It’s an election year, so you know what that means: the Dallas Cowboys will play the Pittsburgh Steelers.
With the Cowboys in the NFC and the Steelers in the AFC, the teams only play each other once every four years. The latest installment in the series will take place this Sunday at Acrisure Stadium, but for a long time, the Cowboys and Steelers were locked in a heated rivalry played often and with great consequence. Let’s take a walk back through memory lane and look at some of the biggest moments from one of the defining rivalries of the early Super Bowl era.
The first Dallas Cowboys game and win ever
The first NFL team came to Dallas in 1952 in the form of the Dallas Texans, and the expansion passed a vote of NFL owners 10-1, with Pittsburgh Steelers founder Art Rooney the lone holdout. The Texans folded a few years later, and the NFL was uninterested in retrying a team in Dallas afterward, therefore rebuffing an attempt by Lamar Hunt, the son of oil tycoon H. L. Hunt, to put a team in Dallas. After several failed tries to buy other teams, the younger Hunt decided to form his own football league — the AFL — with his own team — the Dallas Texans. The NFL awarded an expansion team to Dallas for the 1960 season in retaliation, and the Texans eventually moved to Kansas City to become the Chiefs.
In their first game in the NFL on Sept. 24, 1960, the Cowboys would play the Steelers, the very team that had voted against giving Dallas an NFL team in the first place. Dallas wouldn’t get its revenge initially, though. The Cowboys lost 35-28 at the Cotton Bowl before going 0-11-1 on the season.
However, the pair would rematch for the Cowboys’ 1961 season-opener, and this time Dallas emerged victorious 27-24, marking the franchise’s first-ever win. The victory also marked the start of a new era for the rivalry; the Cowboys moved into the Eastern Conference, meaning the teams played twice a year over the next six seasons. Starting with a home 37-7 rout of the Cowboys later in ‘61, the Steelers won six of the next eight of these matchups, before Dallas closed the 12-game flurry on a three-game win streak.
The Swinging Sixties
After getting beat up by the Steelers (and most other NFL teams) for the first few years of their existence, the Cowboys finally put it all together in ‘66. They won their first conference championship and played in the NFL Championship — and won both their games against Pittsburgh. From then on, the Cowboys were a legitimate juggernaut, going .500 or above from 1965 (when they went 7-7) to 1985, setting an NFL record of 21-straight seasons without a losing season. Pittsburgh has the chance to tie that record this season.
To end the ‘60s, the Cowboys won six straight against the Steelers, playing at least once a season, before taking a hiatus after ‘69. Between then and the pair’s next meeting, the Cowboys won their first Super Bowl and lost another, while the Steelers failed to make the postseason. The pair finally met again in ‘72, a Dallas win, before not meeting for another four years. But the next meeting had a twist.
Terry Bradshaw vs. Roger Staubach and Cowboys-Steelers of the ‘70s
Led by eventual Hall of Famer Terry Bradshaw, Pittsburgh won its first playoff game in ‘72, and didn’t look back, winning the franchise’s first Super Bowl in ‘74. Dallas had its own star under center in Roger Staubach. Regarded as two of the best quarterbacks in football history, Bradshaw and Staubach led each of their teams through a successful decade in battles with other teams and against each other. But with the Steelers now in the AFC, after the NFL-AFL merger, their meetings took on a different look.
Staubach won two Super Bowls and a Super Bowl MVP, and lost another two, in his 10 years leading the Cowboys. Among his many other honors, Staubach, a graduate of the Naval Academy, is notably the only quarterback to win the Heisman and be voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. His service in the Vietnam War between college and the NFL and his position on “America’s Team” also earned him the nickname “Captain America.”
Meanwhile, Bradshaw led a Pittsburgh dynasty that won four Super Bowls, setting a record for most Super Bowls won by one quarterback that Joe Montana eventually tied and Tom Brady eventually smashed. He also won two Super Bowl MVPs and a regular-season MVP award. Bradshaw and Staubach were named to the NFL’s 1970s All-Decade team and both pushed the quarterback position forward, Bradshaw with his explosive arm and Staubach with his next-level scrambling.
But this is all burying the lede. The real reason these two quarterbacks’ rivalry gripped football fans was because they met twice on the biggest stage: in Super Bowl X (’76) and XIII (’79). The Steelers won both, alongside two more regular-season wins versus the Cowboys. In fact, after Dallas’ win in ‘72, it wouldn’t win a game against Bradshaw’s squad the rest of the decade.
See below for excerpts from The Dallas Morning News’ coverage from the Super Bowl games:
Super Bowl X
1/19/1976
MIAMI - The final step to the NFL title, indicated by Super Bowl X, is always the longest whether you make it or not. It’s the best or emptiest feeling. And for the second straight time, Pittsburgh Steelers made that step, though they were not sure of it until the very end.
But this time there was no twilight magic, no flair for Dallas, a team which had become popular as a kind of champion of the underdog. It was not a day for the underdog.
“I’m more more excited winning this time than last year,” said Steeler running back Franco Harris. “We’re number one twice, we have that championship blood in us.”
“What hurts is that you come so far, make it to the Super Bowl and then have a chance to win and don’t,” said Cowboy flanker Drew Pearson. “This game means so much it can make you forget for awhile what a good season you had.”
