What Happened to the Cowboys in 1974?

They made the playoffs every single year between 1966-1983, but one. This one.

And now for something completely different!

If you read Sturmstack, you might occasionally receive a newsletter that makes you wonder how I came up with that idea, so I’d like to explain.

A few weeks ago, it occurred to me that this is a pretty rough year in DFW sports. At least from a standpoint of the Cowboys disappointing fall and winter, firing a coach, and the Dallas Mavericks willfully pushing one of the biggest basketball talents in our planet’s history away at age 25 for no great reason. Additionally, Anthony Davis and now Kyrie Irving are badly injured. Yes, the Stars are very good, but their best player, Miro Heiskanen may be in a race against time to get healthy for the playoffs (they start 81 days after his injury). And the Rangers should be decent, but will also rely greatly on Jacob DeGrom to pitch a lot – despite the fact he hasn’t pitched 100 innings since 2019 (which was a while ago).

We may have to face it, we are having a tough time right now around here. We appear to be down pretty bad. But we also know that we have had our good times in this city.

However, it also occurred to me that it might be fun to go back in time and discuss some happier days. Some that almost nobody here would possibly remember very well. Because this year, 2025, is the 50th anniversary of the 1975 Dallas Cowboys. That means, it is the 50th anniversary of the Hail Mary game (At Minnesota) and the 50th anniversary of Super Bowl 10 (vs Pittsburgh). Those are both games I have in my video library and have watched at least five times each. Heck, I even sat at Drew Pearson’s kitchen table a few years back and watched the Hail Mary game with him. I wrote a long piece at the Athletic about that day a few months before he went into Canton. It was one of the most enjoyable pieces I have ever written.

But, beyond that, since I was three years old, I don’t know much about the 1975 Dallas Cowboys and I wanted to wander through the journey. And naturally, since I might have one of the best jobs in the world where I have the time to take these journeys, I wanted to take you, those who care enough to support my career, with me.

Now, I don’t know what that means, exactly, but I opened a new Twitter/X account which invite you to follow @75CowboysRewind just for this sole purpose. I also will write periodic pieces that will appear here, exclusively to subscribers of SturmStack. I have no idea how many, because I have no idea if you are interested. But, surely, as the 50th year anniversary goes along, I plan on telling the stories that I find along the way. It will be my first time through the journey and so far I am having so much fun.

So, yes, a day by day journey will take me all year, but this is what I love to do. And in March, I am catching us up through January and February because this is the time of year where almost nothing happens. Back then, the NFL Draft happened in late January, so the Cowboys have already drafted the Dirty Dozen. They took Randy White and Hollywood Henderson with their first two picks and rebuilt their defense quickly, but it also already had great pieces from 1973 and 1974. They found 12 roster players in one single draft class in 1975 – many huge factors for the next generation of Cowboys success.