Cowboys Have Always Been My Heroes: The Definitive Oral History of America's Team 1960-1989

by Peter Golenbock

Book Overview

The first-ever truly comprehensive book on the Dallas Cowboys, Cowboys Have Always Been My Heroes reveals, via the stories of Roger Staubach, Tom Landry, Bob Lilly, Calvin Hill, Thomas Hollywood... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0446519502
• ISBN13: 9780446519502
• Release Date: August 1997
• Publisher: Warner Books (NY)
• Length: 838 Pages
• Weight: 2.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 2.2" x 6.4" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

The Real North Dallas Forty

This is the real story of North Dallas Forty. I loved every page and loved hearing all my heroes tell their story. Especially loved the early days with Jack Patera and the mid to late 60's. Great stuff.

A must read for football fans, especially early-to-mid era.

An excellent book. Golenbock's style of having the players say what happened while he sets the outline is one of the reasons I love this book. The insights the players give about Landry and Schramm are eye-opening. The palyers themselves in the early 1970's didn't want to be called "America's Team", they thought it was too arrogent (and they were right). Schramm was the one who liked it. That's just one of the many insignts you get from this book along with the aspects of racism, the salary disputes, and how the social evironment changed and the players evovled. The only drawback is if you are a current Cowboys fan and only care about the last few years, you're going to be dissapointed because about 75% of this book deals with the first two decades.

A True Insider's view of the early yearsof the Dallas Cowboy

Any one who is a true football fan should read this book. It is realistic, surprising and sometimes shocking in its revelations of the inner feelings of the players during the early years of the Dallas Cowboys. It is written without taking sides; relating the men, their emotions and their relationships with fellow players in factual, graphic terms. You cannot read this and feel the same way you did before about America's Team. The only parts missing are the Cowboys who didn't want to tell their side such as "Dandy Don". These missing voices create a silence in the telling of the whole story. Still, one can relate to the events and emotions that shaped the Cowboys and that generation of Americans. 4.5 STARS

The Heart and Soul of the Dallas Cowboys

At first, i was telling to myself " oh no! not one of those books to make money!". WRONG! This book is fun and easy to read. It gives you an objective history of this team because of the way it is presented. It fun to hear about all those players from the birth of the team until today. I loved it so much that it pushes me to buy the Tom Landry Autobiography (in one chapter, they are talking about this book). A MUST!

Magnum opus is heavy on 60/70s, light on 80/90s

Review: Cowboys Have Always Been My Heroes Golenbock, Peter. Cowboys Have Always Been My Heroes: The Definitive Oral History of America's Team. NY: Warner Books. 1997 838p, illus. $27.00 ISBN 0-446-51950-2 This massive tome (838 pages) is written by a baseball fan from New York now living in Florida! At a recent booksigning, I asked Golenbock why write a history of the Cowboys. He said he had always been a Cowboys fan because they were to pro football what his beloved Yankees were to major league baseball. When asked if he included material on the current Cowboys, he admitted he threw in a few chapters to attract current fans. But make no mistake: this book is about the Landry/Schramm Cowboys. The Jerry Jones, Jimmy Johnson and Barry Switzer chapters read like the after-thoughts they are. The strength of the book is the coverage of the early Cowboys from 1960 to 1979. Golenbock mixes original interviews with quotes from secondary sources to weave an "up-close and personal" look at players such as Don Meredith, Don Perkins and Pete Gent. In fact, Golenbock relies far too much on Gent. E.g., Gent (who was released after the '68 season) opines at length on the troubles between Coach Tom Landry and RB phenom Duane Thomas between during the '70 and '71 seasons. Golenbock never explains just how Gent (three years removed from the team) had any insight into the Thomas fiasco. Meredith did not grant Golenbock an interview, which is unfortunate. Cowboy fans no doubt would have benefited from Meredith's views and insights on the very early Cowboys and his oftentimes rocky relationship with coach and taskmaster Tom Landry. The one impression that stayed with me from this book was how cold and impersonal Landry was with his players. He treated his stars no better than his rookies. For today's fan who views Landry as a kindly saint who led his team of choirboys to two NFL titles, this book is truly an eye-opener. Golenbock speculates that Meredith refuses to grant interviews due to a continued resentment of the Dallas media who blamed him mercilessly for the teams' playoff failures, and of the fans in Dallas who showed him no loyalty in constantly calling for Craig Morton anytime Meredith failed to deliver. In truth, Meredith often followed Landry's play calls even knowing they would fail. When they did, Landry never accepted the blame and instead said publicly his QB failed to execute! The level of detail grows steadily worse as the book progresses through the 80s and into the 90s. It appears Golenbock did not interview any of the current Cowboy players, coaches, staff or ownership. Nonetheless, his writing style makes for an easy read, despite the size of the book (78 chapters). The text consists mostly of player interviews or other quotes. Golenbock intersperses his own limited commentary to set the context. He does not flinch as he explores the racism experienced by black players when trying to find housing in Dallas of in the