But until the end Roger Staubach, who had personified this team, was hurling bombs into a stacked deck of the Steeler end zone hoping once again fate, the gods or whoever or whatever has interest in football would again warm in Dallas.
Pittsburgh won. Rightly so. And the 21-17 victory was the most exciting, the best all around game in 10 Super Bowls as some 125 million watching on television from around the world and the 80,187 fans who filled the Orange Bowl on this Sunday will attest. There were big plays offensively and defensively and the closeness which keeps interest high until the end because it was, as they say, not really over until the time ran out. ...
Super Bowl XIII
1/22/1979
MIAMI - The locker room was quiet and jammed with reporters tripping over each other and players trying to dress. The sound of water jetting from the showers may have been the loudest noise. Even Hollywood Henderson was relatively quiet.
In the clogged areas, where the media huddled around certain members of the Dallas Cowboys, players were going over details of their 35-31 Super Bowl XIII loss to Pittsburgh.
One mass of reporters would make their way to the front and ask the same players to repeat the same answers; then another wave would shoulder in and ask, one more time, the players to go over the crucial plays.
When 1,700 reporters cover an event, repetition is the order of the locker room. But it made it that much harder on split end Drew Pearson, asked to describe the fumble exchange between he and Tony Dorsett on a reverse two minutes into the game.
That much harder on Aaron Kyle, asked what happened when John Stallworth broke free from Kyle’s grasps and tacked on an extra 65 yards to what ended up being a 75-yard touchdown pass play with 10:25 left in the half. ...
Breaking the pattern
After the roaring ‘70s, both teams took a downturn in the ‘80s as age caught up to their star-studded rosters. In addition, without Super Bowl battles and infrequent cross-conference meetings, the Cowboys and Steelers’ rivalry came down to a simmer. That didn’t mean there weren’t still big moments, though.
In 1982, Pittsburgh came to Texas Stadium and beat Dallas 36–28, snapping an NFL-record 17-year season-opening winning streak. After that, the next big game in the rivalry came in 1985, when the Cowboys beat the Steelers for the first time in over a decade. The game brought a major milestone for future Hall of Fame running back Tony Dorsett: he became just the sixth NFLer to cross 10,000 career yards with 113 rushing yards and two touchdowns. Even better, he did it against his hometown team; Dorsett grew up outside Pittsburgh and won a Heisman at the University of Pittsburgh.
Super Bowl XXX
One year removed from the back-to-back Super Bowl wins, the Troy Aikman and Emmitt Smith-led Cowboys returned to the sport’s biggest stage and faced a familiar foe. At the conclusion of the ‘95 season, Dallas and Pittsburgh became the only teams to ever compete in three Super Bowls against each other. The Cowboys’ Larry Brown became the first cornerback to win Super Bowl MVP after snagging two interceptions that Dallas turned into touchdowns, helping stave off a Pittsburgh comeback. Though the Cowboys would go on to see little playoff success after this, while the Steelers won two more Super Bowls, Dallas finally got its redemption in a rivalry that went mostly dormant after. After Sunday, the teams will have played just seven times in the nearly 30 years since Super Bowl XXX.
See below for an excerpt from The Dallas Morning News’ coverage of this game:
1/29/1996
By ED WERDER
TEMPE, Ariz. – It was the ultimate triumph for the richest and most talented team in football, and it concluded without a trophy tug between owner and coach.
It could be redemption for beleaguered coach Barry Switzer and perhaps vindication for controversial Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.
Troy Aikman and Emmitt Smith produced three touchdowns playing behind their Super Bowl XXXL offensive line as the Cowboys outlasted the Pittsburgh Steelers, 27-17, to take Super Bowl XXX.
Cornerback Larry Brown was selected the Most Valuable Player for intercepting two Neil O’Donnell passes and returning them 44 and 33 yards. The Cowboys converted those turning-point plays into 14 decisive points in the second half while claiming an unprecedented third Super Bowl title in four seasons before 76,347 at Sun Devil Stadium.
Jones handed the first Lombardi Trophy the team has won since Jimmy Johnson’s dismissal to Switzer, who held it firm and thrust it high.
“We did it our way, baby,” he shouted to Jones. “We did it! We did it!” ...
Click here to read the full article.
Rookies Dak Prescott and Ezekiel Elliott show out in 2016
It’s true the Cowboys-Steelers rivalry is not as tense as it was 50 years ago, but it can still deliver. In 2016, after going 4-12 the year before and with longtime starting quarterback Tony Romo injured, Dallas started two rookies: running back Ezekiel Elliott and quarterback Dak Prescott. Coming into their November game against the Steelers, the Cowboys had against all odds won seven consecutive games.
The rookie duo showed out. Elliott earned 114 rushing yards and 95 receiving and three touchdowns, one passing and two on the ground, all in crucial moments. Meanwhile, Prescott threw for 319 yards — his first 300-yard game — and two touchdowns, in addition to some fourth-quarter heroics that helped Dallas edge Pittsburgh 35-30 in dramatic fashion. It was its franchise record-tying eighth-straight win.
Rivalry at a glance:
Total meetings: 33
All-time series: Cowboys, 17–16
Regular season: Cowboys, 16–14
Postseason: Steelers, 2–1
Largest victory: Cowboys 52–21 (’66)
Longest win streak:
Cowboys, 7 (1965–72)
Steelers, 5 (1976–1982)
Find more Cowboys coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.
