters as “Cowboys,” and “Cowboys” has only one more letter than “Texans,” “Eagles,” “Browns,” or “Giants.” And I am quite sure that the 13-letter Dallas Cowboys also faced the 18-letter Pittsburgh Steelers and the 18-letter Washington Redskins in 1960, and neither name gave rise to too much trouble.

Anyway.