Posted on 09/01/2023 12:06:50 PM PDT by Rummyfan
Gil Brandt, the pioneering NFL executive who helped turn the Dallas Cowboys into "America's Team," has died at 91.
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Brandt was born in Milwaukee in 1932 to Loretta, a housewife, and Gilbert, a district manager. He played football in high school and then went on to the University of Wisconsin, but stayed for just two years and moved back in with his parents in 1955. He began selling baby pictures, but also began working part time for the Los Angeles Rams as a scout after a family friend recommended him for the job. That family friend happened to be former NFL player, soon-to-be-executive, and future Hall of Famer Elroy "Crazylegs" Hirsch, and Brandt fully credits him for his start in the NFL.
Selling baby pictures would be Brandt's last non-football job for a very, very long time. He was hired as a full-time scout by the San Francisco 49ers in 1958, and then, in 1960, he landed a job with the club that would be his home for almost the next 30 years: the Cowboys.
(Excerpt) Read more at sports.yahoo.com ...
The only people who called the Cowboys “America’s Team” were Cowboys fans.
Wow...I thought he was much older than that and already passed away.
The whole reason I hate the Cowboys more than any other team in sports was the whole “America’s Team” thing. As a Steelers fan in the 70’s, it really irritated me to no end.
It’s been a glorious nearly 30 year run of frustration for the Cowboys though!
the ‘Americas Team’ moniker was offered to the Steelers first, for obvious reasons, as the most dominant superbowl era team ever....but steeler ownership turned it down as they said they were “pittsburghs team”......so the cryboys got it instead, sort of a ms congeniality prize.....
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